OPERATION DISTANT SHORES


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On Friday, December 11th Operation Distant Shores goes into action.
On that date, Nadia and I will be flying to her homeland of Indonesia. I’ve included the above Google Maps map of our flight plan – read it right to left. Basically, we depart from Las Vegas on Friday, and touch down in Jakarta on Sunday. The flight from L.A. to Taipei is 11 hours, give or take, with the rest of the time spread over short hops, layovers and the international date line.

While there, we’ll be doing many things: Meeting her family, visiting her school, seeing the sights, meeting her family, going to Bali and meeting her family. She’s got a large family, and I have to admit I’m a bit nervous about that portion of the trip. I’m pretty sure it’ll go fine, and I’m really looking forward to everything, but meeting new people is always a bit scary for me. This time, though, it’s not just meeting new people: it’s meeting new people, with the pressure to make a good impression. [face_scared]

Travel gear will actually be a bit lite, at least for me. I won’t be bringing a laptop or a cell phone: only my camera, PSP and iPod Touch, and a book. We’re both bringing gift-laptops for her folks, and decided it would be much easier to get through security if we were only carrying one laptop each, instead of trying to manage two – not to mention the additional weight. Plus, we’ll be doing so much stuff that there won’t be much time left for laptop fun.

As for the cell phone: AT&T rapes your wallet if you go overseas, even if you have their international plan! I called this weekend to double check their plans, since I saw it was only an additional $35 to add international data and roaming. What they didn’t mention in the product description, and what the customer service guy was reluctant to add, is that it still costs $2.15 a minute to place a phone call, and txt messages are 50 cents each. The data limits you to 20MB of use, which isn’t too bad… But with the voice and txting priced out of range, it made no sense to even bother bringing them. So, no Twitter updates, unless I can find an open hotspot while we’re there.

When I get back – and get over the jetlag – I hope to have at least a couple dozen good pictures to post, and (hopefully) a video or two for the YouTubes! Wish me luck!