The sun was about 48 degrees and I walked through the desert landscape of Saudi Arabia. It was about a two-hour drive by 4×4 from the capital Riyadh, the last hour of which was on very dusty off-road desert paths. Then half an hour of walking through the merciless sun. But there I was, at an altitude of 300 meters on the imposing rock formation Jibal Fihrayn, in tourist language the must-see ‘Edge of the World’, the edge of the world. In any case, I thought I was far away from civilization. And then something vibrated. A push message from Bol.com appeared on my phone. I had left some in my basket. If I was still interested. It could also have been from Thuisbezorgd. That Pizza Roma now also has a frikandel pizza. Or Albert Heijn with talking hamsters who want to sell me two for the price of one steak. Was I caught by a sun steak? It was all my own fault. E-SIM. Most of you will be familiar with it, but on a modern phone there are two digital SIM connections and there is no card involved. So do you also want unlimited data for three days in Saudi Arabia? Then you can order, pay and install it within five minutes, for about twenty euros. Nothing, no more extortionate data bundles. No more searching for Wi-Fi cafes in Faraway. But with that push message – which I forgot to turn off, I know that too – there came the realization. The last romance has disappeared from travel. I can be reached anywhere. I have nowhere to hide or disappear anonymously into the crowd to come to myself, to think, to get lost, to discover. Soon we will all speak one and the same language via the Google Translate apps. And then it’s really done. That somewhere deep in the interior of China you say to the cook of the only eatery: Wǒ kěyǐ jiā dànhuáng jiàng ma? Can I have mayonnaise with it? Of course, you can leave the phone at home. Don’t buy Wi-Fi packages. But on the other hand, traveling without a phone is made almost impossible by all kinds of apps that you need for boarding passes, excursion tickets, hotel vouchers, covidQRs, et cetera. And the data packets are particularly useful for Uber and Maps. But what I don’t want is for someone to bother me with a very ugly Wesley Sneijder European Championship cheer shirt when spending 30 euros Mora Airfryer gore mini frikadelletjes. Apple, Samsung, China… I like the ‘Fuck off I am Travelling’ setting, a lock on everything commercial, as soon as you cross the Dutch border. By the way, my Bol basket contained after sun. I really needed that, so I ordered it anyway. Then again, it is…
