WEB SERVICE
In Alex Garland's pulp travel novel The Beach (soon to be Leonardo DiCaprio-ized into celluloid), an idyllic hidden paradise in Thailand is trashed, thanks to gossipy backpackers. While I for one haven't caught wind of a secret Eden in Southeast Asia, I do know that the modern backpacker's distributed-information network is rivaled only by those of ants and New York ad executives. For me, it started with the phonecards Mom packed with my clean underpants. Then came free email, allowing me to feel edgy as I pop open my inbox at the terminal of some foreign Net café. And now that I've signed up with Lonely Planet's eKno, a Web-based voicemail service, there's a new way to keep my world more compact than a Gore-Tex foul-weather system.
Australia-based companies Lonely Planet and eKorp.com, a communications outfit, have combined prepaid calling cards, email, and voicemail into a single service for travelers. Once you start an account and designate your mailbox password, you, your fellow adventurers, and the folks back home can check and leave phone messages without worrying about time zones or computer access. The service has toll free numbers in more than 40 countries, and if you do have a PC handy, you can send and receive voice messages as sound files on the Web - as long as the little Internet café in Katmandu has up-to-date technology.
You can join eKno through tear sheets from the backs of Lonely Planet guidebooks, or start from the überfunctional Web page. Pricing is pretty good: Because of cheap deals on international phone rates, a 30-minute weekday call from Australia to California costs $14.70. Sending and receiving email is free. Checking voice messages via phone can grind your account down, but if you check them on the Web, they cost you only 10 cents a message.
As much as I cherish my eKno account, I know it's an escape from escapism. You'll have to travel a hell of a lot deeper into the Amazon than I ever will for an excuse not to periodically call the folks. Indiana Jones would be ashamed.
eKno: account prepayable in $20, $50, or $100 increments. eKorp.com: (800) 707 0031, www.ekno.lonelyplanet.com.
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