I wrote my last post on a day that is special to me and the next one is today which is also a special day for me 🙂

I got back from travel to Turkey and Greece last thursday. My wife had a meeting in Turkey, so we began there and had a wonderful time and then went to Greece, which, while a beautiful country, was not as enjoyable as Turkey for us. I will spare the details. Our Greece opinion was definitely not clouded by a not so happy incidence – my Google Nexus phone was snatched away from my hand while we were just wrapping up our last dinner in Athens before heading back to the States. It was what I would call perfect execution!

I always look to see how the other countries are doing technology as a way to benchmark ours. So, this post is some random thoughts about it. Talking about random, I am not sure how many of you heard the story that the State Department goofing up the “random” selection of applicant to an immigration lottery.

It is not a secret that I am not a fan of the cell phone carriers in the US. Their services are bad, they cost way too much and they lock you down for years (I believe, new Verizon contracts will be for 3 years!). I can go on… I was lucky to have a Google Nexus One phone, a fully unlocked phone, which simply means, if I put a SIM card from any vendor, it will work. And some crook stole it from me!

Anyways, upon arrival in Istanbul Airport, I purchased a SIM card, which required Turkcell registering the SIM card with my passport number, and there I was, happy! Of course, I needed to do some additional things to get data working, but it was painless. Went to another Turkcell office to add more minutes and it was a piece of cake. You paid the money and with seconds you could check the phone and see that the money has been added. And all through Turkey, I had absolutely no problems with signal or access. All my friends who come to the US from other countries bring their phones and pay the fees to avoid the hassle of getting a SIM card in the US. I gather that it is a hassle to get it in the US.

It was a little more complicated in Greece, where I went with Vodaphone. No one was able to clearly articulate to me that when you actually buy a 10 Euro card, you are actually buying something like 8 Euros because the rest is taxes (and Greece is still in financial trouble, go figure!). But then, if you sign up for internet access, that is 7 Euros for 200 MB, so you have 1 Euro left to make calls! I activated access point on my phone so I could attend to email on my Mac. This was a mistake. Mac drained all 140 MB of usage and more and depleted my card fully. Going to Vodaphone on Monday morning was the worst experience. I had to wait for 1 1/2 hours to get someone who could explain why my account got depleted (which they could not tell, I figured it out later) and add more Euros to it!

We were talking to some of the local folks attending the same conference my wife was at. They pay about 50 Turkish Liras a month for internet service at home, which, they consider to be hefty. Based on what we heard about salaries there, it made sense that this is steep. All the hotels we stayed in provided free WiFi. In Cappadocia, where we stayed in a “cave room” in Kelebek Hotel, signal did not penetrate the age old stone – understandable! In Lares Park Hotel in Taksim, Istanbul, I was unable to get connected. It was blamed on my Mac!

I bugged and got me talking to their IT guy who gave me a static IP and DNS info so I was able to connect. They said they will use this for the Macs in the future, so I asked for a break in the hotel charges, but all I got was a smile!

Thanks to a young faculty in Istanbul University, we got a tour of the University. It was final exams time, so we did not get a chance to visit classrooms, but she told us how every classroom is technology enabled and the Law School has the best state of the art technologies.

No matter where we went, we could not escape the “F” word – Facebook. I befriended about 7 folks between Turkey and Greece, some touring the places and others who live there. My FB friends from Turkey seem to communicate in Turkish, so I keep copying and pasting into Google translate and get some idea of what is being said. I wish there is an automatic translation app for FB!

They use wireless handheld devices to take orders in restaurants, which is cool. I want to see a Microsoft Surface where I can order food!

Greece was different. Every hotel wanted you to pay to access wireless networks. Nowhere in Greece we could use the credit card because they all want cash. When we insisted, they went to swipe the card and came back to say that it doesn’t go through.

Thanks to the wide availability of ATMs, we were able to take cash. One thing in my past travels I had noticed was that in Europe, ATM withdrawal always went against your savings account. This time around I noticed that they do give a choice to go to checking account. This is such a great technology that makes live so easy – we no longer exchange travelers checks or dollars (where you pay a premium). Just use ATMs. My bank charges 1% fee, which is better than the conversion premium you pay otherwise.

Also, we use Capital One credit card whenever we travel overseas (and when the countries accept them, of course)! Because, they are the only ones who do not have additional fees for charging when you are overseas. My other credit card charges range between 1.5% and 3% per transaction, which can add up quickly.

Since I lost my precious PDA, I needed to call Vodaphone in Greece to cancel it. I made sure that the phone has not been accessed after I lost it. Just to be cautious, I changed all passwords and have been keeping an eye on illegal access. Nothing so far. Good luck to the crook who stole it. Hope he gets to eat a few good meals.