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Preperations
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Getting this site up and running
Sunday September 3, 2000
San Francisco, USA - This message is simply a test message. If all goes well, this text will be posted, and a message will be sent to the whole group.
The right camera for the trip
Tuesday September 19, 2000
San Francisco, USA - I thought getting the right camera for my trip would be a no brainer. I planned on taking a cheap point-and-shoot, and that's it, right? Wrong! I made good experiences with Olympus in the past (I used some of the Stylus models), they were small and had tons of features. But the more I read, the more I hesitated. Everybody was pointing out that the quality of the pictures is average at best, and people were praising Leica's for their extraordinary lenses. Although, they are bulkier, have less features and are more expensive. But the consistenly good reviews convinced me, and I just ordered a Z2X, a 35-70 mm zoom camera. The pictures better be good!
Of course, I plan on scanning the better pictures, and I will post them here, once I am back.
Singapore - Madras was a bitch!
Thursday September 28, 2000
San Francisco, USA - My flight is booked! Finally! This has been going on for ages. You see, because I have so many stops, the cheapest option is the Round-The-World ticket. There are a few airline networks that offer it, and I used the Star Alliance. Only catch: They have no Indian airline in their network. "No Problem", I thought, "I get to India with Singapore Airlines (SA), and leave India with Lufthansa." Yeah, right!
Two weeks ago, I started to set up my itinerary. I have ten flight segments - wow! It took twentyfive minutes for the lady from United on the other line to take all the connections. "Everything is fine," she said, "except the flight from Singapore to Madras. Can you possibly travel on a different date?" - "How about a day later?" - "Booked out" - "A day earlier?" - "Booked out" - "Any day that week...?" - "Sorry, Sir, all booked out. We could get you on Air India, but that'll be more expensive, because they are not on our network."
There is only one flight a day with SA from Singapore to Madras. And getting on the waiting list would have been a gamble. So I was biting the bullet, and decided for Air India. Except... the lady couldn't make a reservation! "The booking system seems to be down. But I make a note, and this should be figured out within the next 3 days. They will call you."
They didn't call me. Instead I called them a few days later, and yes, the note was still attached to my itinerary, and no, they didn't get in contact with Air India yet. "You could call them yourself." I was still hoping: "Maybe someone canceled on the SA flight..?" - "Let me check... No, still all booked out."
I was so lucky the third time I called. This time I got a gentleman who identified himself as Kermit in Denver. I described him my situation - I wasn't even hoping on SA any more, but just wanted to get that f*cking Air India flight booked. "Well, I know a little Ninja route to check the SA availability. Let's see... No, the 18th is booked out... but we have a seat on the 19th!" - "Yesssss! you are my hero!" - "I know, I've been with United for decades, I know every trick!"
Thanks to Kermit, I got my complete flight booked on the Star Alliance network. Nothing can stop me any more!
Trouble with UPS
Saturday October 14, 2000
San Francisco, USA - Chances are this is the last entry in San Francisco - the next time you'll hear from me I will already be in Tokyo! Tomorrow (Sunday) morning is my flight.
Yesterday I got yet another confirmation of Murphy's law. As I wrote quite a while ago, I found the right camera for my trip and ordered it from Genesis Camera over the Internet. And within a week, I got it. Except that they sent the wrong camera (correct brand, incorrect model). By the time the camera was returned, there were only two weeks left, but they guy at Genesis assured me that the correct camera got shipped, and that it should arrive in time. It did, in fact, arrive in time, it arrived on Wednesday. Except that they shipped it to my home (billing) address, instead to my work address. UPS couldn't deliver, and I had to call them to hold the camera at the shipping location, so I could pick it up there. They couldn't stop the Thursday delivery, but promised to hold it on Friday. Guess what? On Friday they told me that the package was on the truck to be delivered, and that they would be closed on Saturday! To make the story short, they allowed me to come back Friday night after hours, and after half an hour wait and sweet talk with the supervisor, I was holding the package at 7:45 pm, not a moment to soon!
Now I have everything, I am packed, I said good bye to everybody, and I am ready to go!
