Dubai: Travellers can see and experience new places through the eyes of local residents with the help of smart gadgets and social networks.
Two brothers, Mohammad and Peyman Al Awadhi, went around half the world in close to 40 days, with the help and advice of friends online. Their social media directed travels were recorded in the television series, “Peeta Planet”. The series is being shown on Dubai One and the brothers can be followed online, on Facebook and Twitter, among others.
At the launch of the show, last month, the two brothers told how on a visit to Tokyo, they asked their “friends” online for a good place to get coffee. They received three recommendations and used Google maps to find their chosen coffee shop, a place that “took them back hundreds of years” and served them the best coffee of their lives. “I am sure many local residents don’t know of this coffee shop,” said 39-year-old Mohamed Al Awadhi.
In South Korea, they successfully used Google Translate to ask about an unfamiliar sea food, which turned out to be sea snails.
The idea for the travel show was born after the brothers took a break to Sri Lanka in 2009, on the recommendation of their Twitter and Facebook followers. When they got there, they again went online to find out: “where to sleep, who to meet and [what to see and eat]”. The result was the best vacation ever for the brothers “because we felt like locals not tourists”.
In February 2013, the brothers and a production team flew to eight countries: Australia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey and Ireland. “We chose the countries we [wanted to see] and those with a high penetration of social media,” said 36-year-old Peyman. “We involved the (online) community in every decision we took,” added Mohamed.
The two are not planning to visit Texas, Argentina, Kenya and Lebanon, before concluding their travels in the UAE.
