Connecting with my cat from the Namib desert

When I was 17, I spent a year in the US as an exchange student (I won't say when, but it was some time ago...). At the time, I had two options to stay in touch with my family and friends in France: phone calls (which were expensive) and letters (which took forever).

By 2000, sending e-mails while travelling became a normal practice, and this reality really changed the way to communicate with “home”, even if it meant having to find an Internet shop in a foreign city and paying a fortune for a 5 minute-connexion!

Nowadays, Internet is accessible from most hotels or restaurants, and thanks to the existence of WiFi connectivity, I am able to use my smartphone to send short text messages, e-mails and pictures, or to connect to my favourite social media channels.

But for the first time this year, as I travelled through Namibia, I used Apple’s FaceTime. Can you picture it? That’s right, I was calling home effortlessly thanks to a WiFi signal coming from somewhere in the Namib Desert, close to the Sossusvlei dunes. The connexion started immediately. The image and sound quality was almost perfect, and I used my iPad to show my family the beautiful surroundings I was discovering. This was a priceless new way of sharing experiences and being connected. As a result, there was a very happy friend on the other side of the world, my cat. Not only was he able to hear my voice, but he could also see my face and some strange insects flying around. This instant sharing experience made the moment even more remarkable for me, my cat, and everybody else!

Remaining connected while travelling transforms lovely instants into great moments, as the most important thing at the end of the day is to be able to share those travel experiences.

  Editor's note: We asked Amadeus employees to share their travel experiences and thoughts on personalised, connected and sustainable travel. You can check out all their responses in the Summer blogs tag page.