We are going to Mozambique this Christmas. It`s going to be an exciting adventure. I`ve been to Maputo before, but I`ve never ventured to the sun-kissed beaches up north, which is what we`re doing this time.
A friend of ours, Su, has to spend Christmas with her family, but will be joining us the day after. We will have driven up the coast with a couple of friends, but Su will be flying to Maputo.
Trying to get her up to where we will be in Inhambane has been an altogether complicated and difficult story. And the Internet has been no help at all.
Every site we find speaks enthusiastically about buses and shuttles up the coast from Maputo, but doesn`t provide the name of the bus company, any details about where to catch it, or any contact information.
So we started trying to look into flights. Again, oblique mention is made about charter planes on web sites, but no useful contact information is given. In one instance, a number was listed, but when I called it, it had been discontinued.
People just chuck stuff online, as if the Web is just one huge junk holdall.
Georgina Guedes, editor, Brainstorm
This is the problem with the Internet. There is no ongoing editing process to ensure that information is current. People just chuck stuff online, as if the Web is just one huge junk holdall, and then fail to check on it while the information goes increasingly stale.
Eventually, I opted for the age-old approach of going to a travel agent. Being able to book flights and hotels on the Web has soured many people to the experience of dealing with a real person. I myself had forgotten how nice it is to have someone go away and sort out my problems.
What a pleasure it has been. She investigated the bus option for us and turned up a couple of dead ends, and then eventually suggested that Su just catch a connecting flight from Maputo to Inhambane.
That this was an option was news to us. A Web site which I now know to be hopelessly out of date had told us that it was not possible to fly to Inhambane on Mozambiquan Airlines.
The rate that the travel agent managed to organise for Su was pretty much what she`d budgeted to spend on a bus, so she gladly took the deal.
We are all resting much easier now that we don`t have to worry about her finding her way, alone, into the centre of Maputo to catch a non-existent bus.
But this is yet another example of why I think that there should be some sort of regulatory body of editors that oversees Internet content, so that people can get some kind of guarantee that the information that they`ve found online is current and relevant.
All sites with a Regulatory Body Seal of Approval could be guaranteed to abide by a code of conduct that sees them ensuring that all information is updated, and all links are checked at least once a month. This would make traveling to unknown places a much less stressful experience.
For now, I`m sticking to travel agents.
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