Being There旅行真谛-心随身至.docVIP

Being There旅行真谛:心随身至Put down your smartphone—the art of travel demands the end of multitasking. 放下你的智能手机——旅行的艺术要求你一门心思只做一件事情。 Road-warrior hell： I get off a 15-hour flight from North America and turn on my BlackBerry at some Asian airport. Instead of focusing on the immediate environment and the ride into town， I am engrossed in the several dozen e-mails that piled up while I was en route2）， a third of which require a serious response， and one or two of which relay worrying news. As if that isnt enough of a distraction： throughout all my journeys， because of the 12-hour time difference， each morning in Asia begins with a slew of e-mails from the East Coast， again requiring responses， again relaying crises to deal with. Wherever we are， we are all always available， and everybody knows it. The media tell us how lucky we are to live in the Information Age. I believe we have created a hell on Earth for ourselves. Let me bore you with the old days： In the early 1980s， nobody had advance notice of my arrival anywhere. I’d fly to Addis Ababa3） to cover a famine， or to Sarajevo4） to cover the preparations for the Winter Olympics， armed with only about eight names and telephone numbers. Because I did not have to waste time sending e-mails back and forth for days to set up appointments， I had that much more time to read about the history and geography of the country to which I was headed. And you know what？ When I arrived and dialed those numbers， about half the people on the list answered and were pleased to meet with me： after all， I had come all this way， completely dependent on their hospitality. And so hospitality was offered. And those people introduced me to other people. It was all so much more efficient then. Now， after corresponding for days with someone just to arrange a meeting， when you arrive at his office thousands of miles away， he answers some of your questions by referring you to a Web site. I am not saying information is now harder to come by5）.