Four days ago I arrived in Australia, after my final flight on a 39 day round the world trip. While things did not go anything like what I planned, I did manage to get through reasonably well. Phone was not such as big of an issue, while internet did have a bit more of a challenge but did not end up being such an issue.
When it came to mobile phone access. I found that I really did not need anything special with one exception. Just having my Australian Mobile on international roaming was really all I needed. What the main thing I had to remember was that it did cost more to use. Which really is not a difficult thing to do. All up for the 5 weeks I think it came in at something around $20, as I was able to avoid making or receiving phone calls while overseas. The primary use for this mobile was SMS messages, even at a cost of 75 cents this was not overaly expensive.
The one exception where I did need a phone really was in Las Vegas. As I was attending a workshop here and needed to get in touch with people, for group meet-up’s and such having a phone here was it seemed essential. Due to the cost of my Australian Mobile and it being locked to the provider, i figure it would not be a problem to buy a phone. This is where I was right, You can literally buy a phone in the US relatively cheaply, as long as you do not expect anything to outstanding in the phone you will be happy enough. $20 got me a phone which included $15 credit on the phone, and I added another $25 to this.
When it came to internet access this was a whole other story though. This was a much more expensive area then I imagined. While I had really wanted to find hotels which included the internet access, this was not really that easy to do, with only one of the hotels I stayed in having free Wifi internet access. Costs and ease of access did vary from city to city though.For the majority of stops the primary option was $14 a night in the hotel, or the equivalent in local Currency.
While I did attempt to avoid the expensive option in hotels I did need to make use of it on a number of nights. One night in Vancouver more so for convenience and 2 nights in Hong Kong. This was not really a big issue, as for the most part I was able to find alternatives to get me through. InVancouver this came down to making use of Starbucks free wifi. In Las Vegas it was again to find a cafe which offered free wifi. Both of these options just meant simply buying a coffee or something. In England was potentially the best option which was where I choose to stay in Travelodge hotels. Being that this was a 7 day stop, even though I was at different hotels each night, I was able to sign up for a 7 day account for 20 British Pounds, which got me access to the internet at every over night stop.
At the end of the day it did come down to working a little harder on getting access and maintaining access, however I did manage to post a update on my blog www.joelbrown.com.au pretty much every day with exception on the days around the workshop I attended. So I would in general call this a success.