Volunteer Abroad

There are many different websites with opportunities to volunteer abroad.  Here are a couple of the better ones.  Hopefully this can turn into a long list.

Volunteer Abroad – www.volunteerabroad.com

Volunteer Abroad is a popular website listing opportunities to volunteer abroad with organizations around the world. It lists a variety of opportunities abroad other than just volunteering, such as internships, scholarships, studying and eco-adventures. It is a pretty useful site worth taking the time to explore if you are interested in going abroad but not simply as a tourist.

Idealist – www.idealist.org

Idealist is one of the longest established websites listing opportunities to volunteer or work with progressive non-profit organizations in your home country or abroad.

Ever feel ripped off when booking flights online?

Have you ever looked at sites online to book an airline ticket in Europe, yet not been able to find the great fares quoted? Ryanair is particularly notorious for advertising low price fares for which there are in reality very few seats available.

Well, the European Union’s Consumer Commissioner has taken notice too. Check out this article from the British newspaper the Independent:

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/one-in-three-people-buying–flights-online-is-ripped-off-825410.html

One in three people buying flights online ‘is ripped off’

Consumers are being ripped off, deliberately confused and misled by the websites of leading airlines, a report for the European Commission has found.

A survey of 386 websites in 13 European countries discovered that just under a third were breaking the law, either by concealing charges or misleading the public with promotional offers that were not in fact obtainable.

The European Commission is taking enforcement action against 137 of the websites. Ryanair, Austrian Airlines and the Finnish airline Blue 1 were among the offenders, according to Swedish and Norwegian authorities, while third parties such as tour operators and travel agents also came under fire.

In total the websites are administered by 80 companies, which have 12 months to demonstrate their compliance with trading regulations or face hefty fines and even closure.

Fifty-eight per cent of them discreetly added extra charges that were not included in advertisements, such as booking fees, “airport charges”, or fees relating to credit card payment, priority booking, luggage and fuel. Forty-nine per cent of the illegal websites broke regulations relating to pre-checked boxes on booking forms which required consumers to specifically decline a service in order to avoid extra charges.

The other main problem was the lack of seats available at the fares seen on advertisements.

Meglena Kuneva, the EU’s Consumer Commissioner, said that despite repeated warnings, many airlines had refused to improve their online operation. “It is unacceptable that one in three consumers going to book a plane ticket online is being ripped off or misled and confused,” she said.

Kensington pocket-sized power adapter for go-anywhere convenience.

Earlier this year I bought a Kensington all-purpose travel adapter. It sounded like a good idea. It supposedly would act as an adapter for all the different plug-ins I deal with in my travel: American, British and European models. It would supposedly be able to receive plugs from each type, which is great as I have electronics bought in the American, British and European models. It would supposedly also be able to fit in each of the three wall plug-ins. It would allow me to leave behind the myriad of different adapters I would carry around with me, including the frustrating Italian model for a country where the prongs of the plug on the sockets of the plug-in are slightly smaller than the standard European model, requiring a separate adapter.

I made a mistake. I took off on a trip without my old adapters, without having first tested out the Kensington adapter. It turned out to have a major flaw. Its sockets were too small for the round prongs of my European plugs and also for the third round prong for my American model laptop plug. This meant I could not use the Kensington model for either my laptop or my travel iron, two of the most important electronic devices I travel with. This made the adapter essentially worthless, while I was left scrambling looking for adapters in each country I visited on my trip. This was annoying because it was a lot of work to find the adapters in some cities, taking up time I did not need to loose while traveling and would not have had I not bought the Kensington plug.

So while it is a good idea, I give the Kensington adapter a failing grade for both not working and the inconvenience it caused me on my recent business trip. Hopefully a better model will come along. I also wasted $35 on it, more than the cost of all my other adapters, which I also had to then buy back again while traveling.

The top picture is of the Kensington adapter from the side. The bottom picture was the horror of my laptop plug being stuck in the sockets of the Kensington adapter, which actually bent the third prong of my laptop plug. Fortunately I was able to extract it without further damage.

Air Canada endurance run … HMS Host battle

The rest of the account of the trip from London to New York, stuck on my stopover at Pearson Airport in Toronto …

As my trip was now delayed by close to four hours, I arrived into Pearson Airport, Toronto, the same time my connecting flight was originally to have arrived at New York. The problem for me was that I was in transit I could not contact the person who was picking me up (my “ride”) in New York, and by the time we got into Pearson they were already waiting for me at the airport in New York. I did try to ask Air Canada staff if they could contact their colleagues at New York’s La Guardia airport to convey this information for me to my “ride.”

The Air Canada personnel would not help me while I did not have a cell phone number for my ride. Several Air Canada personnel try to claim that my ride could simply ask at La Guardia I was on the airplane or not. That was a ridiculous suggestion probably meant just to shut me up, hoping I was foolish enough to believe it. For security reasons and personal privacy, NO airline will supply information of who is arriving on their flights.

In the end I was around 4 hours late to La Guardia. I found my ride sitting and reading a magazine, having spent the entire time waiting for me, hoping I would be on the next Air Canada flight in from Toronto. We were supposed to have had a meeting that evening to prepare for an event the following evening, which unfortunately we could not carry-out. She was an one hour drive from home so it made more sense to wait for me than to return home, hoping I would be on the next flight. Thankfully for her, I was, but it was close. A problem at Pearson almost cost me another delay.

In order to help kill time in a trans-Atlantic trip that was turning into a minor nightmare of stress, exhaustion, delays and simple endurance, I saw there was an ice hockey game being shown on a big screen at a pub/restaurant called the HMS Host. I thought I could finally relax for a bit, waiting for my next flight. It turned out to be far from that.

The HMS Host turned out to be understaffed and poorly staffed, with highly confrontational waiters. After a slightly long delay waiting for a hostess to seat me, a young lady appeared to seat me. I had 30 minutes to kill until boarding, meaning in the worst case scenario 40 – 45 minutes or else I would be in danger of missing my plane. My departure gate was just 3 minutes away.

I sat and waited some time, over 10 minutes, with an empty table and no waiters coming near. I was actually quite hungry after all of this flying, and did not know when my next meal would come. However, at this point I knew it was impossible to order even anything quick. In fact the lady sitting next to me said it would be “good luck” if I actually got served by a waiter. They were completely ignoring our section. The lady next to me suggested flagging down the hostess, to was the only staff person appearing anywhere near us.

Probably I should have enjoyed the chance to just sit and watch the game. It would have been nice to have something to drink while watching it, but I also would have been unhappy if after 20 minutes a waiter finally appeared and I would have to guzzle it down in 10. I decided to flag down the hostess for her help in ordering a drink, which she did. It was then a few minutes afterwards that the waiter finally appeared, quite unhappy that he had been rushed over to me. He asked for my order, rudely. I asked why I had to order again, and he simply repeated himself. “Luis,” the name on his name tag, was quite upset with me. It was not a promising start to our relationships.

I simply repeated what I had ordered, with no idea to the price, and hoped that I would not be served two drinks out of this process. As the waiter already appeared confrontational, I could only imagine that would make matters worse if I had to refuse a second drink.

I made a mistake. I should have realized that with such service, I would have to pay up-front so as not to be delayed in my departure to my plane. It this point I was extremely exhausted though as I was 7 time zones out of sync, and had spent nearly 20 hours in planes and airports at this point. I was not at my quickest and it was now 2:30 am London time.

Over the proceeding 15 – 20 minutes I grew more nervous as time went by, with how to pay my bill. Heck, I did not even know to whom or how to find the staff. I was also pretty unhappy with the service at this point. I was watching as other customers got slowly seated and, with perplexed looks, dealt with the lack of service. One pair of ladies sitting a table away from me, who with time look more and more unimpressed, decided to pick up and leave after 15 minutes without a waiter coming to visit them. I wanted to do the same, as my plane would not be getting ready to board.

Not sure what to do, I made obvious motions packing up to leave, hoping that someone would come to take my bill. No one did. I was not getting into the critical stage of when my plane would be boarding. I was not going to miss my plane, after my day’s travel ordeal, just because my waiter did not want to serve me. I left hoping someone would see me in the process.

No one did. I saw that my plane was boarding. I started to hurry off for it when I heard finally someone chasing off after me. He was scolding me out loud for leaving without paying; I’m not sure if he realized my plane was boarding ahead.

I was not happy with his attitude still, but I thought there would not be a problem. I had $10 Canadian in my pocket so I could pay him. The bill though was $13 for a single beer! I was shocked by the price, I would not have ordered at that cost, but that also meant I did not have enough money to pay him off hand. Meanwhile he was threatening me with security.

I was really stuck in a hard place because it was crucial I caught this flight to New York, and would have been to say the least upset to have missed it because of $3. I hurried back to the HMS Host to pay my bill by card. Well, as it turned out I could not either pay with my Canadian Debit card, which is almost unheard of in a country were some people have quit carrying cash, paying for everything by debit.

At least I had my credit card on me. Meanwhile through all this I was having to put up with Luis scolding me loudly for not paying, perhaps his way of overcompensating for his own fault of inattentiveness in this situation, telling me about how in “this country we have to pay.” I was to say the least, while my plane was boarding through this, not in the best of moods. I needed him to shut up and hurry-up. I responded to his behavior by loudly and repeatedly telling him to “hurry up” and be “faster.”

It was at this point that his colleague We’id (this is the name I saw on the other waiter’s name tag, though it seems strange) said that Luis should call security on me. I was at this point livid, but had the bigger picture to worry about. I had to be in New York for a fundraiser the next day for a humanitarian medical relief project I was helping to organize. It was to say the least much more important than such a petty situation. It did not help though, We’id quickly just said he was going to call security.

Finally Luis finished processing my credit card. I paid and hurried away, as I was sitting around the 40 minute market from when I originally started this testing experience. Really, what was happening was that there were probably not enough staff for some reason that evening, an airport is a very busy place and the staff were probably overstretched. Luis was probably in his 40s and a Hispanic immigrant, so this was probably not the most ideal job. I decided I did not want to make his life that much worse, so I turned around to essentially call a truce, to say that I was sorry for pressing him but to explain quickly how he was costing me. It would take just 1 minute and probably make this man’s evening a whole lot better.

He was having none of it. He simply launched off again into his tirade and it came up that I wanted to see his manager. This woman appeared quickly enough and Luis walked off. Before I could say anything to her We’id walked up and claimed that I had called Luis a “bastard.”

It was a lie, maybe to support his colleague Luis. Perhaps he misunderstood me, but it was ridiculous. To be honest I would not even call him a bastard. I come from a small rural White community where bastard is not really considered so much of an insult. It seems to tame to use when you are unhappy. If I had called him a name, I would have used much harder wording.

At this point my flight was in jeopardy but I was a little concerned, as the two waiters now appeared somewhat dishonest to me, that they might cause me a problem as I left or should some extra expense suddenly appear on my credit card. I quickly explained my situation to the night manager (she was not the overall manager) and asked her if she could produce a business card for me to follow-up with the managers. She at least listened sympathetically and thankfully returned with the information within a couple minutes.

I quickly said something about how they should not treat customers this way but had to hurry off to catch my flight. I saw a security guard standing near the entrance as I left. I wondered if We’id had called him, or if it was a coincidence I was the last one on my plane and we departed soon afterwards.

I arrived into La Guardia not much more than an hour later. The one consolation through all of this was that I got a beautiful view of New York at night, lit by its own golden lights.

I was pretty worked up still when I arrived at La Guardia and found my ride sitting alone, bored, reading a magazine.

I have come to detest air travel and avoid it whenever possible. In fact, days like this one described in these two postings are like a mild form of torture. Even my attempt to relax and watch the hockey game had turned into a near catastrophe, and just added stress exponentially to the day.

Well, at least I escaped with my life. The police killed a Polish man at a Canadian airports just recently.

Avoid Heathrow … And Maybe London Flights … Possibly Air Canada

If there is one universal truth in this world, British service is not good service. Whenever you purchase a product in the UK, you can expect something that is far overpriced compared to what you receive. The trick is hype. The British like to over-hype a product, giving something very mundane a fancy name, nice packaging and a steep price tag.

Nowhere though is this more apparent than in their service industry, where so much is promised but not much delivered. Nowhere is this more apparent than if you have to endure a trip through a British airport, most notoriously Heathrow. It is nothing but a stressful and unsatisfying experience where management is trying to cut every little corner but not providing enough service personnel, and those personnel that are hired are disenheartened by bad management. Today a flight to New York was a reminder of just how bad this experience is.

I thought I was lucky, because I was flying through Terminal 3; I had some fear that I would have to fly through the “ultra-modern” Terminal 5, which had been nothing more than a catastrophic debacle of hundreds of missed flights and thousands of lost bags. So I felt that I would be to get away relatively easily.

Heathrow airport is not really so nice of a place on its own accord. It is an old airport that is overcrowded and underserviced. It is a typification of the long line ups, monotony and stressful security checks that make air travel seem more like a torture of endurance. So when something goes awry, such as a major delay, you are already by this point in a foul mood.

On this occasion I arrived with two hours to spare before my flight and had to find a way to while away the time. I am not a shopper and duty free has limited appeal. I anyways did not want to buy anything else to carry. Eventually I joined the hundreds of other people camping out at the departure gate for our airplane.

A quirk that adds to the unpleasantness of a visit to the old Heathrow terminals is that you have to pass security a second time at the entrance to your departure gate, and then are stuck in a claustrophobic room with nothing to do, lots of people and no bathrooms. On this day the experience was enhanced because there was a malfunction in their public announcement system. It was not working so the staff had to stand up in the middle of the room yelling out announcements, which was nearly impossible to hear due to poor accoustics.

What I did learn was that there was a mechanical problem with the plane. I knew at that point we would not be away at least until 1pm, if we were lucky. We were not lucky. Soon the waiting passengers were asked to leave the departure gate and return to the lounge. It was not clear what we were supposed to do or when/how we would catch our flight.

Having experienced confusing delays in the past at this terminal, I went straight for the Air Canada ticket office to try to figure out what was going on. Unfortunately they had not really much information either, figuring the plane would leave at 2pm or in two hours (I was not certain) and told me that I could in the meantime get something to eat, complimentary on the airline, from one of two different eateries in the departure lounge, not being sure for how much money. The staff person said that if I presented my departure ticket the staff at these eateries, little cafes, would know.

It turned out to be worth 5 pounds, which is very little money at an English airport, where just a cup of coffee is 2 pounds. In fact, it was even less money than was awarded on a different flight I had taken in 2007 that was 5 hours late at Luton airport on one of the European budget carriers (almost a flying bus), EasyJet, which had given 6 pounds.

The next step was the confusing part. There were no public announcements or clear indications on the departure board when, where or how the passengers for my flight were supposed to depart. Instead we were given confusion. What happened is that the Airport Authority left up a notice that our 1205 flight was still departing and that the gate closing. At the same time there was a notice for another flight at 1500 with AirCanada to Toronto.

Now was it 2 pm or 2 hours (which would be 1500) that I was supposed to take? No one knew.

By 1320 I was getting nervous. I found a random Airport Authority personnel person helping some passengers with the departure board. When I tried to determine with her where I needed to go for my flight, she too was unsure but urged me to hurry to the gate that was indicated for 1205 Gate Closing, lest I should miss my flight.

Of course I arrived to find several other passengers milling about in front of a dark, locked departure gate. What were we to do?

From this point I knew there would be tremendous confusion for not having indicated in any way where and when we were supposed to go. What I was certain is that we would not get away until after 1500, because almost surely many passengers would not know when to show up, trickling back to our plane, and probably many of them would think that the separate 1500 flight to Toronto was the rescheduled one for us. Sorry to be them.

AirCanada’s plane had the mechanical failure. However, the infamous British Airports Authority (BAA) could have handled this a lot better. It did not help that the intercomm system was not working at our departure gate, BUT, they should have provided some information as to when our flight was rescheduled for and not left the passengers of our flight in such a confusing situation.

What made matters worse was how I would contact the people in New York waiting to pick me up, to say that I would be 4 hours late. This will be my next entry.

My advice is to avoid flying through the UK, if you have not already learned this lesson. Try to connect through airports in Germany, the Netherlands or elsewhere, if the UK is not your end destination. You will save yourself a lot of stress and time. And probably money too.

Update:  Here is a good article on how to avoid Heathrow and even London airports when booking  your flight:  http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/04/17/travel/trfreq18.php

Find an ATM (ABM) in Montreal

For some reason whenever I am in Montreal I find that I do not have any money in hand and cannot find a bank ATM (ABM) anywhere nearby, ending up walking around for ages. It seems as though Montreal does not have as many ATMs in as many expected locations, as in other cities.

So, to help you out in case you have some of the same problems, here are links to ATM locators online for the major Canadian banks:

VISA’s ATM locator: http://visa.via.infonow.net/locator/global/

Mastercard ATM locator: http://www.mastercard.com/atmlocator/

Bank of Montreal ATM locator: http://www4.bmo.com/bmo/tools/ABMLocator/step1

CIBC branch locator: http://cibc.via.infonow.net/locator/inter/?LOC=en_CA

Royal Bank of Canada branch locator: http://maps.rbc.com/index.en.asp

Scotia Bank ATM and branch locator: http://www.scotiabank.com/branchlocator/

TD Canada Trust branch locator: http://www.tdcanadatrust.com/locator/index.jsp

Credit Union branch locator: http://locator.cucentral.com/

HSBC branch locator: http://www2.hsbc.ca/HICServlet?cmd_GetCAMap=&accept-language=en-ca

Citizen’s Bank of Canada locator (for Credit Unions, HSBC and National Bank of Canada ATM locations): https://www.citizensbank.ca/Personal/Products/BankAccounts/HowtoBankwithUs/ATMs/ATMLocations/

Traffic Congestion in London

Yesterday we drove down to Brighton to take in a beautifully sunny day in Brighton, sun being a premium these days in London. By mistake we took a long route leaving from north east London around to the West and south, but still, it took only about 1.5 hours by car to get to Brighton, which is about 90 km (55 miles). It was a beautiful day, a coastline day trip in the shining sun, which soon turned sour when we hit the London traffic.

We came into the city during rush hour on the M25 to slow moving traffic crawling along in a line for kilometers leading up to the Dartford Tunnel. This is something you might expect in such a major urban center in London, which added at least an extra hour onto our trip back. However, what made this frustrating is to see how the City of London actually caused the problem through its own ineptitude rather than it being just a case of traffic over-congestion.

Prior to the Dartford Tunnel there is a toll where each vehicle has to pay a fee, in our case a car and the fee for a car was £1 (about $2). The effect though was to slow down traffic for kilometers leading up to the tunnel, greatly increasing travel time and inconveniencing thousands of drivers coming home from work in a city where personal time is already at a premium. As my buddy said, “What am I paying council taxes for anyways?”

All this inconvenience just so the government can find another way to take a small little tax. That sums up the ineptitude and poor management that plagues the UK and causes problems like Terminal 5 at Heathrow.

A great country to visit but a stressful and expensive place that reduces your quality of life if you decide to live there; at least in London.

Ode to the Playoffs

There are many things you miss out on when you travel so much as I do.  A routine, a bed, regular social relations, spare time …  However, every year at this time I really miss out on something special.  I miss out on the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  Trying to watch from abroad at odd hours and without any fans to cheer with or against the right team; it’s just not the same.  So instead you just watch the highlights and scores when you wake up in the morning, hoping the Oilers, Flames or any other Canadian team has won the night before.

So I will give my ode to the Playoffs, which start tonight.  This is for all those dejected Leafs fans who cheer for a perennially poor performer and will seek revenge tonight by cheering against the Senators; for Don Cherry, who we all love despite being the only blatantly racist personality allowed on air in English Canada (seriously, who else is so racist he does not like Swedish people!); to the two Russians who were the best players in Hockey and showed the most heart throughout this year; to bringing the Cup back to Canada for the first time in 15 years (come on, even mathematically, with 1 in 5 teams being Canadian, this is pretty bad – a Gary Bettman conspiracy?); to a game that is still great despite the best efforts of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman (4 quarter hockey anyone?); for all those American teams who keep winning Cups in markets where no one cares the least bit about hockey (Anaheim, Tampa Bay, Carolina); to the San Jose Sharks finally getting somewhere in the playoffs, because there people actually do care about hockey; and to being back in Canada this time next year to take money from all my friends in our 2009 Hockey Pool.

Lord Stanley, thank you for your Cup.

Holiday Inn Express … Disappointment

It is with a bit of irony that I enter the blogosphere to share some of the trials and tribulations, and rewards, of being a person on the move traveling around the world.

I travel a lot and I have to be connected to the Internet for my work while on the road. This means that when I take accommodation, the first thing I look at is if they have Wifi or an Internet connection.

It can always be tricky finding what you need. Hotels often misrepresent the level of connectivity they can provide to you.

This week a business colleague and I were supposed to spend one week on a work retreat in Scotland. I had arrived from Canada in London, UK, and after a few days we set out by car from London to the city of Dunfermline to the north of Edinburgh. The trip was a long, boring run up the M6 that normally takes around 8 hours and 694 km (431 miles). That does not take in the mistake we made that cost us an extra 2 hours of driving.

Not a fan of chain hotels, we anyways booked accommodation at a Holiday Inn Express because the price was right and the Internet connection guaranteed. The most important thing was to be away and to be able to work online.

Arriving mid-evening, after checking in we quickly dropped our bags and getting something to eat, we came back to the hotel to check our Internet connection.

First of all we found there was no Wifi connection. In fact, as the staff informed us, there was not Wifi offered throughout the hotel, contrary to what we had been assured and what is advertised online, a screenshot we kept for proof.  

The only places you might catch a signal were in the lobby or downstairs (which we did not try). Not exactly conducive for our work if we had to sit in the public lobby for hours a day.

Anyways, all would not be lost if we could connect to the Internet by cable. Again, we were in for disappointment.

The hotel had run out of extra cables to give out, probably because the Wifi does not work. When eventually they did find two short cables, we found that the ends would only fit one of the wall slots provided to connect to the Internet. This would mean that only one person could be connected at a time (we were two people sharing a room with two single beds) when we both needed to work at the same time in the same room.

The one connection we had made dial-up look good. It was so slow it was essentially unusable. It was anything but the high speed being advertised. The hotel staff told us this was normal when there were a number of users in the hotel accessing the Internet.

We could not loose anymore time looking for a new place to stay and making sure that we had good access to the Internet. We left right away the next day back to London where we knew we could be connected. We lost two days, with nothing to show for it; we lost 100 GBP pounds in petrol driving up and back and we even had to pay for the one night we stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Dunfermline.

It was not a particularly nice place either. It was clean and comfortable in a “cookie cutter” way that is familiar, with all hotels looking the same no matter where you are. No character whatsoever. The breakfast included with the accommodation was boring and limited. The view from the dining area was awful. Large wall windows overlooking a sprawling ASDA complex, the UK branch of Walmart.

A big thumbs down to staying at the Holiday Inn Express in Dunfermline.