All music festivals are different, so you might not need everything here, but this festival checklist aims to be exhaustive enough to cover all the essentials and any extras alongside, to ensure you don’t end up [literally] stuck in the mud. Anything missing? Feel free to make suggestions in the comments!

ESSENTIALS • Travel & Festival Tickets • Identification • Directions / Maps • Cash & Cards • Keys • CLOTHING • Raincoat & Waterproofs • Wellies • Sunglasses • Headgear • Clothes & Shoes • LUGGAGE • Camera • Phone • Torch • Umbrella • Tent • Sleeping Bag / Pillow / Mat • Chargers / Batteries • Books / Magazines • MP3 Player • Bin Liners & Laundry bag • TOILETRIES • Toothbrush & Toothpaste • Deodorant / Anti-persperant • Brush / Comb • Towel & Cloth • Soap • Shampoo / Conditioner • Tissues / Wipes • Mirror • Contraception • MEDICATION • Prescriptions • First aid kit • Paracetamol • Sunscreen • Insect Repellent • Glasses / Contacts & Solution • EXTRAS • Lighter / Matches • Gaffa Tape • Penknife • Bottle & Tin Openers • Cutlery • Cooking Equipment • Flag • Picnic Blanket • Food & Drink

• Tickets – You won’t just need the obvious festival tickets, but also your bus / tram / train tickets, too. Book travel tickets in advance, so they can arrive in time. Leaving it until the last minute runs the risk on not getting a seat, paying extra and getting stuck in queues. You’ll need them for the return journey too, so keep them safe.
• ID – If you’re travelling abroad, you’ll have your passport anyway, but for domestic festivals having a driving license or other form of ID is often a requirement to get in. Glastonbury, for example, doesn’t let you in if your ID doesn’t match the name on the ticket! Check the festival terms and conditions beforehand.
• Directions / Maps – If you’re driving, get organised and plan a proper route, even if it’s just making sure your satellite navigation knows where to go. Those using the trains and buses, make sure you know the correct stations and where to go when you arrive. When you arrive, grab a map of the site and mark on it exactly where your tent is located and where your car is parked if you’ve brought one.
• Cash & Cards – Festival cash machines tend to charge you for use and also have large queues. To save wasting time once you’ve arrive, it’s best to get cash out before you go, but keep it safe and split it up into a few chucks in different bags and pockets.
• Keys – An obvious one, but easily forgotten and it’s not particularly nice to get home from a festival and find yourself locked out. Leave a spare pair with your neighbour, if you don’t trust yourself to remember.

▲Back up to festival checklist.

• Raincoat / Waterproofs – A must for British festivals, you never know what’s going to happen with the weather. Venues are likely to sell ponchos anyway, but they can be thin, poorly made and expensive, so it’s better to take your own.
• Wellies – Navigating huge mud marshes is harder than it looks and you will ruin your shoes or trainers, if you don’t take a pair. Again, they can be bought on site, but they tend to go very quickly. Save yourself the bother of hunting around for a pair all day.
• Sunnies – Keep your eyes happy. Outdoor stages can often be in front of the sun, leaving you blinded as you try to watch.
• Headgear – A cap, bandana or winter hat, depending on the weather, is always useful.
• Spare Clothes & Shoes – Take enough clothing for each day of the festival, enough for changing after muddy mishaps and clean pairs of everything for trip home. Going all the way home wet and caked in mud is horrible for everyone involved. Combat trousers are best if your planning on carry a lot around with you.

▲Back up to festival checklist.

• Camera – Make sure you’ve got a case and strap for it, as they’re easy to drop and lose in crowded environments. You also might want to check you’ve got plenty of room on it before leaving and take an extra memory stick or film if necessary.
• Phone – Fully charged and primed with all your friends’ digits. It’s likely to run out if you use it a lot, so try and stick to texts and leave it switched off while you sleep to save those vital bars.
• Torch – Navigating back to your tent after an entire day of drinking is likely to end in disaster without light. It’s also essential for fiddling about in your tent at night, as you desperately try to take your contacts out and get into your sleeping bag.
• Umbrella – Just don’t go using it while you’re watching bands, it’s hugely annoying to the people behind you and don’t be surprised if things get thrown in your general direction. It’s best for keeping rain off your morning barbecue or keeping dry as you wait in the food queues.
• Tent – Make sure you know how to put it up and that you’ve got all the right pegs and pieces before leaving. You wouldn’t believe how many people arrive in the dark and discover they don’t actually know how to pitch their brand new tent.
• Sleeping Bag / Pillow / Roll Mat – Camping grounds aren’t particularly comfortable, having a mat and pillow to go with that sleeping bag helps save waking up in agony.
• Chargers / Batteries – You don’t want to run out of digital juice. Some festivals will have charging areas, but the queues get unbearable, so avoid them however you can. If you’re lucky enough to be off to a festival with power and plug sockets, be sure not to forget the charger.
• Travel Fodder – Books, magazines and a fully charged mp3 player for the journey there and back. If you plan on playing at bit of music at your tents, take some portable speakers to hook up your player to.
• Bin Liners / Laundry Bag – You’ll make tons of mess while you’re at the tent, so a bin liner or two for rubbish is really useful. Also, keep those muddy jeans or filthy shoes in their own bag to avoid ruining everything else. Try and get them dry before bagging them up, though else they’ll stink.

▲Back up to festival checklist.

• Toothbrush & Toothpaste – You can get those little finger toothbrushes now, which are really handy for saving space and are dispensable, too. It you’re going in a big group, it might make sense to just share things like toothpaste, to save everyone bringing it.
• Deodorant / Anti-persperant – Again, travel-sized sprays are easy to pick up.
• Hair Brush / Comb – You’ll need them for de-tangling if you’ve got long hair, after a not so pleasant wash under a running tap.
• Towel & Cloth – Bring a few if you’ve got the room, in case one doesn’t dry in time. If it’s baking hot, you could hang it up outside your tent afterwards, but if you leave there you run the risk of it getting soaked should the rain come!




• Soap / Shampoo / Conditioner – Washing and showering essentials. Facilities range from festival to festival, but there’s usually enough running water for a quick shower. Get up at dawn to beat the crowds.
• Tissues & Wet Wipes – Toilet roll often runs out, so it’s good to have your own back ups. Wet wipes help you to easily freshen up on the move.
• Small Mirror – For the vain or finding out how muddy your face is.
• Contraception – Because you never know.

▲Back up to festival checklist.

• Prescription Medicine – Whether it’s insulin or inhalers, make sure you have everything you need for the duration. Get an appointment with your doctor early enough to be able to get all your required elixor.
• First Aid Kit – Plasters, bandages, sterile wipes and the like are always handy. Especially if you’ve got youngsters with you who are rolling about all over the place.
• Paracetamol – The morning after might be a long way away now, but you’ll be thankful for packing them. Just be aware that drinking again with them in your system is dangerous for your health.
• Sun Lotion – You get burnt quicker than you’d think. Since you’re spending all day in the sun, keep the bottle on you, so you can top up as the day goes on.
• Insect Spray – These kind of repellents aren’t essential but are definitely useful at the more humid International festivals.
• Glasses / Contacts & Solution – Be sure to bring spares if you have them, as once you drop a contact in the mud, there ain’t no getting it back.

▲Back up to festival checklist.

• Lighter / Matches – Getting your stove or barbecues lit, or even joining in the nightly vigils with the rest of the crowd.
• Gaffa Tape – If you get a hole if your tent, this is the best and quickest way to patch it up.
• Pen Knife – Handy in ways you never realise until the time comes.
• Bottle & Tin Openers – You don’t want to find yourself resorting to using your teeth to desperately tear into that beer. Get a small key chain opener, if you need to save space. Or bring along a Swiss Army Knife to have all those fiddly instruments in one place.
• Disposable Cutlery – Unless you eat out of tins, using a sausage as a spoon, you’ll need cups, cutlery and plates.
• Cooking Equipment – There’s nothing like a summer festival BBQ. Don’t forget the food! A folding chair is also great for relaxing in as you prod those burgers. And if you’re going to be cooking everyday, perhaps a small stove, a pan, a kettle, a mug and some gas. It’s better to split things like this up amongst a few people to save one person struggling with it all.
• Flag – It’s so easy to lose your tent, even if you know what area it’s in. A big flag to stick in the ground by your base is perfect for finding your way back in both day and night.
• Blanket – For throwing down in front of your tent to sit, picnic and sunbathe on.
• Food & Drink – Remember that glass bottles aren’t allowed at a lot of festivals and will be confiscated at the entrance. So transfer anything you have into plastic ones. Soups and noodles are easy to carry and cook, but also bring some chocolate or energy bars to keep going throughout the day.

▲Back up to festival checklist.

Instantly find locations of your friends

This is a huge one for me and I’m sure it has been for many others who travel in groups, too. A quick example of its potential use – last year my friend had a stag weekend in Prague. There were about 15 of us travelling and we’d constantly go off separately or in smaller groups. Getting back together was a nightmare. Sure, we could call each other, but even then you can only really give the names of the roads you’re on and since nobody knew the area it was quite difficult, not to mention the huge phone bill incurred from doing that.

Google’s web application, Google Latitude, aimed to change all of that. Switch it on and you can see the exact location of your friends, provided they too have the app. That means that next time you split up in a group of friends you can easily relocate them. With being Google powered and having GPS, you should be able to use the app anywhere, you can also use the navigation for routes and directions.

Track route progress in real-time

I first used Google Maps on my mobile phone when I had a job interview for which I naturally hadn’t planned the journey ahead. I sat on a bus with the map open – carefully scrolling each time I passed a road, so that I could keep track of exactly where I was. I know that a lot of other mobile devices can now track your position in real-time, but it’s good that the new iPhone has taken this feature onboard.

With a variety of Sat Nav apps now available, from TomTom to Google, you can find your way around the UK, and Western Europe pretty easily with your phone. With apps like TomTom using GPS this should hopefully keep the costs down by being roaming-charge free, though Google Maps does still incur data charges.

Suggested amenities and facilities close to your current location

This one has the potential to radically change my holidays. I remember being in New York a few years back and after catching a music gig at Webster Hall, wandering around Greenwich Village looking for something to eat. Now, let’s face it, Manhattan’s just about the easiest place to find food in the world. You can’t walk down a street without seeing somewhere you want to eat. But we really fancied Japanese and somehow managed to walk in a direction with no results. Amazing considering just how many Japanese restaurants are around there. With an iPhone it’s  already there, you open the map, it instantly finds your location and all the amenities around you. Better still, each location is already armed with a phone number, meaning you can immediately call to making bookings and reservations.

It pretty much means you don’t need to worry too much about planning ahead and memorising travel guides. You can simply remember the odd name or two of places you want to visit and then look for what’s closest to you on your iPhone. Or even just browse on the fly and see where you end up. A lot of the time you can get lucky and find yourself strolling into a plethora of bars and restaurants, New York as such probably isn’t the best example of its use. But for smaller destinations, this will dramatically alter the way you plan (or more accurately – don’t plan) your day. There are some great apps to help with your plans, you can pre-book restaurants with the Top Table app or find a somewhere off the cuff with the Urban Spoon app.

Why travellers mayn’t embrace it:

I tried this feature out in a small town near Valencia and it just wouldn’t load. There was no 3G signal, and therefore the Internet runs particularly slow anyway, but maps simply wouldn’t show. It kind of made the feature redundant, since it can only be of any value when you’re in a place that has a decent strength 3G signal or a Wi-Fi connection. That pretty much destroys the point for me. Whilst it’s still nice to have in a big city, it’s the smaller places where it could really come in handy.

MobileMe photo galleries with push technology

This service is basically your own personal server space which holds all your contact data, email, calendar information and photo galleries. The idea is that you can access this information from any computer or iPhone and it all syncs together. For example, if you make a lunch date with someone while you’re out, you can add it to your calendar on the iPhone. This then instantly syncs with your Me account and makes the appropriate changes.

So how is this useful for travelling? The big thing for me are the photo galleries that push alerts to all your friends and family who also use an iPhone with a Me account. Say for example you’re spending a few months in Japan and you want to share some of the photos you’ve been taking with your friends and family. You can upload them directly from your phone to your Me account and this then pushes alerts to all your friends and family. So if your Mum is at her computer, she’ll receive a notification that you’ve added photos and go and see them, just seconds after you’ve uploaded them. It also pushes to other iPhones, so one of your friends could be out somewhere and still check your photos. You might already be able to send picture messages with current phones, but this addition of full sized photos, in galleries that push alerts to both computers and iPhones changes everything.

I think I’d find it most useful for organising after-event photos. I’m sure like me, most of you have been to a great event or party and the next day end up desperately trying to get in touch with everyone to see their photos. Naturally they end up spread across Picasa , Flickr and Facebook accounts and it’s difficult to get to see every single one. If you all have iPhones and Me accounts, you can be virtually anywhere in the world and browse each other’s photo galleries on the move along with being notified as they get added.

What barriers are there for travellers?

• You’ll have to pay an annual subscription fee. I don’t really think it’s entirely fair to charge for what’s essentially a push email service. The gallery feature is something I’m excited about, but probably not enough to want to pay £59 a year for the privilege.
• The best feature requires your friends and family to also have iPhones and a MobileMe account. Similar to the social app Loopt, it doesn’t seem so enticing to pay for this service and not really be able to use the best bits unless all of your friends and family have accounts.

If you have a Google account you can now access many of these facilities for free on any smart phone, though this isn’t a negative of the phone, more of having to pay for the service. You can also access Facebook, either through the app or Safari, where photos, stories and updates can easily be shared for free. MobileMe has its benefits, but there are so many ways through the iPhone that you can enjoy very similar services for free, which has to be a good thing.

Data usage included in tariff

I always worried about using the Internet too much on my old phone (Sony Eriksson W810i). Sometimes I used it to check football scores, other times I’d use it to check train times or get some help from Google Maps. You always felt under pressure though, as it’s never clear how much data is being used and how much you’re spending. I’m sure they’ll be some small print from the network operator saying there’s a penalty for excessive use, but for everyday searches and reading you won’t have to worry, as included in most tariffs is unlimited data use.

This takes a big weight off my shoulders when I’m visiting a new city. When I went to Brighton for the first time a couple of years ago and I’d forgotten to look up where the street was to meet my friends. I used Google Maps to navigate, but ended up with about £10 added to my bill at the end of the month. These sort of charges are finally becoming a thing of the past.

Though the iPhone tariffs are a little on the pricey side there have been considerable improvements post the O2 exclusivity. With operators fighting for business you can generally get the phone for free on a two year contract or at a much more reduced cost then before on an 18 month deal.

Booking online

It’s true that you can check the Internet on most modern phones, but I think the iPhone 3G takes a big step towards making it all easier. For example, how many people can honestly say they’ve booked a flight directly through a website on their phone? Not many I’d bet since it’s pretty fiddly, often quite slow and not all sites have mobile-friendly versions. Better yet, of those small number of people who did book something online with their phone, how many worried about the poor integration of security and wondered whether their details were even encrypted at all?

The iPhone eases those fears and makes the whole process much easier. The Safari browser shows the padlock symbol for secure sites and you can see site certificates for them easily enough. Also, because of the large screen real estate that comes with an iPhone, it isn’t necessary to view the mobile versions of sites. You’re always seeing exactly what you would on your computer and it’s easy to scroll and zoom in with the “pinch” feature of the phone. Which makes browsing perfectly usable.

Some of the more forward thinking airlines, such as BA, have recently launched new apps that allow you the check-in and download your virtual boarding pass which saves time at the airport and the Star Alliance airlines such as Swiss and Lufthansa have added a nice easy booking system into there apps. The booking sections on these apps are quick and easy to use, as they are designed for the phone opposed to shrunken websites.

For the first time, I feel like I could actually book a flight without feeling like it will take me an hour to navigate, time-out half way through the transaction and leave my card details exposed.

What isn’t so great about browsing on an iPhone?

It still is a major hamper to not be able to view Flash on an iPhone. Admittedly, Flash is less common now, with more sites using alternatives such as html5, and annoys me profusely when I’m browsing, but that isn’t really an excuse for not allowing users to view those pages.

Traffic alerts

While no standard application is planned from Apple, third parties are expected to provide traffic alerts to your phone. If you’re driving, you probably use the radio to find out.

iChat integration

Despite rumours and greasy fingerprints that looked like a front-facing camera, video calling is currently not available on the iPhone. It’s not entirely travel-related, but video calls are still nice if you haven’t seen someone for a long time. Say you’re on a gap year and you’ve decided to work a season skiing in Verbier. After a couple of months of not seeing your friends and family, that’s exactly when video-chat comes in handy. I was surprised that this feature wasn’t included, but I’m sure it’s pinned for a future release.

Since Apple have already circulated iChat on their Macs to significant success, I don’t think it would be too difficult to downsize the software for iPhone use. The biggest hurdle would probably be to create a PC version of iChat, which as far as I’m aware doesn’t currently exist.

Quality of the iPhone Camera

If Apple are going to really promote great features such as MobileMe’s photo gallery integration, they’re going to struggle selling it to people on the basis of this camera. I’ve never bothered with cameras on phones. After all, if you want quality photos, you need a stand-alone digital camera anyway. It’s more the fact that now that it’s so easy to share photos on your travels, it seems such a waste to be using an average camera.

It’s not that the camera is particularly bad. It just hasn’t been touched at all since the first generation iPhone. This means there’s still no flash and the resolution is quite low compared to most new phones. That pretty much reduces you to only being able to take photos and record video in well-lit areas.. It would have been nice to at least have a camera in line with most other modern mobile phone. It would be unfair to demand a phone camera that does what a Fuji Finepix F30 can manage in low-light, but surely an upgrade from last year’s isn’t too big an ask.

I must point out the iPhone 4G is due for release this summer and the rumoured improvements include a new camera, faster OS and better battery than the current crop of 3G and 3Gs phones.

Summary of travelling with an iPhone

Overall my gripes aren’t with the iPhone itself, but with the applications, the networks and the general availability of the associated technologies. For people here in the UK who don’t travel or go on holiday much, you’ll be able to maximise your use of the iPhone without having to overspend. However those who plan on using the iPhone when visiting other countries will have to prepare to spend more than they’d like to use it. Travellers are constantly leaving their native country, which means data costs of abroad phone use remain one of the biggest factors which needs to be combated. This isn’t really Apple’s problem, but it is a barrier which networks will have to overcome if they really want people to embrace the technology that is becoming available.

The iPhone 3Gs now offers enough features to physically change the way you travel. I can safely and easily book a flight through a site, I can plot routes to anywhere and follow in real-time, I can locate where my friends are at any moment, I can quickly obtain the nearest shops, bars and hotels around my location and even have the option to call directly to make a booking at any of those places without having to search for the numbers manually, I can take photos on the move and add them to my gallery – pushing them through to all my friends and family at the same time.

Yet getting these features aren’t as broad as Apple have suggested and all have their drawbacks, which at least means there’s room for future improvements. As it currently stands it’s still a fair distance in front of its closest rivals and it can potentially alter how you organise travelling in a positive way. I’m not sure which will come next – whether the world networks will start talking to each other and work out a cheaper way for us to use mobiles abroad, or whether enough free Wi-Fi spots will crop up for it not to matter, but until then prepare to have to spend to get the most out of the iPhone.

Useful Links

iPhone homepage

iPhone Apps

MobileMe

The idea behind the challenge is to take in the atmosphere from all the different footballing nations. Venues like Bar Italia in Soho are pretty famous for the TV screens in the windows and the Italian fans lining the street with azure blue and espresso. There is more to the world’s biggest festival of football than just supporting your country at home or down the pub, this is a great opportunity to enjoy the carnival spirit of the Latin American nations, the noise and vibrancy of the African nations and the, well, orange-ness of the Dutch.

Bars, restaurants, cafes and even open houses are fair game. Basically, anywhere that we can be surrounded by people supporting whoever is playing, whether it be Algeria vs Slovenia or England vs U.S.A. Living in London offers people the chance to take in so many cultures, in my office alone we have managed to find different venues for half the matches.

World Cup 2010

The 2010 World Cup in South Africa is shaping up to be a fantastic tournament. As usual, the English believe they finally have a team good enough to win and will rely on two or three players, Rooney, Stevie G and Lampard this time, Shearer and Sheringham in years gone by. Argentina barely qualified but boast the world’s best player in Messi and you just can’t bet against Maradona. There are the usual suspects of Brazil, Germany, Italy and the perennial under-achieving Holland. Right now Spain are on top of the world and with a fit Torres and Villa they look pretty formidable.

This year also has a great choice of underdogs. Africa has never had a World Cup winning country and with the tournament being played in South Africa it could make for an interesting tale. The Ivory Coast look dangerous, with the ever controversial Didier Drogba leading the line and top players like the Toure brothers Kolo and Yaya, Ghana may be an outside bet and if Essien is fit you never know.

London Bars

With the help of a few friends and the power of Facebook and Twitter we have amassed a list of venues. If you want to help us finish the list please tweet us your suggestions or post a comment below and we’ll update this page.

View London World Cup bars 2010 in a larger map

Algerian Bars

Argentinan Bars
Santa Maria del Sur (Queenstown Road)

Australian Bars in London
Walkabout (Temple)
Walkabout (Shepherd’s Bush)
Beluschi’s (Borough)

Brazilian Bars
Guanabara (nr Covent Garden)
Rodizio Rico (Bayswater)
Rodizio Rico (Islington)
Made in Brazil (Camden)

Cameroon

Chile

Denmark
Nordic Bar (nr Oxford St)

England

French Bars
Les Bar des Amies (Clapham Junction)
Le Bouchon (Clapham Common)

German Bars
Bavarian Beerhouse (nr Old Street)
The Octoberfest Pub (Fulham)

Ghana
The Gold Coast Bar & Restaurnat (South Norwood)
The Gold Coast Bar (Brixton)

Greece – Greek Bars
Parsons Green (any suggestions?)
Halepi Restuarant (Bayswater)

Honduras

Italy – Italian Bars
Bar Italia (Soho)

Ivory Coast

Japan

Korea DPR
The Fountain (New Malden)

Korea Republic
The Fountain (New Malden)

Mexico – Mexican Bars
Mercado Bar & Cantina (Stoke Newington)

Netherlands – Holland – Dutch Bars
De Hems (Soho)
Lowlander (Covent Garden)

New Zealand – Kiwi Bars
The Southerner (Temple)

Nigeria
D’ Den, Kilburn
Mama Cala Bar, Wembley

Paraguay

Portugal
Bar Estrela (Stockwell)
Cafe Kick (Exmouth market)
Bar Kick (Shoreditch)

Serbia
Paya and Horse (Battersea)

Slovakia

Slovenia

South Africa
The Bok Bar (Covent Garden)
Puzzle Pub (Earlsfield)

Spain – Spanish Bars
Bodega De Tapas (Camden)
San Miguel’s (Edgware Road)

Switzerland – Swiss Bars
St. Moritz (Soho)

Uruguay

U.S.A. American Bars

Mothership Eve flew at over 18,000 ft altitude and in subsequent testing, the White Knight 2 will soar to 50,000 ft of the next few months.

There were a further seven successful operations during this test period, which saw engine restarts during the flight and thrust asymmetry checks. It’s the largest all carbon composite aircraft in the world and many of the parts used to build the ship have been built using composite materials for the first time.

Speaking of the craft, Peter Siebold – pilot of all three tests for the ship, said:

“This is a truly remarkable aviation vehicle and, although it might look unique from the ground it is not strange to fly in any way and is in fact a great piloting experience.

Meanwhile, Sir Richard Branson confirmed his excitement for the project and hinted at when we might see it publicly launched:

I am looking forward to flying myself in Eve in the next few weeks before we attach SpaceShipTwo later in the year and begin test flights to space shortly afterwards! Virgin Galactic is central to our ambition at Virgin to become the world’s leading group in the operation of energy and environmentally efficient transportation, in the air, on the ground and in space.

Mothership Eve is the carrier and launch platform for Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, which is the successor to SpaceShipOne – the first spaceplane to complete a privately funded human spaceflight.

Public space flights, here we come!

CouchSurfing is a cheap way to travel but it’s also about meeting people and learning cultures from a different angle. There are currently more than 600,000 members [on the site] in over 230 different countries.

Members create profiles where they have the opportunity to write about themselves: their interest, hobbies, philosophies and their couch. After each stay, you can leave a reference, either negative or positive – these are crucial for upcoming CouchSurfing experiences.

‘How safe is CouchSurfing?’ I hear people ask. There is of course a risk involved, but that risk will be reflected whenever you travel. Precautions can easily be made and this is done via testimonials, friend link-strength indicators, vouching and the verification system. You see, not just anyone is a vouched member. Members can only be vouched for by an already CouchSurfing-vouched member. It’s an entire circle of trust, with the setup being very similar to eBay.

When you travel using Couchsurfing and don’t feel comfortable in somebody’s home, you’re under no obligation to stay, provided you let your host know you will be leaving. You should always have a back-up plan, even if it’s just a list of hostels in the area. And if you’re hosting somebody, don’t be afraid to ask them to leave, or ask them to leave their passports behind as an added security measure.

I currently have hosted 15 different ‘surfers mainly from America, Canada and Italy. They can stay from anywhere between one and five nights. We always have a laugh together in the evenings and often take turns cooking dinner and doing the dishes. Two Italian boys stayed for five days and cooked dinner every time. Although we ended up eating pasta every single night – we always had a good bottle of wine to go with it! One guy from Cyprus became very good friends with my housemate and she ended up flying to Cyprus to meet up with him and reverse the CouchSurfing experience.

I personally became good friends with an American girl, who I ended up inviting out to a work function – we had a blast and she got along well with all [of] my colleagues. This is something you couldn’t do by yourself, but is a great example of what CouchSurfing is all about. Saying this, not everyone who you host is friendly or talkative. One girl spent the whole day in the living room and never said a word. We only found out on the last day that she had constant streak of bad luck since arriving, first she was hit by a car, then her bag was stolen and the following night came home in a hospital gown after having her drink spiked!

Most guests entertain themselves during the day with plenty to explore in London and come home once we are home from work. Sometimes they don’t come home until 3am after going clubbing all night. We have no responsibility over them, so they are free to do as they please, as long as they respect few house rules (like locking doors, reduce water usage, etc).

I haven’t actually been CouchSurfing myself yet and reversed the roles, but I think it is a great way to meet new people and to have a closer encounter with other people’s cultures. I will be starting a three month adventure on the Trans-Siberian next week and I will be taking part in the CouchSurfing experience, mixed in with a few hostel stays. By combing the two, it will allow me to meet a greater range of people and to combine two different travelling experiences.

It definitely seems to be the case that since like-minded travellers use the system, and with the added protection of the site’s vouching, I am always meeting good people and getting a good experience by allowing them to stay. It might not sound like the safest idea, but in practice Couchsurfing turns out to be one of the best travel social network ideas out there.

1. Koyaanisqatsi

Literally meaning “life out of balance”, Koyaanisqatsi is a movie in the traditional sense; moving pictures and sound. It meticulously cuts together beautiful footage taken from around the United States, backed with Phillip Glass’ thought-provoking score. It’s not all good news admittedly, beyond the hypnotic movements of the clouds and glistening building windows is a study of the human impact on the natural world and the growth of technology. It never fails to impress me, though. Every time I see it, it amazes me how much there is I’ve still yet to see.

Directed by Godfrey Reggio, with cinematography by Ron Fricke, Koyaanisqatsi is perhaps still one of my favourite ever films, for how perfectly every piece fits together. I can imagine it not really clicking with everyone and beyond that, the destruction seen later in the movie might even have the opposite effect of inspiration. Yet, there’s something about the way all those dots and dashes of traffic compel me. If aliens every visited Earth, this is the only thing they’d ever need to be showed to understand the history of this planet.

2. Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter… and Spring

The setting for Kim Ki-duk’s lackadaisical feature is a tiny lake which changes drastically from season to season. It seems like pretty much the perfect place for a holiday to me. There’s nobody for miles and the scenery is remarkable every which way you look. It’s also amazing how vividly each season changes the look and feel of the lake. Here in England it’s like binary weather, either it’s gloomy or a bit sunny. In Korea, it seems like every season offers something new. Within the film, each season also offers a new chapter in life, as it charts the progression of the Buddhist monk and his son who live there.

Jusan Pond is the name of the location and is a 200 year old artificial lake in Cheongsong County, Korea. It remains a curious area, for its trees which still grow underneath the water. The calmness of the surrounding forestry and the quiet lifestyle of the monk appeal to me the most. Who wants to bathe on a beach full of hundreds of tourists in Spain when places like this exist?

3. Easy Rider

It’s a bit cheesy now, but Easy Rider still manages to capture the road trip sense of adventure better than any other film. Famed for kick-starting the New Hollywood revolution of the late ’60s and throughout the ’70s, the film follows two bikers who decide to travel the south of USA in order to “find America”. Their spiritual quest doesn’t end exactly successfully, but the desire to drop everything and explore is something everyone can relate to. The style it’s shot in also adds to the amore, with a kind of scrapbook feel as the story unravels.

I think I just love open roads in general. When I see a clear road bending and winding into the horizon, I feel a compulsive need to be there. There’s a bleak ending to the film, with the ever-pending danger of greed likely to get you into trouble, but what’s adventure without a little risk? It takes a lot of guts to stop saying you’re going to do something like this and actually do it. And that alone should be inspiration enough for us all.

4. Fitzcarraldo

When a man finds it his destiny to drag a ship over a hill, you can do nothing but be instantly captivated. Werner Herzog’s remarkable film stars Klaus Kinski in arguably his greatest role. He plays an Irishman named Brian Sweeney Fitzgerald, living in Peru and in search of rubber, which was the most profitable industry in Peru at the time. Once rich from selling the rubber he finds, he aims to complete his dream of building an opera house in Iquitos. The character’s sheer desire to get what he wants by any means necessary is what really carries the film. He takes a steamship to an area he hears has a significant amount of rubber trees and when he reaches an impassable part of the river, he’s forced to move the ship over a hill to the other side.

The film is all about getting stuck into nature and harnessing its power. With the help of the locals, Fitzcarraldo cuts down numerous trees and creates a conveyor belt of trunks to roll the ship up the hill. The thing that really wows me is how instead of cutting corners, director Herzog went deep into the jungles of Peru and actually took the ship over the hill. To me it’s a film-making feat which trumps almost any other. What you see in the film is all real and when you see it, you want to go to Peru and take a ship over a hill yourself.

5. Walkabout

Walkabout isn’t about travelling, it’s about survival. Nicolas Roeg’s cult film, loosely based on James Vance Marshall’s novel of the same name, charts the journey of a girl and her younger brother stranded in the Australian Outback. Again, it’s the theme of isolation in a beautiful place that appeals to me. I like how it’s people from the city that find themselves out there, making it easy to relate to everything they experience. Especially the meeting of the Aborigines which is an experience in itself.

It takes human life back to its most basic and forces the characters to survive in the dry heat. The name Walkabout refers to Australian Aborigines having to live out in the wilderness on their own for several months as a kind of ritual. Every time I watch Walkabout, I think “Yeah I could do that”. I don’t know if I’m brave enough to ever actually do it, but it makes me desperately want to all the same.

Those are just five, but there must be thousands. What movies inspire you to travel?

Designed by Ken Shuttleworth of MAKE, architect of the Millennium Bridge and 30 St Mary Axe in London, the red steel sculpture stands at Nottingham University at the Jubilee campus. I say red, it’s actually four very specific shades of red, namely Purple Red, Ruby Red, Carmine Red and Traffic Red.

Shuttleworth spoke of the naming:

We’re particularly pleased that students and staff have been responsible for actually naming the sculpture. These are the people who will experience the sculpture as part of their daily environment. We hope they will feel a real sense of ownership and pride in this striking new addition to the campus. We certainly think that their chosen name really captures the essence of what we are trying to achieve with the work.

My immediate thoughts were if Aspire had been deliberately named after the Aspire Tower sports centre in Dubai which happens to look eerily similar. However, it seems to be just a coincidence.

The height of of Aspire represents 60 years of the University’s opening and the name was selected by students and staff. It cost around £800,000 and the money was an anonymous gift donation. The height is made up from 52m of steel and 8m of concrete. Aspire has its own website which you can view here: http://aspire.nottingham.ac.uk/

In similar new, Shard at London Bridge is set to join Aspire as another symbolic skyline feature of Britain. Except this one’s going to be an actual building. With a height of 310m, the tower will be one of the tallest buildings in Europe.

I like it when a skyline has some definition to it. It’s not so much that places without a unique structure have no feeling to them, just that sometimes is does take a building or structure that really stands out to have an impact on you.

There’s a video on the University site which shows a blind Internet user functioning WebAnywhere’s Screen Reader with great success. He reads his email, sends a reply and checks a bus timetable before leaving in just a few minutes.

Here’s a breakdown of the process:

• • Plug headphones into computer.
• • Visit the WebAnywhere URL. This is done by bringing up the run command box by pressing Windows Key + R and entering the address.
• • The website loads with a frame at the top which acts as the address bar.
• • Sites the user wants to visit appear below the frame with text and instructions being read out to them.

It’s all pretty simple and looks like it’s easy enough to use. I think it’s really great that this service means that you don’t need to spend loads of money on additional software any more. Especially since even current screen readers that are free still need installing on computers before you can use them.

WebAnywhere uses an electronically generated voice and as such is only currently available in English, but according to their press release, the source code has been made available to Chinese web developers. This surely means it won’t be too long before we see the software appearing in many other languages.

For blind travellers, this is a great step forward to making information more easily accessible on the go. It opens up the use of any computer connected to the Internet, which means that everything from hotel lobby computers and Internet cafés to your friend’s laptop can now all be used by blind people.

With the Internet being an integral part of travelling these days, it’s good to see that it’s much more easy to access.

http://webanywhere.cs.washington.edu/

Both airlines will be using Aircell’s ‘Gogo‘ technology, which will allow passengers to connect to the Internet whilst flying. This won’t be limited to simply laptops, all applications will be able to connect. So whether you want to check the weather on your iPhone or play PSP Socom online, the options are there.

The service begins testing tomorrow in the US and once launched, is expected to cost between $10 and $13 to use on long flights. This runs in sync with Ryan-air’s recently announced service to allow texting, GRPS and voice calls via OnAir‘s satellite technology.

I always just assumed the reason we hadn’t seen these kind of services commercially was because it was too dangerous and may interfere with flight controls, but I guess not. I think that it could quite radically change how boring flights usually are. For too long I’ve had to think ahead and make sure my laptop is packed with enough decent material to keep me occupied in the air. Soon I won’t have to bother, I can just browse and download at leisure. Naturally though, cost is going to paramount to its success.

So for example, if you’re taking that Trans-Mongolian train across Russia that I’ve previously talked about, then this sort of thing would be ideal. If you read a lot of books, you can grab a bunch of books and transfer them to your mobile for easy-reading. Maybe you’ve always wanted to get around to reading 1984. You go to the 1984 Feedbooks page and simply download the book in your file of choice. Better yet – it’s free!

Okay, so reading books on mobiles isn’t that new. Another feature of Feedbooks though, is pretty new. If you use a feed aggregator to keep on top of all the sites and blogs that you read, then you might find Feedbooks useful. You can generate your own custom newspaper and download it as a file (eg PDF) for reading at your own leisure.

So all you have to imagine really, is taking all of the latest content from the sites you read and having it automatically placed inside a mobile-friendly file. The one thing I would suggest when using this feature is to only really use feeds which offer full content. Some feeds snip the content just to give you a taste of what’s inside. It would be pretty pointless to grab info that’s just one or two lines.

I think it’s a really great idea, that’s useful for long journeys. It can cost a lot of money, depending on your service provider, to subscribe to RSS via an mobile device. With Feedbooks, you could get up in the morning, grab a PDF of all the sites you read, stick it on your PDA for reading on the train. It’s still in beta at the moment, so you’ll have to be patient with fixes and updates, but it’s well worth checking out Feedbooks’ RSS to PDF feature.