Coded and clueless

I recently went on a vacation to Spain with my wife. Successful vacations are characterised by fond memories that you carry back home. For me, the most significant memory, by a wide margin, is that of QR codes!

I am a globe trotter, way back from the times of physical tickets purchased at the Airlines’ local office. Then came the travel agent, who was quickly replaced by computers and consolidator websites. I thought that I had conquered the digital travel world by visiting various travel forums, offering an assortment of advice complete with a list of dos and don'ts, and learning the basics of looking up online flight statuses and departure gates.

I was confidently getting ready for my recent vacation when the phenomenon of the QR code hit me right in the face. For the uninitiated like me, a QR code looks like a remnant of the old hieroglyphic style of communication, but I learned the hard way that it is a complete book of information for the machine that reads it.

As is common and the norm in today’s world of vacation travel, innumerable bookings have to be completed before you step out of your home. Flights, local trains and buses in various cities, hotel bookings, and timed entrance tickets to various museums and sights are just a few of the many reservations that have to be completed—and each of them gifts you with a QR code. Since I was forbidden at home from printing any of these, in the interest of saving the planet, I had to store all details on my smart phone, a recipe for disaster.

At the point of entry to various tourist sites, I was struggling to fetch the correct QR code by going to a plethora of websites before hitting the correct one to retrieve the ticket, all the while battling a shaky internet connection. The novice that I was in these matters, I did not realise that one could download the said codes and store them locally on their smart phone. And even after miraculously finding the relevant QR code, holding my phone at the correct distance and angle for the machine to read and approve my credentials turned out to be a nightmare. Needless to say, I was holding up everyone behind me as I fumbled around with my phone.

The pervasiveness of the QR code was vividly in evidence when I went to a restaurant and asked for the menu. I was promptly asked to scan a QR code to look up the menu, and having forgotten to carry my phone to the restaurant, I had to make a quick exit or risk ordering the most expensive item suggested by the waiter.

I came back from my vacation partly in awe and partly rattled by the advances in technology that made me nostalgically look back on the days when my "vacation" consisted of cycling to the neighbouring village.