The Fattest Guidebook You've Ever Seen

Ladies and gentleman, this post is special. Not because it's long overdue (which yes, okay, it is), but because I am writing it from my hotel in the Old Quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam.

There are a million things I could say about this crazy, hot and wonderful place (not the least of which is the fact that the food hasn't made me sick yet - yay!). However, in this post I'd prefer to focus on how I got here.

I state in my "About Me" section that I'm an information addict. I love taking masses of information and researching, categorizing and compiling all of it into something that makes sense and is meaningful. A trip like this is my favorite kind of informational challenge. From flights to hotels to sights to culture shock, there are a lot of variables. And with my love of planning (plus this being my first time in Asia), this meant research, research and more research.

It also gave me the opportunity to test run two tools I've been intrigued by. TripIt enabled me to easily compile my 8 flights and 4 hotels into an easily readable format. Allowing users to simply forward their itineraries is honestly brilliant - it makes itinerary creation a breeze. Nothing beats convenience, especially for the busy traveler. The second big win with TripIt is the community aspect. I could easily share my itinerary with the friends I was traveling with as well as other people with a vested interest in my whereabouts (i.e. Mom and Dad).

Gliider is a much newer tool, and currently is in invite-only beta status. It's a Firefox add-in that helps you compile and organize the travel information you find while surfing the web - which definitely appealed to my needs. The add-in requires you to create trips for each destination, each of which will contain folders for categories such as Flights, Hotels and Shopping. As you find useful information on a destination's topic, you can simply drag and drop the text into the appropriate folder. You can then revisit each folder at a later time. I found this particularly useful while researching and comparing hotels.

While both tools played a helpful role in my trip planning, both left me with a minor feeling of "now what?" They aren't perfect, and there many other features that could  be added to these and other tools. However, they continue to cement the essential role that the Internet plays in travel. Beyond booking flights and hotels, it allows members of the travel community to share their experiences, and for other members to research and make decisions based on this pool of experience. The Internet (and TripAdvisor) is the reason we found the Hanoi Astoria Hotel, with it's charming staff and central location. It's the world's largest guidebook, on steroids.

Now, I'm off the computer and back to the humidity - after researching a couple of sights, of course. Xin chào!

Comments

[oakley sunglasses]

I started it the night before, liked it well enough to want to finish it, but didn't get so hooked that I needed to stay up late to read the whole thing. It was when I picked it up the next morning that I ran into trouble -- that was when I hit the 100-page mark, and suddenly a book about a girl who's desperate for her father's love and approval yet very cautious about guys partly because of her father's past behavior turned into a sisterly-bonding-through-burglary-with-exploration-into-family-history-and-romantic-roadtrip story. **-**-*

[Mens True Religion 5]

would like to join your blog anyway so please continue

[DorothyHarmon]

I think that to receive the loans from creditors you ought to have a great reason. However, once I've received a college loan, because I wanted to buy a car.