They just sat side by side, taking pictures. Of themselves. Those selfies.
The greatest single thing about travel is diversity. The different sights, sounds, smells, people, locations, customs and traditions.
If you are lucky enough to travel a bit, such as the regular work travel that I undertake for roomsXML, you also get to see the evolution of trends across the world and immerse yourself in the experience.
Back in 2001 the PDA was new’ish. It didn’t do email, just had a few games, phone directory and electronic organiser.
You could however synchronise it to your computer which was pretty amazing. Of course now everyone has a smart phone and broadband Internet connection on the run.
Digital cameras also exploded. The first time we had one for work in Indonesia we had an incredible 1MP Kodak camera which at about $3000 produced some of the lowest quality photographs I’ve seen in my life. You could however store 16 photos on the $300 memory card. Today’s smart phones have up to 40 MP cameras which will rival some of the best mini digital cameras and there is the added bonus of getting that picture out there live, real time.
The latest technology related craze? Nay a scourge….. The selfie stick. It’s dangerous. It’s hurting people.
I had actually only seen one before in Melbourne. I heard about them at rock concerts where they were banned because they were deemed antisocial and generally speaking, a pain in the arse. On my travels I also saw them to be the source of some quite serious deformations and injuries.
I think they must have been reproducing at BKK airport. They were everywhere.
Waiting to get tickets, board planes, go to the toilet or when a group of people stayed still long enough to pull a stupid face and share it with their friends. It took 90 minutes to be issued the economy class ticket and every time we progressed a metre a new photograph had to be taken. One poorly attached video camera took a tumble. Rookie mistake.
We saw a selection of stunning women, with massively bulging right forearms and shoulders hoisting their SLR selfie sticks out in front of them. You really need to work up to extending your arm out straight and holding of 1 m stick and putting a massive camera at the end of it. It’s only going to lead to back issues later in life.
The stunning , Eastern European ex-model had been sitting by the pool and by her looks alone, was getting quite a bit of attention. Classic aquiline features, perfect skin, long blond hair. However it was nothing like the attention she gave herself whilst taking a number of modelling photographs, of herself, by the pool.
I was concerned she would run out of hard drive space because she was still there half an hour later pulling poses. She was really working up a pouting frenzy when she pulled her Orbicularis oris and had to be taken away on a stretcher. Her previously plumped lips (there was a couple of other artificial plumps as well) internally ruptured and her right nostril was now filled with a buccinator. Imagine getting a walnut and ramming it up your right nostril with a hammer.
Fortunately, she had recovered for the 4 PM yoga practice and managed to bang off 70 or 80 quick snaps at the conclusion of class. Later she was seen icing her right thumb. She must be in training or something as the level of commitment to herself was beyond question. I assume she was going in the same contest as the ladies at BKK airport.
But my favourite which summed up this omnipresent scourge was a pleasant afternoon by the pool where a couple of stunning young ladies, possibly sisters, walked gracefully down to the pool area just drop their feet in the water and cool off. Fortunately it was just their feet as there was quite a lot of make up on which had it peeled off would have blocked the pool filter.
They sat next to each other by the poolside adjusting the hat, blouse, make up, the positioning of the YSL bag/Logo/tattoo/whatever and went click happy.
On themselves.
Whilst sitting next to each other. Taking photos. Of themselves. I think the appropriate characters here should include WTF and FFS and YASM.
For the first half an hour I was in hysterics. By time I had taken my own 15th photo of them taking photos of themselves my wife Sasha suggested I was being a little obvious. They could have been anywhere and I could have said anything and all that would have mattered was the best image filter on their Samsung note.
When I see somebody messing around with their phones, trying to take a photograph, a natural impulse might be to say “let me take that for you”. Clearly the ladies had a bad experience of someone offering help in the past as they told me where I could stick that offer of a helping hand, even if I could not understand the language they spoke.
It seems to be a phenomenal waste to go to an amazing place in a culture apart from your own to be entirely obsessed with yourself. Alternately, you could just enjoy it whilst you are there. Have I taken a selfie? For sure. Will I now? Good question.
