travel before the age of the internet

So there i was at Kino today -- the first time i've been to the new reduced-floor-space version on the 4th floor of Taka. And because i had time, and wasn't looking for anything in particular, i ended up in the Travel section looking at travel guides. And it occurred to me as i was flipping through a Lonely Planet guidebook, that it's been so long since i've planned for a trip without the internet. i was reminded of the trips i went on in the uni days, before the internet had really taken off big-time, and when one still relied on just the printed word to decide the where, what, when, and how of travel. There was something exciting about it. Most of the time, you'd go to a place, say a town or a village or a lake / mountain / beach / whatever, not really having a clear idea of what it looked like, or what the experience would be like once you got there. Sure, you could always make the effort to go look it up in some book or other, but it would be almost impossible to find colour photos of the more obscure places in printed books. It's quite different now -- all you need to do is to look up the place on Google, and inevitably, there will turn out to be someone who has been there before you, and posted photos or reviews on Instagram or TripAdvisor to prove it.
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In other words, there was a certain mystery to travel back in the day that's been lost with the widespread growth of the internet.
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Maybe i'm just an old fogey. But i find it kinda sad. i liked the surprise of arriving in a place and truly seeing it for the first time. In fact, after that little sojourn at Kino (which is still very nice, by the way, even with the reduced floor space), i decided that the next trip i go on, i will plan without the internet. i think the furthest i'd go is to email to make enquiries or book tickets / accommodation. But i won't be reading up online reviews or flicking through Google Images. Instead, i will just buy a copy of the good ole Lonely Planet, and trust myself to the writer's judgement and recommendations. That way, perhaps, i might recover for myself some of the old magic of travel and exploration.
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