Geoff Perkins
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Flying Again

19/5/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
QF 8089 DXB - GVA. A 777 200. Smaller than the 777 300 for the ADL - DXB flight
Seems to have been an age in planning, but finally I am on the way to Europe. First flight is ADL -DXB. then a few hours wait for the DXB-GVA leg. I am quite excited to be flying into Geneva. Seems like a small friendly airport and must be somewhat better to arrive at than CDG, LHR, AMS, FRA. The usual points of entry for Australians to Europe. But first I have to get my comms all up to speed. This story will be about the comms solution I chose. 
As I write this I am sitting Dubai airport - DXB. I have been wandering about for a couple of hours hearing all the Arabic speech. Now I am at the gate for GVA all I can hear is French. 
Wonderful. 
Anyway... 
Comms
Comms
I had thought the best solution would be a wifi hot spot, like a mifi and an international sim to connect wherever.  There are list of solutions. The recommended one as I chatted round was to get a mifi from vodaphone on a month to month plan for about $80. Then add a lebara sim. Well vodaphone did not have the mifi anymore at that price. 
Flight centre have a similar plan for about $120 with 200 mb of data in most of Europe. 
While in the vodaphone store, discovering that the mifi solution was not available, I found another plan. This is what I am using now. 
I bought a month to month plan at $50 per month. The sim is included. It gives me unlimited calls and unlimited texts in Australia. While traveling however I pay only $5 on any day that I use the plan and retain the same conditions, infinite call and infinite texts to use their terms in most of Europe. 
There is also a data component currently at 3gb of data for the month. 
Being a month to month plan means no contract and I can cancel at any time. The attendant at the shop said they usually take 2 or 3 weeks to actually debit the credit card for payment. If I cancel quickly enough I may not get billed at all. I doubt that, but was very clear it is month to month only. 
So the plan is to use it in my phone. I have already placed a redirect message on my regular number telling callers the new number to use while I am traveling. I will use the phone to create a hot spot for my other devices and see how it all pans out. If it is as good as they suggest I will pay $50 for the plan. And $5 for each of the 20 days I am traveling. We shall see!
1 Comment
Mick
19/5/2014 16:07:38

Hi Geoff it's just amazing how we can keep in contact. Have set up your travel blog on my MB Air so i can follow your progress though the day. looking forward to finding out about what musical gear you come across in Europe. Sounds like your flights and train travel all went well. Did you take a photo of the train at all? Catch you soon. Cheers mick

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    Geoff

    I love to travel but don't get to as much as I want. Occasionally I get to make a trip. When I do I'll post a few pics and thoughts about my places. I'll also drag out a few old photos from time to time and remember my time in those exotic places.

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