A few random travel tips

I thought I should jot down a few things I learned from my recent trips before I forgot them. First, South Africa really does use those whopping big power adapters. Connectors to make a standard Euro or US plug fit them are fairly easy to find, but you could save a few bucks by buying them beforehand. Don’t be like me and buy the UK plug thinking that it looks the same– the South Africa plug has three large cylindrical plugs.

Second, if you want to use a public phone at the Johannesburg airport, forget it. The only phones are at the Telkom kiosk on the upper level, and it closes well before the evening international flight bank. Take your mobile phone or use Skype (if, that is, you can get the airport wireless system to work with your laptop.)

Third, although the Amsterdam airport has lots of public phones, there are only two phones that allow calling card calls– one near gate D41, and the other near the nexus of terminals C, D, and E. You should expect these two phones to have long lines of folks waiting to use them.

Fourth, if you’re going to travel overseas, don’t depend on Verizon’s alleged world phone service. Their SIMs only work in Verizon-issued phones. Before my next trip, I’ll be making other arrangements.

Fifth, when you see people complaining about the battery life of the MacBook Pro, they’re not kidding. I averaged about 2:20 on each battery charge, which isn’t even close to enough for productive use on long flights. I’ll be much more careful about picking aircraft that have in-seat power in the future.

Sixth, don’t read books about SARS on airplanes unless you want to be unsettled during the entire trip.