News and Views From my kids accomplishments, to my heretical perspective of the world

Previously when traveling internationally we have had to get SIM cards for our phones in each country we visited. Typically it goes like this: You arrive in the country and unless you find open WiFi, your phone is pretty much useless. As soon as possible, hopefully within a day, you find a phone store and buy a SIM card and data plan. Once you get set up, you can use your phone in the country, but calling back to the US is generally quite expensive.

Before our recent trip, I switched to Google Project Fi, and set Gisele up with T-Mobile’s Simple Choice plan. Both of these plans include international service in over 140 countries. It was great. As soon as we landed at the airport, we turned the phones on and usually before we arrived at the gate we had service. This worked in Hong Kong, Sydney, Singapore and Taiwan (and Canada a couple of months ago).

In some countries you can buy a SIM and service for cheaper than we paid for T-Mobile, but the convenience was well worth the few dollars we would have saved (besides, to take advantage of that savings we would have had to cancel our domestic phone service at the start of the trip and reinstated after we returned). Being able to simply use the phones wherever we went was really nice.

The main drawback is that data is limited to about 128 kb/s on Simple Choice when out of the US (I get 256 kb/s with Project Fi). That’s too slow to stream video, but for email, WhatsApp and simple web browsing it is fine. We also noticed that when calling each other there was a very long lag that sometimes led to confusion, until we started talking through WhatsApp’s phone service. It might be that the normal phone service routes our calls through the USA and back, causing double the normal international lag.

I know that T-Mobile doesn’t have as good of coverage in the US as some of their competitors, but with few exceptions it’s been fine for us. And with their international coverage I can’t imagine us switching unless there is better competition. Anyone who travels out of the country a lot should consider it as an option.

As a side note, T-Mobile has just introduced their unlimited video through Netflix, Sling, Hulu, etc. (not YouTube), which sounds interesting though I haven’t tried it or checked out the details.

We arrived in Taiwan after an unpleasant flight from Sydney. The flights were OK, but the 5-hour layover in Singapore and the 5:30 am arrival were not. And we couldn’t check into the hotel until 2 pm. So we were just hanging out at street markets, until Devon told us he was recording a TV show that morning and asked if we wanted to come watch. So we did, and though we were tired, with a little coffee we enjoyed the event. We got to meet some mid-level Taiwan celebrities (Devon would be considered low level), and watch a show be produced.

Devon is on the far left.

We went out with Devon for dinner after, then the next day we met his latest girlfriend, Mia.

We discovered yesterday that a friend is getting married in Taipei this morning. We know the groom and his parents in Tempe. Unfortunately it is too late to buy a tuxedo and attend, but we will try to meet up with the couple and family while we are here.

Today we are washing clothes in the morning, and probably meeting Devon and maybe Mia in the afternoon. It’s laid-back time in Taipei.

We visited 4 islands, Isle of Pines, Mare, Lifou and the main New Caledonia island. All of the islands belong politically to New Caledonia. Each was larger than the last from the roughly 5 x 7 mile Isle of Pines to the 200 mile-long New Caledonia.

I think Isle of Pines was my favorite, unfortunately the one island that Gisele didn’t get to see since she was sick and quarantined. Though the island is small, the beaches were incredible even with 2000 cruise ship passengers infesting them. I’ve never seen a turquoise to match the colors of the ocean. I’m sure there are Caribbean islands to match, though I’ve only ever seen Barbados and Puerto Rico in the Caribbean and they don’t compare.

Lifou, very similar to beaches on the other islands.

When the cruise ships depart, the population falls to a few hundred and the beaches are mostly deserted. It would be an idyllic place to spend a week or two.

Mare and Lifou were larger versions of the Isle of Pines, with more people, roads and a little more commercialization, but the vendors were all very laid back, waiting for you to come to them rather than calling out or pushing their wares. It was nice.

This lady opened a fresh coconut with a machete, and stuck a straw in it for me to drink. Delicious!

On the big island I did a couple of excursions on my own, since none of the rest of my party wanted to join me. In the morning I took a guided Segway tour through a zoological and botanical garden near the city of Noumea. It was lots of fun, more for the Segway than the biology. The guide didn’t really know much except what she had picked up casually from working there. For example, she called a pea-hen a “female peacock”. But it was still a lot of fun and I did learn a lot. Now I am tempted to buy a Segway, but I really can’t think how I would use it except to go get the mail once a day.

In the afternoon I went on a 6 mile guided bike ride. The European guide actually knew more than the garden guide had that morning, and I learned a lot about life in New Caledonia. It is much more civilized than I had expected with about 250,000 people on the island, and 180,000 of those in the city of Noumea. She made it sound like a true paradise with low crime and a prosperous middle class. She had apparently come to visit a couple of years ago and liked it so much she had settled in.

New Caledonia was apparently part of Australia a few million years ago that broke off and moved north-east. There are similarities of plants and birds, but it’s been long enough that they have diverged evolutionarily to be quite different. I was surprised that there are around 15 species of pine, a tree that I usually associate with mountains and temperate forests rather than the tropics.

The original people of New Caledonia were Melanesian, quite different from the Polynesians of Hawaii and Tahiti. Melanesians are more closely related to the dark skinned Australian aborigines, while the Polynesians are closer to the people of south east Asia and the Philippines. In Noumea the Melanesians are now a minority, though still a plurality, with Europeans coming in second and the rest made up of Polynesians and Asians.

This typical Melanesian drove us around Mare Island in a van.

Now we are on our way back to Sydney, a 2 ½ day sail. Looking out and seeing nothing but water from horizon to horizon for two days gives me some idea of the vastness of the oceans, especially considering that we are only crossing a small corner of the south Pacific. I saw some rain storms not too far away this morning, but unfortunately we didn’t pass through any and it is clearing off now. The captain says the weather should be clear all the way home. I was looking forward to a storm at sea.

From our balcony on the way back to Sydney.

We departed Sydney on Monday evening. It’s now Wednesday afternoon, and we are still sailing north-east on our way to New Caledonia and neighboring islands. We should arrive at the Isle of Pines tomorrow morning, an island named by the famous Captain James Cook because of the pine forests that grow in the islands. There was some rain yesterday, but today is mostly clear, with just a few clouds on the horizon. The sea is very calm; not glassy but very smooth. We can only feel very little rocking of the ship.

Gisele is sick. She woke up vomiting this morning at 3:00am, and went to see the ship’s doctor after they opened at 8:00 am. No fever, BP normal, and they gave her Imodium and anti-nausea medication. She is quarantined to the stateroom for at least 24 hours, though they want her symptom free for that long before they will let her off the ship. They diagnosed a simple “stomach flu”, viral GI infection. Looks like she may miss the Isle of Pines, though she may get released by the afternoon of our visit there if she improves soon.

While boarding the ship, the x-ray scan detected my satellite phone, walky-talkies and Leatherman “multi-tool”, and all were confiscated. After consulting with the captain, all were returned the next day except the satellite phone, which they said could interfere with ship communications. I asked if I could have it back for shore excursions, and they promised to consider it. We’ll see, somehow I’m doubtful that they will have a way to release it to me, and then ensure it gets back when I reboard.

*Update: They did release the satellite phone to me each time I went ashore, and I was able to use it a few times for phone calls and emails.