My Camera, Phone, and iPod Broke — Why Was I So Happy?
While being two months in Malaysia and Indonesia
What happened?
I’m an analog camera fan, and the camera I had with me was my favorite. It’s an old Soviet camera that, including a lens, weighs more than a kilo. Not the most ideal for backpacking you’d think, and you’re completely right. It’s not ideal at all in terms of weight, but a fantastic experience to take pictures with.
The camera broke by falling on a rock a month or so into the trip, which made the lever impossible to turn without being convinced of breaking it even further. I hoped to fix it at home.
The iPod tried really hard, I felt it. But it couldn’t beat the heat and humidity at an island in Malaysia where I was volunteering and surrounded by moist jungle. At some point, there was no response anymore whatsoever. This was a few weeks into the trip.
Two weeks before the end, the phone said goodbye. I love how it broke. A fellow traveler and I were sitting at a terrace, near water. The phone lay in a tiny gathering of drops, also referred to as a wet surface. But for a phone that’s not water-resistant, this is logically too much. The screen started tripping, flickering, the whole shebang. It became unusable.
Rice is very good at extracting moisture from things, so I asked for a bowl of rice at the bar. The phone became an extra guest at our table standing next to us in his small hill of rice, drying up. After half an hour of silence from the phone, Siri said “I’m sorry” out of the blue, as his last words. We looked at the phone and burst out in laughter.
After that, I carried the phone with me in a bag filled with rice, in the hope of distracting as much moisture as possible to be able to retrieve the pictures when arriving home. I didn’t care much about the phone itself but would love to have the pictures already taken (this worked out!).
Traveling without devices
Because of these events, I ended up backpacking my last two weeks in Indonesia without any devices.
A situation where there usually is some kind of contact with ‘the outside world’. With family and friends at home, or travelers met along the way.
Also, I didn’t have access to my email, which seems unhandy when you have a flight to catch, and a flight to buy.
The people from the hostel allowed me to send an email to my parents from the computer. I let my parents know that I’m trying to resuscitate my phone and that I’m all good.
Even though I probably could use their computer again, I felt resistance to doing so.
When I had to buy a flight to Kuala Lumpur to fly home from, it was an interesting experience that would not have happened without this situation. I thought: people who don’t have or use smartphones also book plane tickets, right?
A minimalistic tiny one-floor building under some trees was the travel agency. Four walls, a door, a roof, two desks, two employees, a few chairs, and extremely slow computers. The beauty is, it’s all you need.
I said I would like to buy a flight to get to Kuala Lumpur. We put in all details together (which takes some time since the spelling of my name and address and everything is weird for the local language), printed the ticket, and I was about to pay. Then we realized I needed to check in my luggage, and it wasn’t booked. The process started from the beginning.
Everything felt patient. Buying a plane ticket, talking with a person in-person instead of organizing it on a phone, and having a printed sheet of paper as a ticket.
In general, I loved walking on the streets without any devices with me. Just experiencing. I’d read books, really connect with fellow travelers, eat (consciously), write, draw, spend time at the ocean, be in nature.
On the plane, I didn’t have my iPod or phone to distract me, either. Here I read and wrote as well, and looked out the window, a lot. Letting my mind enjoy its free time. If you have a bit of a chaotic mind like me, this is a gift.
Being without any devices made me ultra-present. It let me be in the moment.
There was zero distraction from where I was. No photos to be taken, no people to call or text, nothing.
It was fantastic and I recommend it to anyone.
Arriving home
When I arrived home I felt hesitant to fix the phone. Not because of the pictures, but because I enjoyed it so much that it didn’t work. If someone needed to reach me or I needed to reach someone, this was possible via email on my laptop.
At some point, I felt a bit too unreachable in case of emergencies. I considered using only a landline phone from that moment (the hamburger phone from Juno, to be precise) for a bit.
Nowadays I use a laptop, camera, and smartphone almost daily. Even though they’re necessary and convenient (for work and leisure), I wouldn’t mind accidentally stranding somewhere without them for a while :)
Thank you for your time. As always, you’re welcome to share your experiences or tips in the comment section. Looking forward to hearing from you!
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Here I like to give a shoutout to two fellow writers from whom I’ve enjoyed articles the past few days — thank you for your writings!
Karyn, who, as a neurohumorist, makes her stories are a pure joy to read while learning something new:
Robert Butler, who made an enjoyable and refreshing translation of a play from 1882 to current times. This is the first one in a series of multiple posts:
