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An Internet Miracle: Staying Connected 10,000 Miles from Home

by Amy on March 2, 2010 · 3 comments

ComputerThe first time my eighty-something year old grandmother saw Keith and I via Skype video chat, she couldn’t believe it.

“It’s a miracle!” she exclaimed.  “How much is this costing you?”
“It’s free, grandma.”
“No!”
“Really.  And when we call you at home, it’s just a few dollars a month.”

It took about five months of calls before she finally stopped asking how much we were paying and promising to pay us back for the calls when we got home.  So far her tab is a whopping $0.03!

Thanks to the miracle of Skype, we’ve been able to watch our niece play from Istanbul, wish the entire family a Merry Christmas face to face from the beaches in Thailand, and show off our tans in Cambodia while friends freeze in yet another snowstorm back home.  With Facebook and Twitter, we can keep up with the latest news from our friends, see pictures of their babies growing up and even stay up to date on the actions of the Philadelphia Office of Sustainability.  And with text messaging, we’ve seen pictures of our hours-old nephew and have coordinated dinner plans with people we’ve met along the way.

In fact, it seems to us that we spend more time talking to our families now that we’re on the other side of the planet than we did when we were just a few hours’ drive away.  Instead of routine conversations like this:

Hi! How are you?
Fine.
What’s new?
Not much.
How’s work?
Same-old same-old.
Ok. Bye!
Bye!

Our conversations run more like this:

Hi! How are you?
Great!
Where are you?
We’re in Siem Reap and we just spent the entire day seeing the most amazing temples and riding around in a tuk-tuk and it’s about 10,000 degrees here and the food is fabulous and our tour guide was telling us about life under the Khmer Rouge and…

A highlight of leaving our jobs to travel was turning in our blackberries, shutting off our cell phones and severing the electronic ties that kept us tethered to the world of constant communication. Now nothing rings, vibrates, flashes or plays music to demand our immediate attention.  We determine where and when we connect, and after nearly five months on the road, we truly appreciate having the ability to hear a familiar voice or see a familiar face from back home with nothing more than a laptop and a decent wifi connection.

We might be on the other side of the world but our friends and families know more about our daily lives now than they could even imagine about our lives in Philadelphia.  Funny how being so far away has made us so much closer to the people we love at home.

How do you stay connected when you travel?  How has technology changed the way you communicate with friends and family back home?

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How to Pay for Stuff Around the Globe

by admin on June 30, 2009 · 0 comments

How will I pay for all for everything along the trip?  It is a good question and one that has lots of potential answers.  Everything from credit cards, ATMs, debit cards, and even the quaint American Express Travelers Checks.  One of the greatest improvements in world travel has to be the globally interconnected banking system.  The ability for an ATM in Vietnam to access your US based checking account, check the balance and allow you to withdraw 1.8 million Vietnamese Dong (about $100 USD) is quite amazing.  That being said there are some things to be aware of as you look to stretch every dollar for your trip.  We will be using two methods almost exclusively, credit cards and ATMs/Debit cards for access to local currency at favorable exchange rates.

International Credit Card of Choice

International Credit Card of Choice

Credit Cards: The most important aspect when choosing a credit card to use while traveling is to get one without a conversion surcharge.  Most major cards have them.  American Express is 2.7%, and while here in the states I am a huge fan of the Starwood AMEX card, a 2.7% “tax” on everything we buy abroad for a year seemed excessive.  So we went with a Capital One MasterCard, which has no exchange surcharge, and we get 1.25 travel points for every dollar spent with them.  Not to mention you can put you own picture on the card.  One last note on credit cards, along with almost all other financial preparation for a big trip: getting approved for a reasonable credit limit (greater than $2,500) is MUCH easier if you still are employed, so if possible take care of this before leaving your gainful employment.

ATM Cards: The key here is to make sure your card has a 4 digit pin, as many international banks will not accept cards that have longer pins.  Also be sure to use basic ATM safety while traveling.  Keeping your pin safe, only accessing ATMs in public and highly visible places, and making sure that the swipe does not look tampered with.  This is to prevent your card from being skimmed and a duplicate card created without you knowing about it.  In general, unless you are traveling to very remote places, access to ATMs and thus local cash is a great way to control your daily expenses as well as keep your accounts and yourself safe by not carrying significant amounts of cash or travelers checks.

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