Wednesday, August 8, 2007

The Inconvenient Truth

This is another photo from the old files, which was taken the day after the iPhone was released in the US. The gentleman sitting next to me on the subway was playing with it so I asked if I could take a picture of the phone. He gladly obliged and even demonstrated some of its features to me.

When I was in Asia, my US cell/mobile phone did not work because it was not compatible with the Asian cellular phone system or the rest of the world's, for that matter. I did not think ahead of getting an Asian SIM card for my phone so I left it at home. I was phoneless for a month.

What was the most inconvenient situation or thing to happen to you during your last vacation?

17 comments:

Jilly said...

You are back! Brilliant! I missed yesterday's post. Loved your photos from your trip, Ming.

In response to your question, the most inconvenient thing that happened recently was at an airport in the UK. At security I had to take everything out of my bag. I put my portable phone on one side and it wasn't till I was in the plane and went to turn it off, that I realised I'd not picked it up. Another passenger called the number and someone answered. He said I'd have to send someone else to pick it up. Well it took two days to get it, long story - they wouldn't give it to the person collecting it friend without proof that I'd told him to do so. Meanwhile, of course I was back in France with no portable phone - which I needed. Eventually it got to me via FedEx be week later. I won't do that again in a hurry.

Unknown said...

they launched another the new iMac today too! no, i shall not be tempted. my current iMac still works well.

ming, if you bought the iPhone, you could have used it in Asia! It's quad-band! :-)

the most inconvenient situation was not checking before hand the electrical points in France. I thought that it was the same as the UK. Msia/Spore uses the same plugs as the UK, so we did not bring converters.

It was late at nite when we went back to the hotel, and I wanted to charge my batteries. Oh no! No batteries for camera the next day.

Peter said...

I'm happy to see that there is nothing too catastrophic told yet. I have nothing particular to add: I guess we have all experienced delayed flights, delayed or lost luggage, phones not working... but some days, months, years later, this is all forgotten and you remember only the good sides of your vactions!

Ming the Merciless said...

Jilly - I bought two small Chinese tea cups with matching lids at a tea shop in Beijing but some lucky Chinese lady is enjoying them now because I forgotten and left them in the hotel room. I didn't realize this until I was in Malaysia. They were particularly expensive so I wasn't too upset about it.

Keropokman - I had the same situation in Beijing so I went to the shopping mall and bought an adapter/plug for 20 yuan (US$2.50).

Anonymous said...

I haven't taken a "real" vacation in a couple of years. The last was to Ireland. Pretty much everything was wonderful except for a dreadful hotel in Kilkenny called the Metropole.

How bad was it? Bad enough that I joined TripAdvisor and wrote about it just to warn others away. Click here to read my review.

Anonymous said...

Actually, Ming, the worst time for me was being on Iwo Jima in 1956 with toilet paper. Think about that.

I like your narrative today.

Abraham Lincoln
Brookville Daily Photo

Chuckeroon said...

Ming...I have a variation on Abe's whilst far away in the depths of eastern Europe......

However, no mobile phone for one month is a good thing.

Rafe Totengco said...

my blackberry doesn't work in Korea and Japan so I got myself a Nokia this year that works there. having no access can be quite liberating but also...not.

Z said...

Hey, welcome back Ming! You probably have a lot of catching up to do, but I wanted to make sure to I tell you about my post on my visit to the St. Bernard kennel/museum in Martigny. It was on 20070706, or search for Martigny on my blog.

Inconveniences, I've had many. On vacations, none that bad in retrospect. :-)

Ann (MobayDP) said...

I loved your vacation photos Ming! Welcome back! :-D

To answer your question, the most inconvenient thing that happened to me on vacation was the airline losing my luggage on a trip to Europe a few years ago. Imagine traveling from warm, sunshiny Jamaica to Berlin in winter with nothing but the barely warm clothes on your back and no luggage for four days!

Needless to say it was quite an adventure! lol! :-D

stromsjo said...

Good to see you back, Ming(tm)!

Nothing really inconvenient vacation-wise has happened to me so far this year but that’s mostly due to that fact that my vacation starts in a couple of weeks’ time... ;)

Anonymous said...

So the inconvenient truth is that, you can survive without the phone :D

Oh for the love of food! said...

We are able to use our cell phones overseas because we have a 'roaming' service, but OUCH!! the bill hurts! nowadays we are wiser and get new sim cards from the countries we travel to.
So, have you reacquainted yourself to NYC yet, or have you been staying in, trying to 'recover' from your trip?? ;o)

Annie said...

Funny, it wouldn't be inconvenient for me to be without a phone. Instead, it would be a welcome part of the holiday. In fact, I can't think of anything I'd hate to do without, other than food and water and shelter, of course.

Dijah said...

The last trip to Singapore,I had my camera with me.But then,I couldn't use it.Number one because I didn't have batteries for it and number two,I lost the memory card and I couldn't snap lots of pictures with it.Luckily,the night before we went to Singapore,my dad bought a new camera.Couldn't imagine a trip without a camera.

I don't think that was too bad.But I still miss my camera because it felt really wierd not having a camera of your own to capture pictures with your own creativity.

isa said...

Nice to have you back, Ming!

My disaster story - arriving in Paris with a credit card that my bank forgot to activate! Just imagine - no hotel, no food...the only cash we had went to the cab driver from the airport!

Moral of the story - always carry at least 2 credit cards!

Anonymous said...

Hmm...I would say the day the cell phone of my better half got pick-pocketed - it was a few days before I went into labour. We weren't on vacation but we were preparing for the arrival of our baby. So I tagged along with him going from one place to another to get his police report done. Maybe that's why I went into labour 12 days earlier than original estimated day. hahaha