Looking silly holding up a map in Mumbai…
1. The first way point was Hotel Kumkum on Lamington road. Getting there was easy for Samir. Because we’re Digit-ians, we can smell technology hot-spots from a mile away!
2. The receptionist gave Samir another clue, which told him to get to Hotel Ascot in Colaba. He didn’t know how to get there, so he checked the map, only to realise that it did not give him exact street-level detail! The map was not to scale, either… The only way to reach there now was to remember all the areas lying in between. After referring to the map a few times, we finally arrived at our destination-two wasted bus rides and a train ride later!
3. The receptionist there gave Samir another clue, which asked him to go to Hotel Sahil in Mumbai Central-he could smell the treasure now!
4. By now Samir had gotten the hang of using the map, so finding Mumbai Central was not a problem. It looked huge though, and hotel Sahil was not on the map. After an hour of asking people for directions, we finally arrived.
Time Taken: 5 hours (Bad even for Mumbai) Easiness/Fun meter: 1.5 (We looked silly)
…and looking so weird holding the thing, it was cool!
1.
Michael eagerly typed in “Hotel Kumkum” into his GPS receiver. It brought up three results, one of which was in Lamington Road. As soon as Michael chose the right hotel, an arrow appeared showing the direction we needed to head in. “This should be easy,” muttered Michael.2. Getting to Lamington Road and then following the arrow to Hotel Kumkum was a breeze. Michael got his second clue and punched in “Hotel Ascot.” He soon found Mumbai isn’t as well-mapped as we’d like, and the GPS receiver was showing turns and roads where there were none, and failed to mention existing roads. He asked for directions. We finally hopped on the right bus and got down at Colaba, and found Hotel Ascot easily using the GPS’ direction arrow.
3. Michael’s third clue was Hotel Sahil in Mumbai Central, and his GPS showed a few hotels with that name-none of them in Mumbai central. He realised he was in trouble. He did use the GPS to find his way to Mumbai Central though.
4. On the way to this last way-point, the GPS receiver ran out of power. After buying some new batteries, Michael continued to search for the treasure. He did the smart thing and asked for landmarks near Hotel Sahil, and found those on the GPS. He finally got there about half an hour quicker than Samir had done earlier. So what was the treasure? Free lunch at the hotel, of course…
Time taken: 3.5 hours (Not all that bad) Easiness/Fun meter: 4 (We looked cool!)
And The Winner Is…
The old way was fun, and not as much a pain as we’d expected. Of course, this is Mumbai, so finding your way is not really hard. We also found that you cannot just rely on GPS-when it had the destination listed, it was good, but not all places were mapped. Since neither Michael nor Samir could complete their task without asking for directions, the result was headed for a tie. However, since Michael had to stop less often to ask for directions, we decided the tech way should win. When GPS catches on, and cities are mapped completely, you could use a GPS receiver to get to destinations without ever needing to ask for directions.