USA - Week 1 (1 of 3)

Ok, this is the first of 3 back-to-back posts.  This first  post is not as upbeat as the others as this one deals with the trials and tribulations I encountered travelling to the USA and my accommodation.

The other two posts will be a rundown of my first festival for this trip, the M3 Festival.

Every thing was fine until BNE airport security.  I had my MP3 player and earphones in my carry-on.  When I went to use it on the flight it was no longer there !  They may have removed it to check and not put it back OR put it on a separate tray that I was unaware of.  I probably should have put them on the tray separately so I would've realised straight away.  The loss of the player is not that much of an issue - it was relatively cheap.  The earphones on the other hand 😢.  So I've had no travelling music.  Had to watch 5 movies back-to-back on the main flight (I can't sleep on a plane). 

Land at San Francisco and have a 3+ hr wait to get through Customs.  Seems 5 flights landed roughly the same time.  This caused issues with my connecting flights.  They really need dedicated lines for those with connecting flights.  Anyway, when I realised I was cutting it close I left the line to look for someone to help.  That was a mistake.  No help to be found.  Means I had to get in an even longer line and start again !

I had organised and e-sim for my time in the USA.  Reading the instructions before I left they stated the e-sim couldn't be activated until May 1st USA time.  So, now that I was in SF and it was the 1st I thought I'd activate the Sim and call the airline.  Further e-sim instructions said I could just scan the QR code to activate the e-sim.  Problem #2 - the QR code was sent via email.  I had access to the email.  I had the QR scanning app.  Except you can't use the app to scan an email that's on your phone - I should've printed the email.  After panicking that I was going to miss my flights as well as trying to figure how to activate the e-sim, I wasted a lot of time.  I eventually asked someone if they could photograph the code so I could scan the photo.  This worked flawlessly and I again had phone usage.

This was all about 6am-7am SF time, which was about midnight in Aus.  So instead of contacting my travel agent I rang the airline direct.  Ended up changing my flights, for a cost of about $800 !  I have since been in touch with my travel agent and we trying to get that money back.  This is currently ongoing.

As I was always arriving late, I had one night at a hotel near the airport.  This was ok and I had no issues here.  The next day I travelled to my main stay in Columbia.  I've had no hot water here from when I arrived until last night when it was finally rectified.  I should be getting some compensation.  

As I mentioned to someone recently, I usually expect one day per trip to be shit.  Let's hope the rest of my trip is hassle free.

I should also mention further issues I've had with my phone.  I have a Pixel 6 Pro.  At home, I plug it into any USB-C port and it charges.  It charges fast through some high wattage ports or with the charger.  It charges slower through the lower wattage ports.  As I've been so used to just plugging it in anywhere, I did not bring the charger.  MISTAKE.  The 110v here is very low wattage - my phone would only charge while off and then would only charge extremely slowly.  Note to all - always take your charger with you !  I have bought a charger since and the world is back to normal.

I am writing/editing/publishing these blogs all on my phone.  I regret not bringing my laptop.