Why I love the Internet
Sometimes I forget just how cool the Internet is!
11pm Thursday night: Wife and I are sick of being cold (apartment at 14C-57F) decide to book trip if possible to some place warm (yes I know...cold is relative and remember we lived in Saudi Arabia before here).
7:45am Friday: E-mail travel agent looking for any last minute deals to "someplace warm"
8:00: Start up Google Earth and start tracking Mother-in-Law's flight.
8:15: Agent e-mails back with a flight to Siem Reap, Cambodia only problem is flight from Shanghai to Bangkok is fully booked. (Saturday is the first day of Chinese New Year so flights fill up fast). I e-mail her back passport and names of the three of us. If the seats come open we go.
9:30: Agent e-mails back with confirmed seats for all 3 of us.
10:30: Agree to meet deliver guy at my apartment at 5pm to pay for and get tickets (total 3 e-mails).
11:30: Start e-mailing friends in the school who have been to Cambodia
- Get recommendation for a hotel
- Get a guide book from a friend who borrowed from a friend (if guide books were music files we'd be in trouble).
- Learn we need a Visa but can be bought at the airport when we arrive
- Learn we need to take a passport picture for the Visa
- Learn to take a lot of USD because you can't trust the ATM machines
1:00: Wife e-mails me to say that hotel is confirmed and will pick us up at the airport when we arrive.
3:00: Check weather report for Siem Reap 90F/32C
4:00: Snowing really hard and starting to stick.
5:00: Arrive home to find the ticket deliver guy waiting for me. Plugs in his wireless credit card reader and swipes my international credit card. Within 10 minutes the transactions done and tickets are in hand.
6:00: Check the status of Mother-in-Law's flight. Do to get in at 6:17. Text wife the new arrival time.
6:44: Wife texts to say that she "Has Target in Site" as she watches her mom head to baggage claim.
7:15: Wife texts to say they are in a taxi and on their way home.
7:30: There's about an inch of snow on the deck and this is looking better by the second!
What's the lesson here?
(Other than I'm going to enjoy 4 days in the sun!)
[tags]vacation[/tags]