A late nomad lunch in Ubud, Bali

Krista’s Tips for Becoming a Digital Nomad

On September 7th, I put the remainder of my things in storage in North London, had a hasty late lunch at — surprise — St. John, and left London for life on the road. How long will I be gone? Most likely through March or so at which point DECISIONS MUST BE MADE. Or should be made. Or will hopefully be made. (You can read more about why I decided on becoming a digital nomad here.)

Maybe.

It’s been four months since I handed my keys to the alarmingly attractive flat inspector (WHY NOW GOD?) but it feels like four weeks. I’m constantly amazed at the end of every day how quickly time has evaporated. I feel so busy but yet as my (often) sorely neglected website asks…what have I been doing?

To be fair, I’ve been working. Working-working. I got bills to pay. The point in becoming a digital nomad is not to embark upon a life of leisure but rather to take advantage of lifestyle arbitrage and reduce my expenses by living in low cost-of-living countries. I am joining the ranks of the Financial Independence (hope to) Retire Early Movement. To give you some idea of what’s been going on…I worked on Christmas Eve. I worked on New Year’s Eve. I worked on New Year’s Day.

I am very rarely never not working.

The prospect of retirement looms large and my nest egg is hungry.

In some ways, these last four months have been everything I have ever wanted. I am surprised sometimes by how easy it all feels. I don’t miss London THAT much, which is what I feared the most. I don’t miss anything really, except for drinking water straight from the tap and the ability to throw toilet paper in the loo, directly. Ah, and the ease of purchasing tampons because if there’s just one small thing we women in Western countries should be thankful for, it’s tampons. (OK okay, I miss my friends and family too!!! Of course I do!!)

At the same time, I’ve made mistakes. Stupid ones. Some of you will laugh at my mistakes in that smug sort of way, not believing that I would be THAT unprepared or that uninformed or that…out of it.

These mistake-y experiences alone have become one of the main lessons of these last four months…

Given so many of our own stupidities, who are we to judge anyone, really?

If I have any one resolution for all of us in 2019 it’s that maybe we should all be…kinder. (Exception: Racists. No one should be kind to racists.)

I meant to write this blog post about becoming a digital nomad after one month on the road. But that wasn’t really enough time. So then it was going to be two months on the road. Then three months. But finally, now on the 4 month anniversary of my new life and becoming a digital nomad, here are my tips for surviving.

Always Have a Backup Connection. In Fact, Have Two Backup Connections. Or Three.

As a digital nomad, the internet is your friend and your enemy. Sometimes, I’ve been amazingly lucky, like in Thailand when my tiny 3 star hotel had a 60 Mbps connection that never wavered. Other times, I’ve been damned. Like I am right now in Ubud, during one of my busiest months, where my hotel internet slows to a crawl in the mornings and evenings when everyone is back at the property. (Thank goodness for Hubud.) So don’t rely on hotel wifi if you need to do intense internet related work or Skype calls. Attach yourself to a coworking office if at all possible. And get a local SIM card. And search out a cafe or restaurant close to your hotel with a decent wifi connection as another backup.

Trust me…there are never enough backup connections.

Get Vaccinated. For All The Things

In my rush to leave London, I just didn’t think about this. Stupid, stupid, stupid Krista. Let me tell you…when you are attacked by stray Balinese dogs, don’t ever google “Bali dogs rabies.” And guys, I am not kidding when I say the universe is always trying to tell us things because TODAY while I was on a conference call at my coworking office in Ubud, 30 monkeys started fighting with each other right in front of me and I was trying to be all businesslike and “I’m really going to have to call you back” when ALL I COULD THINK OF WAS RABIES.

So if you are thinking about becoming a digital nomad and working from countries like Thailand, Bali, Vietnam, etc, get vaccinated against all the things before you go.  Like rabies. Get vaccinated against rabies especially.

Mosquitoes are The Enemy

If your plan is to work from tropical locations…get ready. I have been bitten by more mosquitoes in the last four months than I probably ever have in my entire life. And this is with wearing Skin So Soft religiously PLUS mosquito repellent. So pack that “light, loose fitting clothing” that everyone talks about to protect yourself from mosquitoes and be prepared. In Koh Lanta, apparently nearly everyone at my coworking office Kohub in Koh Lanta, Thailand came down with Dengue in July.  Nobody “wants” to come down with Dengue.

Get a No Foreign Transaction Fee Debit Card

If you’re planning on becoming  a digital nomad and living a life on the road, you need to think about money and paying for things. I have both a US and a UK debit card and they both hit me with massive fees every time I take money out. It hurts. Especially in Vietnam where the max you can withdraw in a lot of places is about $90 USD. Get a NTF card and save yourself a few hundred bucks a year.

Hook up Apple Pay to Your No Foreign Transaction Fee Credit Card

This is my new answer to anything that costs over $20 USD so I don’t have to take out cash all the time on my debit card with foreign transaction fees. Now I ask “Do you take Apple Pay?” 50% of the time they will. (It’s the same as taking a credit card really but I feel so much cooler for asking.) They will usually charge 2% or 3% extra but it’s still usually cheaper than the ATM fees which can seriously be 10%.

Make Sure Your Parents Know How to Call You

I have kept my UK number but have cellular data turned off in most locations because of roaming fees. I thought my mother could handle calling me on Facebook. She doesn’t seem to know how to do this. My dad is not on Facebook but is on Skype so I thought we’d be fine there but he is “currently” (we’re going on four months now) locked out of Skype. My parents are old. I should have figured this out more. My brother and oldest cousin are the most tech savvy of the bunch but neither of them seems to want to talk to me. 🙁 I’ll probably get Google Fi BUT that’s still like $5 a day and so that’s a lot of money a year in roaming fees if I expect to be out of the US for 50% of each year. I am open to tips and suggestions here.

Understand that People Just Aren’t Going to Understand Your Life

Hey, I’m not just hanging around in my elephant pants getting massages all day long and being all “Eat Pray Love.”  I AM Donna Summer!!!! All day every day.

I told myself I would go to yoga during this sojourn and I have yet to do any yoga. At all. People keep asking me “Oh, how was Koh Lanta in Thailand???” And I CAN’T TELL YOU BECAUSE ALL I DID WAS WORK 12 HOURS A DAY EVERY DAY. I honestly never saw anything on Koh Lanta besides for my hotel and the wonderful KoHub coworking office. (They need better chairs but the food and staff are ace.) OK, one day I went for a massage on Koh Lanta. It wasn’t very good. And the island’s electricity went out while I was getting my massage. Which was stressful. I mean come on!!!

Guys I don’t even have time to Netflix. I haven’t Netflixed since September.

People don’t see this stuff on Instagram. They just see your pictures and think that you are on a really long vacation and that will bother people for some reason that has nothing to do with you and more to do with the fact that life sucks, no one gets enough vacation time or has enough money, and then we all die. Find people who get that you are not on vacation and that YOU WORK HARD FOR THE MONEY.  (P.S. I don’t own any elephant pants.)

Wear Shower Shoes

I haven’t taken a shower without shower shoes in four months. I am really afraid of foot diseases. This is the challenge with living out of hotels. If you are thinking about becoming a digital nomad, buy shower shoes.

Take Your Vitamins

I’ve been pretty good food wise but I’m out of my controlled circle of Pret a Manger and Itsu (again, don’t judge) where I’m more conscious of nutrition and able to log all my meals in My Fitness Pal. So I’ve tried to be better about taking vitamins. Take your vitamins.

Ditch the Bottled Water

I could seriously drink three to five liters of water a day. This is why I like tap water. But you can’t drink the tap water in Southeast Asia. So you have to buy bottled. Which sucks. Because it’s all plastic. So you have to learn to ask a place if they filter their water and if so if you can get some of it in your water bottle. Now I always plan ahead so I always have water available even if I don’t need it because I don’t want to buy bottled water I don’t need. Top tip? Buy a Lifestraw water bottle, which filters tap water. 

Wear Sunscreen

Like the song says.

Appreciate Local Pharmacists

When in doubt, ask a pharmacist. Since becoming a digital nomad, pharmacists have helped me with a terrible cold in China and a terrible knee infection in Bali. Pharmacists are kind and I kinda feel like they live to answer questions and do their job. Also, as I learned in China, pantomime is amazingly entertaining when describing cold symptoms!! Coughing, holding your throat, holding your forehead. Whenever you have something going on in a foreign country and can’t get to a traveler’s clinic immediately, ask a pharmacist, even if you can’t speak the language. They get you. (And hey, in some countries, you don’t need a prescription for stuff!! Like amoxicillin!)

Realize that Mother Nature is in Charge

I lived through a week-long monsoon on Koh Lanta, wondering if my little bungalow would be lifted from its foundation and if I could get back to the mainland easily. In Bali, there have been days where the heat and humidity have kept me either drenched with sweat and as lazy as the self-employed can be (i.e., not very but somewhat) or (more likely) seeking out the only air conditioned and enclosed restaurant or bar in town. In Vietnam, I prayed and prayed to God on the ride to Hanoi airport…the rain was so heavy that the highway was a pool. And as I write this, my little Balinese bungalow rumbles. Indonesia is always rumbling. Mother Nature is in charge. Realize we are just here for the ride and don’t be upset if the weather upsets your plans.

Buy a Big Phone Charger Block Thingie

One of the most stressful parts of my new life is not knowing where my next charge will come from. I mean, I don’t wake up at home in the morning and go to any one desk in any one office for the next 9 hours and then come home to my home.  If there’s one thing I wish I had purchased, it’s one of these big charger block thingies.

Tell People Where You Are

I’ve been surprised over the last few months by the invitations…people I never knew were on the road, wanting me to join them as long as I’m “in the neighborhood.” I haven’t been able to to take up most invitations…non-refundable hotels, visa timing issues, the need for plane ticket, my 40 kg of luggage, WORK…but it’s nice to know people want to see me. And they wouldn’t know that without social media.

Wear a FitBit

My FitBit hasn’t left my wrist since September. I love it. It tracks my steps (pretty good about the 10,000 steps a day except for over New Year’s when I’ve been both slothy and tied to my lapotop) and my sleep (generally, 7 hours a night although I know I feel best at 7 hours 40 minutes from previous experiments) and my cardio (about 45 minutes a day). My FitBit is like my friend. Sometimes I’m like, “OK, let’s take you out for a walk. I’d like to hit 12,000 today mister.”

BE KIND!!

This is perhaps my biggest observation/takeaway/advice for anyone considering becoming a digital nomad. And it’s just good life advice in general. Be kind to people. Everyone will be better off for it. Even when I am having a bad day, I take a deep breath and think “Be kind. Be kind. Be kind.” And I put a big smile on my face and ask for whatever it is that I want or whatever it is that I want to complain about. It works 80% of the time and my expectations are exceeded. It also, uh, helps everyone in your hotel know your name. Which generally is a good thing

Summary of Becoming a Digital Nomad

Thank you for reading my tips for becoming a digital nomad. I hope you found them helpful. Please let me know if you have any others.  I am always looking to learn!

You Might Also Enjoy

• Becoming a Digital Nomad: Tips from Other Nomads
• Don’t be Scared to Travel Alone
• My Long-Term Travel Packing List

The post On Becoming a #DigitalNomad: Tips, Advice, and Reflections after 4 Months on The Road first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

How to Chose the Best VPN for Shanghai China

The Best VPN for Shanghai, China

Back in October, I spent an entire month in China. I started in Shanghai and then visited Suzhou, took a cruise down the Yangtze River, spent an enjoyable few days in Chongqing, ate all the spicy food in Chengdu, and then headed up to Xi’an to see the Terracotta Warriors. It was an amazing trip and I really love China. But the one problem I had was finding the best VPN for China and especially the best VPN for Shanghai, where I spent most of my time. What I’ve learned about China is that the internet is different everywhere…depending on what city I was in and what internet network I was connected to, sometimes I got Gmail, sometimes I didn’t. Sometimes I could access Facebook, sometimes I couldn’t. To be fair, most of the time I couldn’t access anything, but other times, something would slip through and I would be pleasantly surprised, like in Chengdu where all of a sudden, Facebook worked for me over my hotel internet.

Consistently though, I could not access anything in Shanghai.

Luckily though, I had come to China prepared. I had been to Shanghai before and knew that I would need a VPN in Shanghai to access my work email (which is based on Gmail) along with Slack (!), Facebook, and horror or horrors, The New York Times, which I have been addicted to since I was in high school. I even knew that one VPN in Shanghai might not be enough. Internet access is a cat-and-mouse game between VPN providers and the government, so I planned ahead and before my trip, I invested time in finding the best VPN for Shanghai.

Selecting the Best VPN for Shanghai

I have been a long-time user of NordVPN so before I left for China, I made sure my subscription was current and also made sure I had it installed on all my devices…my main iPhone, my unlocked iPhone, my desktop computer, and my Amazon fire table. I also made sure that I was logged in on all devices before I entered China. Lastly, I carefully read NordVPN’s instructions on how to use NordVPN in China. One thing that was a little unclear was whether NordVPN would only work on my desktop computer in China, which would significantly cramp my style because in Shanghai, I needed to rely on things like Google Maps and Google Translate. And of course, my work email. (Note: As I detail in my post about recommendations for Shanghai, I’ve since learned that Google Maps is useless in China and hasn’t been updated in years.)

Everything that I was reading about NordVPN was making me a little nervous, so I decided to add Express VPN to my arsenal. I did the same thing I did with NordVPN…I installed Express VPN on all my devices and made sure I was logged in to everything before I left for China. (If you do not do this before you leave, good luck trying to do it within China.) I also made sure I read Express VPN’s own description of their VPN in China.  One thing that stuck out to me here was to always make sure I had the latest version of Express VPN so honestly right before my flight left for Shanghai, I was updating all my apps in Krabi airport! Lastly, I made a note of the support email address in case I needed to email them directly. (Another tip: because Gmail won’t work, make sure you have a backup email account like Yahoo or something that will work. You may even want to make this the primary email account attached to your VPN account so you can easily contact support if necessary and they believe you are who you say you are.)

Please note that I recommend paid subscriptions. There are free VPNs out there but whether they have the resources to keep up with the Great Firewall is unclear. I think a few dollars month for Express VPN is a small price to pay for internet access!

Working with Your VPN in Shanghai and China

I had two iPhones, one with a UK SIM and one unlocked with a local Chinese SIM. Oddly, even though they both would be on the same wifi network, at times, my VPN would work on one phone but not the other. A lot of VPNs have “suggested locations” for you to use when you are in China, and I would sometimes find that “Singapore” (for example) worked fine on one phone but not the other. It was very odd and I did not spend enough time researching it, BUT I was glad I had brought two phones because I think I would have gone crazy otherwise.

Sites that are Blocked in China

This may differ depending on your location but here is everything I found that was blocked in China. I need a VPN to access all these sites:

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Slack, The New York Times, Gmail (even when it’s a hosted corporate account with a different domain name), Google along with all Google properties (Maps, Translate), Reddit, Whatsapp, Wikipedia

Don’t Panic When Your VPN is Blocked in China

One afternoon in Shanghai, I lost hours when I realized that although I could use my VPN on my phones, it had stopped working on my laptop. This was a problem in that I had about 200 emails to respond to and doing all this work on my phones just wasn’t going to cut it. I contacted Express VPN who explained that the government had blocked their apps but that they had released new ones which solved the problem. I was able to quickly update these on my phones no problem but updating Express VPN on my desktop was a much more manual process and required getting a special link from Express VPN to download the updated software. Express VPN support was amazing and helped me through it, but it is about four hours of my life that I would like to get back.

Best VPN for Shanghai: ExpressVPN or NordVPN?

I tried both and found that ExpressVPN worked 85% to 90% of the time, whereas NordVPN only worked about 50% of the time. To be fair to NordVPN, once I ran into trouble the first few days, I just stopped using it and would always check ExpressVPN first. So I probably didn’t give NordVPN a fair shake in China. But when something doesn’t work, how much time would you spend trying to get it to work? Not much…

Note ExpressVPN says you can only connect up to three devices. I had it on four devices and it seemed to work on all of them so I’m not sure if they mean three simultaneous connections or what.

In short, in my opinion, the best VPN for China and the best VPN for Shanghai is ExpressVPN.

My Top Tips for Using a VPN in Shanghai

1. Consider using a Yahoo or Hotmail email address for your VPN accounts as they are not blocked by China and this will make it easier to work with the VPN in case you have problems behind the Great Firewall and need to reset your password or contact support.
2. Register, pay for, and download/install at least one if not two VPNs BEFORE YOU ENTER CHINA. Per the above, I definitely recommend Express VPN as one of them. I also think if you really rely on the Internet for a living, you should make sure you have a backup VPN as well.
3. Log into your VPNs on ALL your devices before you enter China. Make sure you know the passwords because if you get locked out, you will run into problems and may not even be able to get to the login screen.
4. Make sure your VPN apps and desktop apps are entirely up to date before you enter China. It’s possible that the government may suddenly block older versions and then you’ll be locked out while you try to get a new version from your VPN provider.
5. Write down the support email addresses of your VPNs before you enter China, just in case you need to contact them. Remember, you may need to email them from a non-Gmail account so hopefully you have other email address options.

Summary of Choosing the Best VPN for Shanghai

I hope you’ve found my advice for selecting the best VPN for Shanghai and China helpful. If you have any experience to share, please do so in the comments. I’d love to hear any tips or advice you might have.

You Might Also Enjoy

• Where to Stay in Shanghai: The Best Hotels in the Best Neighborhoods
• My App Recommendations & Advice for Shanghai
• My Favorite Travel Websites

The post Choosing the Best VPN for Shanghai, China first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Skype in Oman with NordVPN

Skype, Facetime & Whatsapp in Oman Summary

Here’s the TLDR version…

Does Skype work in Oman? How about Facetime in Oman? Whatsapp calls?

Nope. None of them will work.

Without a VPN, you cannot use Skype in Oman or Facetime in Oman. Or Whatsapp calls. (Whatsapp messaging should be okay.) To solve this, download NordVPN before you visit Oman! And if NordVPN doesn’t work in Oman, try ExpressVPN.

Note this article covers Oman specifically but you’ll find that NordVPN and ExpressVPN will work in other places like the UAE, Qatar and Jordan too!

Background: Trying to Use Skype in Oman

If you’ve been to China, you’re familiar with the “Great Firewall,” which prevents you from accessing the Internet and websites like Facebook without a VPN. (Wikipedia has a handy list of all the websites that are blocked in China in case you are interested.)  I can live without Facebook (really I can), but I cannot live without Skype. I depend on Skype calls to make my living, so during my recent trip to Oman, I was in a panic. If I couldn’t use Skype in Oman on my laptop or my iPhone, my clients would suffer and I would also suffer financially. Nobody wants to suffer financially, especially me. 😉

I tried all the conference line services that I use (all, coincidentally, VoIP) and none of them had local numbers in Oman, so I needed something that would let me dial the US and UK from Oman easily and cheaply. My hotel was no help whatsoever. All they could tell me was that yes, Skype was blocked in Oman and I wouldn’t be able to make calls. Then I checked Facetime and Whatsapp calls and they were blocked too. Frustrating!

Finding a VPN for Oman

The answer was clear: Any of my normal work tools would require using a VPN in Oman — basically, I needed to trick Skype into thinking I was in the UK or the US. But which VPN to choose? I asked a couple of friends for recommendations and then I was an idiot and did nothing before my flight to Muscat. (Don’t be like Krista. If you’re visiting a country like Oman where the internet is blocked, sign up and pay for a VPN before you leave! Set it up, log in and test it out too! Make sure you set it up on both your phone and your laptop as I’ve learned the configurations can be different for both. As an additional tip, right down the support email address and keep it in a safe place in case you are TOTALLY blocked and need to contact your provider for help.)

So I arrived in Oman and got a SIM card for my 2nd iPhone, so that was good. This was a very easy transaction at the Muscat airport. The SIM card worked immediately, which is faster than it has in other countries like Thailand and Malaysia where you have to wait for the card to be activated. I was immediately online and followed Google maps as my taxi made its way to my hotel.  BUT…having a data package wasn’t going to help me if I still couldn’t use Skype in Oman or make any other sort of VoIP calls (Voice over IP) with Facetime, Whatsapp or similar.

I tried downloading the VPN services my friends had recommended once I was in my hotel room in Muscat, but — surprise — their websites were already blocked in Oman. I couldn’t even get to the websites. Then I remembered some ads I had seen for NordVPN while I was doing my research before my trip.

What is a VPN?

A VPN is a “virtual private network.” It lets you protect your internet activity — both by making it more secure and making it more anonymous. It’s good to have a VPN if you frequently use unsecured wireless hotspots or if you travel to parts of the world like Oman and China where certain internet sites are banned or blocked.

How to Skype in Oman

Luckily, NordVPN’s website wasn’t blocked in Oman (yet) so I was able to sign up and download the VPN service, both to my iPhone and to my laptop, where I do the majority of my Skype calls from.

I fired up NordVPN and it worked a treat. First, I told NordVPN I was in Ireland. Perfect. Then for fun, I tried Germany. (I don’t recommend choosing Germany unless you can read German because then whenever I tried Google’ing anything, die Resultaten waren auf Deutsch.) These choices tricked Skype into thinking that I was *not* in Oman.

I found the NordVPN interface super easy to use on both my laptop and my iPhone. NordVPN also helped me later in the weekend when a client wanted to call me on Whatsapp. Although Whatsapp messaging worked fine in Oman, Oman has banned all Whatsapp VoIP calls so again I had to start up the VPN and it worked perfectly. Then I called my mom on Facetime! Amazingly, I was able to unblock Skype, Whatsapp calls, and Facetime! I made everything work!

Using a VPN in Oman had other benefits as well which I didn’t realize until after the fact. Whenever you are using free hotel wifi, you are vulnerable to hacks. Using a VPN while you’re surfing lessens the possibility of those attacks and also prevents people or organizations from monitoring your Internet usage. (See the comments from my friend Rich in the comments below.)

Wireless Headset I Recommend for Skype in Oman

I highly recommend this wireless headset for your Skype calls. However, you might find it easier to travel with a wired headset and if that’s the case, I recommend this one.

Why Does Oman Block Skype, Facetime, Whatsapp Calls and Other VoIP Services?

If you’re curious why Skype, Facetime, Whatsapp calls and similar services are blocked in Oman, apparently it has more to do with preserving the profits of local telecoms than anything else. Actually, it may only be one telecom…Omnatel.

NordVPN…The Best VPN for Oman: Skype, Facetime, & Whatsapp 

If you travel a lot like I do and often find yourself in countries like Oman where Skype, Facetime, Whatsapp, Facebook, YouTube and other VoIP and Internet services are blocked, I highly recommend using a VPN and accessing these sites by proxy! My personal experience with NordVPN was highly positive and I highly recommend it as the best VPN for Oman. Perhaps the only downside was that it took ages to download it on my laptop because the file was 20 MB and my internet connection in Oman was a max of 10 Mbps. But that was a small price to pay for connectivity and if I had set this up before I left London, I wouldn’t have experienced any problems. For me, the best VPN for Skype in Oman is  NordVPN. Sign up for NordVPN here.

ExpressVPN: A Great Backup VPN for Skype, Facetime & Whatsapp in Oman

If you are having trouble getting to NordVPN, try ExpressVPN. While I have not used ExpressVPN in Oman, I used it extensively in China and have nothing but good things to say about it.

Which Other Countries Countries Block Skype, Facetime, and Whatsapp?

Skype and similar VoIP services are also blocked in Guyana, Kuwait, Libya, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, Syria and the UAE. Skype is also sometimes blocked in Belize, Brazil, China, Cuba, Egypt, Iran, Jordan (including Amman), Mexico, Myanmar, Pakistan, Panama, Tunisia, Vietnam, Russia, and Venezuela.

So…Can You Use Skype in Oman and Other Places Like Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE in 2018?

With NordVPN, the best VPN for Oman, you can! 😉 (Or ExpressVPN, just in case!)

Note: I hadn’t planned on writing a post about NordVPN until I couldn’t use Skype in Oman. This VPN unblocked Skype for me and seriously saved my ability to get work done. This is an honest review and not a sponsored post, but because I am now such a fan of NordVPN now, this post contains affiliate links. 

Pin It for Later!

Book an Oman Tour

The post How to Use Skype, Facetime, and Whatsapp in Oman first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Last night, after I got home from dinner with A Girl Has to Eat, I checked Twitter and saw this tweet from the lovely James Ramsden, one of the proprietors of Hackney’s Pidgin

The great thing about 10 no-shows at a 28-seat restaurant is you’ve got space for walk-ins from the rain on this quiet street. Oh.

— James Ramsden (@JamesRamsden_) August 29, 2015

What is wrong with people?? When I need to cancel a reservation, I cancel a reservation. I can think of two times in my (relatively long) life where I haven’t done this:

1. When I had food poisoning and skipped a massage at Kobkhun Thai on the Essex Road because well, you don’t even want to know. It was a dark four days in my life and I never want to ever have food poisoning ever, ever again.
2. When I skipped a business appointment because I was in recovery from a very, very bad, bad bad email mistake that I will tell you about one day over cocktails.

I think James’ tweet says it all. Last minute cancellations and/or no-shows are a challenge for the restaurant industry, particularly if you don’t take credit cards or tickets before a booking. The rent is too damn high, my friends, to allow for no shows.  (Sorry, I’ve always loved the Rent is Too Damn High guy. I think he’s right!)

There is a partial solution for the industry. My friend Ollie told me about  Uncover, the last minute dinner reservations app, during my 50 coffees with 50 people experiment. (The experiment is temporarily on hiatus in August but more to come soon, I promise).  Through my own research, here’s what I understand about how Uncover works:

1. Uncover curates a highly selective list of cool places.
2. Restaurants on the list let Uncover know when they have last minute cancellations or  no-shows.
3. You make your same-day or next-day reservation through the app.

Uncover invited me to try the app in return for a £50 credit at the restaurant of my choosing. A Girl Has to Eat and I already had plans to meet up and wanted an early dinner, so I checked out what was available centrally. Antidote in Soho had a table for two available at 6:30 so I pounced on that and we I ate and drank our way through our £50 of the menu. (This is a bit of a lie because A Girl Has to Eat held herself to one glass or sparkling rose. I had that and another glass of wine, which was an eye-watering £13 for a 175 ml glass.)

The Uncover app is very easy to use and the restaurants available are definitely some of the nicer, hipper and more happening places. I am just doing a quick flip through right now as I write this and there are tables available at The Opera Tavern, Fera at Claridges, Locanda Locatelli, Coya, and one of my personal favorites, Rex & Mariano.

If I had any criticism, it’s that the app doesn’t let you have two bookings on the same night. I had this crazy idea to do a progressive — starters at Antidote and mains at Duck & Rice — and Uncover just wasn’t handling it. I guess that makes sense to me and my idea was more of an “advanced” one, but apps like Uncover make progressives so very very possible so why not let people do it? (Maybe require that there be two hours between bookings or something like that.) Progressive dinners, my friends, are the future.Why not let me spend more at more restaurants in the same night??

The PR for Uncover encouraged us to pay with the app — there’s a new payment facility — but from what I can tell, it’s fairly limited right now so we didn’t have a chance to try it out.

All in all, if Uncover can help the restaurant industry recover bookings and revenue lost through no-shows and last minute cancellations, it’s a very good thing. You should download the app and check it out. At the very least, it’s a very well curated list of establishments so it will help you separate the wheat from the chaff when you’re looking for a great night out. Uncover is currently offering £10 off your bill if you book a restaurant with the app and send them a photo of your receipt. Give it a shot.

Download Uncover
Get £10 off your bill

Disclosure: Per the above, I received a £50 credit towards my meal at Antidote in return for writing about the app. I love writing about technology and hope to do some more app reviews in the future. Any suggestions would be very welcome. 

The post Last Minute London Lunch/Dinner Reservations with the Uncover App first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

I am loving the foil water container I got at TBEX in Vancouver. 500 ml and such a better value than buying water in the airport.

Also love my Tylenol PM and doing an Airborne before and after a flight to combat any and all germs.

What’s in YOUR carry-on? And have I forgotten anything? (Besides the power cords of course.)

The post What’s in My Carry-On first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Am hoping to finish a roll today and then send it off to be developed so watch this space for the results!

The post The Holga Camera: My New Toy first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

Apple TV

Sometimes you fall in love with things you don’t expect to. I never really wanted to fall in love with any Apple products. I spent too much time in college sitting in front of dinky Macs at the university newspaper, struggling to get QuarkXPress to do what I wanted it to do. I’ve physically and verbally abused a lot of Macs in my time.

But then I got an iPhone. And I loved it. (Although I HATE Vodafone UK for holding me hostage to my UK contract even though I don’t live in the UK anymore. But that’s another story.) And then I got an iPad, and I fell in love with it too. And I started to think that maybe these Apple folks were on to something.

This past weekend, I bought Apple TV. And I’m in love with Apple again. Call me a convert.

If you don’t know what Apple TV is, it’s this little box you see in the picture above. It seriously will fit in the palm of your hand. And it connects to your wireless network. And then it lets you stream all these great things through your TV.

Apple TV on the TV

So I can watch movies from iTunes, or maybe buy one off of Netflix. I can buy and watch TV shows. I can have a YouTube party. Or I can play all my music through my home stereo system by connecting to my iTunes library. Wirelessly. It’s awesome. I might never leave the house.

The only downside to Apple TV is the size of the remote, which I kept losing. Until I came up with my latest invention.

Apple TV Remote Control Holder

Ingenious, isn’t it? And so handy if you’re thirsty too.

Apple TV can be purchased for $97.99 from Amazon.com. In the UK, you can also buy Apple TV from Amazon (prices start at £100.06) but you’ll need to review the different vendors on Amazon and pick the shipping option that works for you. Really, you should go out and buy it. You can have a lot of fun with it for just $100/£100. (Scary though that the UK box costs $155 though, huh? I wonder if you bought a US box if it would work in the UK?)

The post I Love My Apple TV first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.

This is not a food-related post by any means. But if you’re a blogger or Internet afficiando of any sort, it’s an important post nonetheless. Because it’s about the Internet and what to do when you don’t have access in America. I will cut right to the chase and tell you now: the answer is the Virgin Mobile MiFi.

But here’s how we met. I flew in from London Friday night (i.e. yesterday) and got to my temporary apartment around 8 pm. I stayed in the same building last month, and I had a T1 line, which was awesome.

Not so with this flat.

Despite looking and looking and looking, this new flat had NO INTERNET ACCESS AT ALL. AT ALL. (Thank you, Bridgestreet. Thank you. Yes, I’m looking at you.)I even looked around to see if there were any random unsecured access points and NO LUCk.

If you know me at all, this is a problem. Big time. While others might be able to live off their local Internet cafe or Starbucks, I need all access, all the time. For all devices. (Work laptop, personal laptop, iPhone, iPad.)

Thank you to Facebook and The New York Times. I posted my desperate plight on Facebook late Friday night, and by the time I woke from my jetlag coma, a friend had suggested I check out the Virgin MiFi. (Courtesy of a very recent article praising the Mifi in The New York Times.) The Virgin MiFi doesn’t require an annual contract or a credit check. I basically walked into BestBuy, walked out, and was online less than an hour later.

And even better? I’ve got all my other devices attached to it. Wirelessly. Seriously, all this is done by this one tiny credit card-like device. And what does it cost? Well the Virgin MiFi itself is $150, but after that, UNLIMITED Internet is just $40 a month. And if you don’t need the MiFi next month, you don’t pay for it.

The only downside right now is that I’m staying in a rather large hi-rise at the moment, and I think there are a lot of people with their own hot spots going on (the USB drive sorts of hotspots–not the supercool up-to-five devices-wireless-cards sorts of hotspots). This means that speeds are awesome in the middle of the night when no one is awake but my jetlagged self, but come 9 am, speed slows to a crawl. (Think Steve Jobs, iPhone 4 launch catastrophe.)

This all reads quite like an advertorial for the Virgin MiFi, but if you could only imagine me at 8 pm last night, faced with the prospect of a few weeks without home Internet, you’d understand. Thank you, Virgin. Thank you Facebook. Thank you, David Pogue of the New York Times.

The post Virgin Mobile MiFi, My New Best Friend first appeared on Passport Delicious | Solo Travel Blog | Solo Female Travel.