Monday Morning Punch

Published in: Silverkris Magazine
Published on: May 2008 (abridged version)

"Home," Groucho Marx once said, "is where you hang your head." Now I'm not exactly sure what that statement means, but the Marx brothers being who they are, it probably doesn't mean anything at all. It just sounds nice and witty. Which is all fine with me because for the past few years, home has only been home for a few months - and sometimes only a few days - at a time. Not enough time to hang my hat, but enough time to maybe, well, hang my head.

After consecutive trips, I usually have no clue what time and day it is in other countries and often end up calling my boss at three in the morning. So if you're like me and always spaced out, check out the following websites before getting on that next plane:

http://www.timeanddate.com/ - Check this site to find out the time difference between your current location and your destination. The world clock shows the time in different parts of the world. It provides a time converter to calculate your local time based on a date and time in another location. In case you need to call someone, timeanddate.com also lets you look up international dialing codes to make sure you get it right. It can even tell you the sunrise / sunset time, moonrise / moonset time and moonphase, if you're concerned about high and low tides – or if you're a werewolf.

http://www.weather.com - When I flew to Boston last April, I assumed it was already spring. Instead, it snowed on my second night there, and the temperature dropped to two degrees (felt like minus two). Lesson learned: Whether you're going for golf or business, you certainly don’t want the weather to ruin your trip, so better check this site out. This website shows you today's temperature, humidity, visibility, and so on. It can show the same information for the weekend or the weather for the coming month. You can download a tool from the website that lets you receive local weather updates and alerts.

http://kropla.com/electric.htm - Does Geneva use two round pin plugs? Or does it use flat blades with a grounding pin? This website lists the main types of electrical plugs that are used around the world. You can click on the plug illustrations to view a listing of countries where that type of plug is used. Or you can search by country and the website will tell you the voltage, frequency and plug type used in that country.

http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr - "Guidance the previously the nose sale point which crawls." Nope, I don’t get it either. But if ever you need whole websites translated online, visit Babelfish. It's not quite like the yellow, leech-like Babel Fish in The Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy ("you stick a Babel fish in your ear you can instantly understand anything said to you in any form of language"), but hey, it's better than nothing, and you may yet find valuable nuggets of translated information.

http://chotto.free.fr/tatami/Metro/ - Métro is a free public transport systems guide that you download to your Palm, PocketPC, or Smartphone. This text-based program computes the shortest route between your chosen departure and destination locations. The city guides come with differing levels of detail, with some offering bus, train and subway routes, places of interest, and extra information and directions to local sights. Impressively, the program covers over 350 cities, and is available in more than 39 languages.

http://www.seatguru.com - After spending hours choosing the best route (and possibly cheapest fare) to your destination using Zuji, then agonizing over finding the best hotels and restaurants in Fodors or Lonely Planet, do you really want to sit next to the plane’s toilet for the next 12 hours? If not, you should go to SeatGuru before choosing a seat. While visiting SeatGuru won’t get you a first or business class seat, it can help get you the best coach class seat possible. SeatGuru.com lists seat maps to all of the different aircrafts, categorized by airline. Highly desirable seats (for example, exit rows, aisle or window seats, and seats near the front of the plane) are colored green, poor seats are in red. The website also describes amenities such as legroom, entertainment options, and food.

http://flyertalk.com/ - Do you have a question on how to maximize your frequent flyer miles? Maybe you need a tip on how to get that all-important seat upgrade? Then log-in to the flyertalk forum and ask a mileage junkie. This forum covers the most up-to-date information for the frequent traveler: how to make the most of your miles and points, general travel, airports, destination and dining information.

If you still can’t find what you want, it's probably best to call someone who knows and actually lives in your destination. I'd call my boss but it's three in the morning.

Selected websites:
- Time and date, country calling codes: http://www.timeanddate.com/
- Weather: http://www.weather.com/index.html
- World Electric Power Guide: http://kropla.com/electric.htm
- Translation: http://babelfish.altavista.com/tr
- Transportation guides (download to PocketPC, Palm): http://chotto.free.fr/tatami/Metro/
- Seat finder: http://www.seatguru.com/; http://www.seatexpert.com/
- Exchange rate: http://www.oanda.com/convert/classic
- Maps: http://www.maps.google.com
- Traveler forum: http://flyertalk.com/
- Online travel guides: http://www.lonelyplanet.com/; http://www.fodors.com/