Holidaymakers panic over broken smartphone
Imagine going on holiday to Thailand and you lose your smartphone or it breaks. Do you know all the important phone numbers by heart? Or do you have it ready somewhere?
The ANWB emergency center is increasingly receiving calls from holidaymakers because their mobile phone is broken or stolen, NOS writes. As a result, they lost all important telephone numbers in one fell swoop. Many mobile phone numbers cannot be found online, while tourists want to let their home front know that they are temporarily unavailable.
Info on phone
Such calls are a recent phenomenon, as people are increasingly storing all their contact details and travel documents on their phones. Something that was barely possible until a few years ago. Now, for example, there are apps that contain the data. If the telephone is gone, the holidaymaker will also lose that information.
The ANWB has noticed that young people in particular store important data only on their mobile phones and are therefore getting into trouble. The emergency center also receives many calls from people whose navigation system has broken down and can no longer find their way to their holiday destination.
Preparation
Many problems can be avoided by properly preparing for the holiday. It is useful to think in advance what to do if the phone or navigation breaks or is stolen. Write down important numbers and also have road maps in the car. And e-mail important documents to yourself so that you can always access them.
Source: NOS.nl
Then e-mail a list of the most important telephone numbers to yourself while you're at it. Usually you leave a letter for your parents or friends with information (such as who to call in case of an emergency, etc.). In this day and age, you usually mail that to those on the list. Cc to yourself and that's in every internet cafe, hotel; large shopping center, etc. can be requested there via the PC.
In the above case, if you had an Android device, you could also buy a second-hand smartphone with a Thai SIM card in Thailand for little. If you then set up your old Gmail account on this phone again, you will have all your numbers back. I think you are ready for around 1500 thb.
Rein, you are absolutely right, but this could turn out to be considerably more expensive in countries other than Thailand. Not everyone has a Gmail account.
So if you travel alone, take everything that is important with you in “print”, if you are with superiors, then there will soon be 2 or more telephones, possibly even an IPad or Laptop.
It just shows that our welfare state has gone too far, “I'll just go ahead, if I run into problems someone else will solve them” and then often complain too, if things don't go fast enough.
I think the key word is “backup”.
So apart from those emails to myself, and while I just have the e-tickets printed out with me, I also have everything I could possibly need on a USB stick.