Travel To or Through Scandinavia and Beyond

This post is about a trip I took to visit my cousins in Norway. It was a great trip and we had no trouble getting there, however getting back was a different story.

The problem lies in how easy we have it in the USA. We get to bring a checked bag and carry-on for free on many domestic flights and add another checked bag for most flights abroad. So I took a carry-on, a checked bag, and a backpack. I didn't even take the extra free checked bag! As I said, no problem getting from US through Minneapolis and Amsterdam to Kristiansand, Norway.

 After 2 weeks of bliss in my "Ancestral Homeland", I had unloaded my US loot and was reloaded with Norge loot, still with only 1 checked, 1 carry on and 1 backpack. 

In the US, we are only limited by the weight of our checked bag(s) and the number of checked and carry-on bags. Not so in Norway (and most definitely other Scandinavian and European countries). In Norway with KLM, they not only weigh your checked bag, but also your carry-on and personal item "as a whole"! So, checked bag was easily under the 50lb limit, but when you add the carry on and backpack I had, boom, you get a giggling ticket taker motioning to the "over the limit" window (not really what it was called, but basically what it was). Since we were early and the first ones there, we had to wait for someone to open, then to get ahold of someone to get their credit card machine to work. Thank God we were early.

With my wallet $100 lighter, and an hour dealing with  Ms "It's for passenger safety" for over an hour, we were released to the outer waiting area. They load somewhat like most airlines in the US, but you are required to stand in your "zone" line as soon as you are released to the final waiting area. This is right after your passport and ticket are checked for the last time, and depending where you are, could be an hour or longer.

So be warned, just because your two 50 lb checked bags, carry-on, and your backpack or purse or whatever get a free ride out of the good ole USA, doesn't mean they'll come back for free.

One more note: if you saved up all of your receipts for items over the minimum purchase amount from stores and were planning on getting a refund for the value added taxes at the airport, consider that the hours of the office that processes said taxes are most likely regular government hours (no early mornings, late evenings or weekends). All is not lost though. Look for my next post on applying for VAT refund from home.

Continuing the Online Privacy Search and Destroy

So I have most of my personal information removed from the public (I think). But Google and TruePeopleSearch have one nagging thing that continues to haunt. If I search my name from Google and click the link listed for TruePeopleSearch, all of my current and past info shows up right there in one page. So the only way I see to get it removed is by scrolling to the bottom of the page and using the "contact us" link. Even though I have already requested to opt out, my info doesn't come up when I search directly from the TruePeopleSearch site and I am required to paste a link to the page I'm questioning, the email answer requests that I go to the "removal" page. So I have replied to their answer with the above info and will let you know how far I get.
In the mean time, I have discovered a new way to search deaper for someone in TruePeopleSearch. So the URL format for TruePeopleSearch that comes up in google is:
  https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/find/{last name}/{first name}/area/{2 letter initials for state} . Just replace words in brackets with last name, first name and the state the person you're looking for lives or has lived in.

Personal Online Security

Recently, I have been looking in to protecting my privacy online. I started with google searching my name. Tons of stuff comes up, a lot of which identified me as ME. There are tons of sites that help find information on you and show how to remove it from specific sites. Here is a good article to start with "How to opt out of the most popular people search sites". After having followed this and several others, I recently decided to google myself again. Up comes BeenVerified. It's not so easy because you can't just search their regular page for yourself. You have to go to their "opt out" page and search for yourself there. Be aware that if your name comes up in several different states, you will have to remove them too. However, you wont be able to use your same email address. If you don't have more than one email address, sign up for others in order to remove all of your own names in whatever state you may have lived in.

Another issue that came up was Linked in. Even though you would think that your information would only come up for linked in community members, there it was in google search. To remove linkedin search information from a general google search:
1. sign in to linkedin and click on the "Me" dropdown in the top ribbon, then "Settings and Privacy" under the "Account" section.

2. Under Privacy, click on the "Change" link on the right of "Edit your public profile".

3. In the right column, scroll down until you see the "Edit Visibility Section". If the "Your profile's public visibility" button is "On", click it to turn it "Off". Note that if you don't mind showing some of your details to the public, there are specific buttons you can click on to either show or not show those details if you leave the main public profile button turned on.

Microsoft Edge Home Button Return

I recently did a search on how to place the "Home" button on the tool bar in Microsoft Edge. Many things came up, but none that I opened matched my version (79.0.309.56 (Official build) beta (64-bit)). So here is my contribution to those of you that have a similar version.

1. Click on the Ellipses (3 horizontal dots) in the upper right hand corner of Microsoft edge.

2. Click on the "Settings" button towards the bottom of the drop down menu.

3. Click on the "Settings" button towards the top left of the screen.

4. Click on the "Appearance" button in the drop down "Settings" menu.

5. Click the "Show home button" slider to make the Home button Icon show up on the tool bar on your Microsoft Edge Browser.

6. Your Microsoft Edge Browser should now have the Home icon showing on the toolbar between the refresh button and the Edge/URL target window.

India Wrap up

I have been asked by other's if I would go again and I tell them I would go in a heartbeat. I loved India and most of the people we met. My favourite things were all of the different cars and other vehicles. I love driving the right hand drive car. I can't quite put my finger on it, but I think the fact that the place seemed kind of messy and unfinished made me think that it wasn't too pretty to mess up or to leave my footprint on the carpet as I walked in. I could never handle the hagling with the shopkeepers without Ranveer, unless maybe I were to learn Hindi and possibly get a tan.
I think import/export of refurbished motorcycles, autorickshaws, and motorcycles would be a great idea as a business. They don't tend to keep private vehicles long and labor involved in tearing them down and building them back would be much cheaper than shipping them here and rebuilding here.
I am now looking for a traveling position with a company with an interational presence. If you hear of anything, shoot me a message.

April 4-5, 2009 Enroute New Delhi to Chicago

I had to settle on veg meal then veg snack on the plane. Kid sitting next to me is about 12 or 13 and he pretty much was on my arm the whole time he slept. His dad finaly came around and put a donut pillow on him which helped. I watched Story Time for 2nd time, Valkarye, Yes Man, 2 different 30 Rock episodes and all but thelast 20 minutes of Marley and Me.
We got to Chicago on time and had to exit thru customs (they checked our passports and boarding passes), get our bags, turn in our customs forms, turn bags back in around the corner without ID or tickets, get on the train to domestic terminals and back through the metal detectors.
We ate at Chili's. We didn't really want breakfast, but that's all anybody had until 10am.

April 3, 2009 Noida, India

I got up and took shower and cleared out eamils and inbox and called Tracey at 930. I think I woke her and she didn't want breakfast so I went down by myself and had tea, juice, some fruit, and uttapan, which is like fried pancakes with onions and peppers on it. I went back up and finished packing and called Ranveer. I don't think I woke him, but he said he had just gotten up and said he would be here in 1.5 hours.
It's now 3 and he's still not here. We are having a second Tiger Beer with some humus with crips bread "chips". The bartender at my request, soaked the label so I could keep it. He also showed us how, if you fill the bottle wth water just upto the neck, grip the neck tightly over the trash and pop the top with your other hand, it breaks the bottm out of the bottle.
It's just before 3 and Ranveer just got here and now we have to wait for snacks we ordered. I thought we would just bring our bags with us since we ha them down there anyways, but for some reason, Ranveer wanted us to leave them and come back for them.
We left to go shopping at JanPath which means public street and is a small street flea market. I bought some silver bangles- whether they are for wife, or her daughter I don't know. They had jewelery, but I don't think anything wife would like. I bought pink and purple reversible (not) skirts for girls and never saw the colorful everyday clothes for girls - At leat in their color or size. We should have stopped by street venders the several times I saw them. I got a t-shirt for $1 that has Goa on it - which is someplace that we did not go, but "holiday in Goa" was part from the movie Outsourced. We walked around outside past other shops. I saw the magic bracekets with a street vendor - they were the same price only thicker metal.
We went across the street because Ranver was hungry and wanted to go to McDonalds "family restaurant". I didn't need anything other than french fries, but he ordered vegburger meals for all of us.
Next to a mall. Still no kids clothes. I thought to look for calendar, but all they had was stuff we could get at home.
We went by and got old monk rum for each of us. It was $6 per bottle.
Once at the hotel, I wrapped mine in clothing to prevent breakage.
It took about a half hour to get our luggage and they kept asking about our luggage tags which they never gave us.
We made it to the airport and after they checked our passports, got boarding passes, went thru metal detector, got wanded twice, then waited in the hallway outside of the jetway for about 1/2 hour, standing just after our carry on hand searched and getting wanded again, we finally were allowed to get on the plane. We really didnt have much time from being dropped off to getting on the plane.