As soon as I have realized that I just had my laptop stolen by a hitch-hiker, I drove back to the area where I dropped her off and desperately cruised around to see if I can spot her somewhere. It was clear that she is in no way related to this area. This wasn’t her destination, this was simply where we were at the time she made successful pull and moved my laptop from the rear seat into her bag. Once the laptop was in her bag, she obviously needed to get off the car immediately to make sure she’s gone before I can notice anything. I tried to see if I can spot her but it didn’t work. After such successful pull, she had likely got into first available cab and had herself driven away – anywhere but here. Trying to find her now was futile. Next stop – reporting this crime to the Dominican Republic police.
They have two types of police in the Dominican Republic – one is National Police (Policia Nacional) which deals with all internal affairs involving local Dominicans and then there is Politur which is the police especially dedicated to serving the tourists. Politur officers speak at least one foreign language to make it easier for foreigners to report crime, because Policia Nacional officers only speak Spanish so as a foreigner, unless you can speak it too, you won’t get very far. Politur was the response of the Dominican government to attract more tourists and give an impression that Dominican Republic has it taken care of so foreigners can feel safe. Unfortunately, existence of Politur changes nothing on the fact that so many Dominicans are criminals who don’t hesitate to steal from you even if you are helping them.
Photo: Politur Motorbike Used by Police Who Serve Foreigners on Vacation in the Dominican Republic
I was in Santo Domingo – capital city of the Dominican Republic. I drove up and down the main highway that goes across the city to see if I can either spot a Politur officer or their office but no luck. I tried to ask several people but everyone was completely useless. After more than an hour spent trying to report the crime to the Politur I eventually gave in and headed for the Policia Nacional head office which had a sign pointing towards it from the main highway.
It was already almost midnight. I parked my rental car just outside of the National Police headquarters where an armed officer guarded the gate. I pointed in to let him know that I need to see the officer inside to report the crime. There were three officers in main hall but none of them spoke English. One of them asked me if I had “passporte” which I could make out despite my lack of Spanish skills so I headed back to the car to get it, since I didn’t have it on me.
As I was coming back with my passport, I was taken by one of the officers to another office in a small building standing separately from main palace. Two men were inside and as they found out I couldn’t speak any Spanish, they called upon their colleague from the room next door. I thought that since I was taken to this building and since they called an officer from another room that it was because he could speak English, but I was wrong.
As a foreigner, reporting crime to the National Police in the Dominican Republic is as difficult as rumors have it. There is little help from their part and you are constantly subjected to jokes on your behalf. They say things they know you can’t understand and have a good laugh clearly showing that they are laughing at you and you can’t do nothing about it. But at least I was reporting it.
I wrote on a piece of paper information that was in what I believed a universally understandable language. I used sign language to make it clear that it’s a laptop I’m talking about and that it was stolen by a hitch-hiker. I wrote serial number on the sheet, wrote where I picked said hitch-hiker up and where I dropped her off. I have included the name and model of stolen laptop, showed them what color it was by pointing at the object that was plain white and as I was trying to describe what a woman who stole it looked like, the police report was ready and was being printed out.
Obviously, National Police of the Dominican Republic knew they were gonna do absolutely nothing about this crime. I was there, so they filed a report, but they showed me clearly that once filed, it will be put on a shelf and never looked at or dealt with. They never wanted to know what the thief looked like or where I picked her up or dropped her off (this information, although provided was not added on the report – too much to type, you know).
Photo: Copy of Police Report Filed with Policia Nacional Bears Incorrect Serial Number Because I Didn't Have the Correct One
All in all, even though National Police accepted me as a foreigner to report a crime with them, they did not show any intention to do anything about it and made me feel that I can forget about ever getting my laptop back. They would simply not do anything about it. Dominican Republic is the country full of thieves from the bottom of the barrel. Thieves who have no troubles stealing from people who help them out. And the police will do nothing about it, not even an attempt to make it look like they would try. What a country…
The serial number that appears on the report is incorrect. I had the original receipt from Future Shop where I bought the laptop in August of 2009 with me as I carry those in case there is a warranty claim and that’s the number that accompanied the brand and model names on the receipt. As I found out upon my return back home, this is not the serial number, but at the time it was the only number I had, since actual unit was stolen so I wasn’t able to just flip it up and look up the serial number that’s on it. What kind of random numbers Future Shop adds on their receipts is a mystery to me.
I was hoping there would be some rapid response from the police as I had reported the crime shortly after it was committed but this was the Dominican Republic I was in. Not only was there no interest from the police to attempt to do anything about tracing down the thief, they acted like nothing will ever get done about it now or in the future. I was defeated. Completely drained of all hope that there is some good in the Dominican Republic, I was faced with 7 more torturous days to spend in that country as my flight back to Canada where I could report the crime to actual police was not schedule until Thursday next week. I had the worst week of my life ahead of me and I had to spend it in a country that put me into this torturous position. And this was supposed to be a vacation for me where I was meant to recharge and unwind.
The worst of my nightmares – one I could not even comprehend became reality. I went to the Dominican Republic to just enjoy myself without doing anything for a week and became a victim of ugly theft. I rented a car and picked up a hitch-hiker who stole my laptop. This is the lowest form of low – you do someone a favor, you help them out because they are asking for help and they abuse the privilege and use it to steal from you. What a horrible experience. This is what happened:
My first trip to the Dominican Republic was in January of 2009. I had great time and thanks to smart timing, the trip was very inexpensive. That time I also rented a car – I picked it up at the Puerto Plata airport and spent my 7 nights stay along the Dominican Republic’s north coast. I started in Puerto Plata, went through Sosua, Cabarete, Cabrera, Rio San Juan all the way to Samana peninsula where I wanted to go whale watching as that’s where whales come to mate from January till March each year, making for a unique opportunity to see a mother whale with a newly born whale calf. I enjoyed my time in the Dominican Republic so much, I wanted to come back and this time explore other parts of the country, mostly along the south coast as well as the beautiful beaches on the east (Punta Cana and Bavaro).
I was purposefully waiting until January, because it’s a great time to travel to the Caribbean. Prices are sky high in December with Christmas season and New Year being popular times of year when many people travel. Then come January, prices drop right down to a level that’s ridiculous compared to December. So basically, instead of going in December, wait a couple of weeks and go in January. You get the same weather, same everything, but for a fraction of price. Plane tickets that cost $850 + fees and taxes at the end of December drop to the $85 + fees and taxes level at the beginning of January. This is the best time to take trips to popular “sun vacation” spots. I learned that trick in 2009 and wanted to take advantage of it again in 2010.
I have patiently waited until beginning of January and kept keen eye on plane ticket prices to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic since mid December. For some reason, unlike in 2009, the prices retained their December levels for near two weeks in January and then they dropped overnight to 1/10th of their previous level. The moment the return ticket was below $100 + fees and taxes (which happen to be quite high for the Dominican Republic – over $300 making it the most expensive destination as far as airport taxes are involved after London UK from what I have noticed), I have immediately purchased it and proceeded to make a reservation for a car rental with Avis as well.
It was a last minute purchase, I had three days until departure but that was fine with me. I’m ready when I need to be ready. Because on my 2009 trip I took over 3000 pictures (Dominican Republic was truly amazing that year), I have decided to take my laptop with me so I don’t have to compromise with storage space. I also thought I’d use time in the evenings to do some writing as there is not much to do and it gets dark shortly after 6pm (that’s how it goes close to the equator). I travelled across South East Asia with my laptop without problems and those were the countries much poorer than the Dominican republic, so I didn’t see it as a big deal.
Everything seemed to have gone wrong right from the beginning, though. I got to Punta Cana and waited at the conveyor belt for my luggage which never showed up. Frustrated and desperate, I went to file a lost luggage report but first had to wait an hour until they have found the Air Transat representative who somehow disappeared even though their flight have just arrived and should be available for the passengers.
So there I was, back in the Dominican Republic I was looking forward to whole year but things were not turning out the way I had hoped. I picked up my rental car and went on to have an adventure I could not do. I had an itinerary in mind but it was all put to halt because of lost luggage. I was still wearing clothes from Canada where it was cold, so I was in long pants, heavy boots and long sleeve shirt, yet I was in the tropical climate with scorching temperatures. I had no personal hygiene products on me, nothing to brush my teeth with or rub into my armpits to make them more fragrant. It was horrible.
Photo: White Suzuki Grand Vitara Rental Car I Was Driving When I Had My Laptop Stolen
I drove back to the Punta Cana airport the following day with hopes that my luggage would have showed up in the meantime. Air Transat representatives were half helpful, half not. They all seemed to blame everything on me. The lady I spoke to said I should go and do what I had planned without waiting around for my luggage. I told her she had no right to be telling me what I should or should not do as she doesn’t know what I can or cannot do without stuff I had in my missing bag. She proceeded by calling their central to find out that there was no trace of my luggage whatsoever. None. Nobody knows where it is, what happened to it, whether it went on a different plane or whether it’s still in Canada – no trace of it whatsoever. Like it doesn’t exist. And that’s 24 hours after it was lost. Great news.
So I’m in the Dominican Republic, sweating in the same heavy clothes from Canada, stinking, dirty, desperate and devastated over this bull$hit but the worse was yet to come. I could not take a grasp of it. I had just returned from Asia from a flight which took 3 transfers and more than 24 hours to complete, including a stop over in Seoul, South Korea, yet my luggage got to me at my terminal destination. And here I took a direct flight – no transfers, one single flight from point A to point B and they managed to lose my luggage to a point that they have no trace of it whatsoever.
Since this was not the first time my luggage was lost during my travels by plane (I also had it lost on my return flight from Cuba to Canada in December of 2008), I already knew that one should never check in valuables. Hence I had the bag with my camera equipment and my laptop with me. I was still in the same clothes from Canada, but had my camera and my laptop so even though excessively stressed out, my expensive possessions were still under my control.
Unfortunately, since there was no trace of my bag and no knowing when it would show up, I had no choice but to proceed with my trip in whatever state I was or spend it waiting around for an unknown length of time. I was distraught, stressed out, desperate, stinky and dirty, but what could I do? So I went back to my rented car, started it up and headed out to try to make the best of my time in the Dominican Republic despite this misfortune.
In this weak state of mind, as I was driving through San Pedro de Macoris, on the south coast of the Dominican Republic, headed towards nation’s capital Santo Domingo, I noticed a hitch-hiker on the side of the road desperately trying to stop a car to get a lift. It was at the beginning of the highway leading to Santo Domingo and it was already about 7.30 or 8 pm meaning it was dark so I stopped to pick this young woman up and give her the lift.
Photo: Artistic Structure at the Traffic Circle in San Pedro de Macoris Where I Picked Up the Hitch-Hiker Who Stole My Laptop
I was heading the same way anyway and had room in my car so giving a hitch-hiker a lift was no big deal. But most of all, back in a day when I was in the university and spent 6 consecutive summers travelling through Europe, I used hitch-hiking as my primary means of transportation. When you hitch-hike, sometimes you are stuck for a long time and sometimes you don’t even catch a ride so you have to stay the night and try again the following day. However once you catch a lift it’s fun times. You are always very appreciative of people who help you out with the lift so now that I was in a position of having a ride and saw a hitch-hiker in need of help, I did not hesitate to return the favor and stopped to pick her up.
There was a major issue with communication as she didn’t speak any English and I speak no Spanish. So we spent most of our time listening to awful Dominican Latino music on the radio (every station plays the same awful music, but CDs I brought with me to listen to on the road were in the bag that was lost by flight carrier). As a person who picked up a hitch-hiker, I had the foremost interest that she feels comfortable and enjoys her ride, so when she threw her bag on the rear seat, I didn’t make much of it, thinking that she just wants to have enough room for herself during the upcoming 45 minute long ride. It was the rear seat where I had my laptop rested.
During the ride, the hitch-hiker went to her bag a couple of time – to pick up her lipstick to do the things that girls do, so I didn’t make a big deal out of it again. Then as we approached Santo Domingo, she asked me to drop her off at first turn off from the highway so I obliged and wished her the best of luck. I have impulsively reached in the back seat to make sure my laptop was all right, not because I suspected a theft, but because I thought it may have slid during the course of driving so I wanted to make sure it was safe. I could not feel it anywhere on the seats so I figured it must have slipped and fallen under the seat. I tried to reach under the seat on which I was sitting, but could not feel anything either. I thought it was because I can’t reach very well from a position behind the wheel so I moved the vehicle up to the gas station on the corner, parked the car and walked out to get on the rear seat to take care of my laptop which surely must have slid in some hard to reach spot.
My heart was pumping like crazy as I was sneaking at every possible spot in the car where a laptop could have slipped but it was nowhere to be seen. I turned the car upside down while other cars were coming and going as they filled their gas tanks up and as security guards stared at me because of my frantic behavior yet there was no laptop. I slowly started to realize the unthinkable – I was robbed. I had my laptop stolen by that hitch-hiker. It was the most horrible feeling ever. Within seconds I realized what terrible loss this theft puts me through. I had many things stolen from me through the course of my life and my travels, but this laptop was hands down the most expensive piece and as if the price was not the only loss, the laptop had everything of value to me on it, including all of the pictures from my travels so far, meaning that I would not be able to continue with updates for my blog because I have no reminder of my adventures anymore. What an awful experience. How could someone do it? How could someone you offer help to abuse it to steal from you? What kind of world do we live in?
Photo: The Only Picture of My Stolen Laptop I Have. Taken at Bungalow Village in Sihanoukville, Cambodia
This laptop theft is the reason why I’m jumping five months ahead of myself and start writing about the Dominican Republic even though I have not yet finished writing about my adventures in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand. When you start living your life to the fullest and every day is an adventure, there are so many things happening every day that I was unable to keep up with written reports. Things were simply happening faster than I was able to keep track of them. As a result, I am five months behind with my journal, however I had pictures of my adventures which served as great reminder of everything that happened so I was able to write about it as though it happened yesterday. Pictures recall memories and serve as valuable reminder of time spent.
Unfortunately, my stolen laptop was the only place which had my pictures. With laptop gone, all of the pictures are gone but that’s not all. Stolen laptop also means that all of my emails and valuable contact information I have made during the course of my travels are gone. There was much more than I am willing to admit on that laptop and now it’s all gone because I was trying to be a Good Samaritan. One of the saddest and most devastating days of my life.
STOLEN LAPTOP SPECS:
Model: Samsung Q320 Color: White Size: 13.4 Inch Screen Serial Number: ZBBX93ES700101 Stolen On: Friday, January 15, 2010
Description of Laptop Thief:
Young female, approximately 25 year old. Good looking with average size breasts (not too big, but also not small), slender build without big gut, but booty type buttocks. She is on a taller side, perhaps as tall as me, which is 180 cm or 5’11” – on average taller than most girls, but not excessively tall. It was dark already and as a driver, I did not spend my time staring at the passanger, instead I focused on driving and the road, but I believe that her skin color was darker than average Dominicans have. Most Dominicans are dark or darkish, she was on the darker side. She also has very large lips. Noticeably big, plump lips that some women with very dark skin have. These lips stand out big time and are easily distinguishable. At the time of pick up, she was wearing one of those hair gels that give your hair wet look. She was also wearing dark jeans that only reached half way up her buttocks slightly uncovering top of her ass crack. Given that I picked her up at San Pedro de Macoris, she obviously has some kind of connection to the town – maybe she lives there or works there or has other reasons to go there. I believe she was only going to Santo Domingo for the weekend as she was leaving San Pedro on Friday night.
When I landed in Seoul, South Korea, it was the first time in my life I set foot on Asian soil. It was an exciting feeling. I have never been to Asia before so finally make it meant a great deal to me. The view of South Korea from the window of an airplane suggested that weather in this country was spectacular. It was virtually cloudless, other than some random tiny cloud here and there. I thought – if weather is this gorgeous in East Asia, surely it will be equally nice in South-East Asia, where I was heading to. But then again – I was well aware of the fact that September is the peak of the rainy season in Cambodia so I did not hold my breath. Seeing cloudless, sunny weather South Korea was enjoying left me a little bit encouraged.
Flight from Vancouver to Seoul took well over 10 hours. It was a long, long flight. Pacific Ocean is not a short distance to cover. Seeing the land below our plane delivered the feeling of landing soon which I’m sure every passenger aboard could not wait for. Good thing about South Korea is that once you have reached the east coast, the west coast where capital city Seoul is located is not far away. It also means that wherever in South Korea you are, you’re never too far from the beach. Having this narrow shape definitely has its advantages.
Incheon airport in Seoul is not very large. I was only transiting as my final destination was Siem Reap so I wasn’t hassled by Korean customs authorities and just followed the signs to connection flights. There wasn’t that much to do at Incheon, however connecting to their free WiFi internet was hassle free, unlike the crap experience in Vancouver. I was glad to have equipped myself with the universal power plug adapter which made its first use at Incheon. I only had a couple of hours to kill there and thanks to the internet, my time waiting for the Siem Reap flight flew by quickly. Before I knew it, the boarding was started. I have waited until everyone was in, have packed up my lap top and headed towards the gate to be the last person on board.
The plane wasn’t sold out solid, but I was the unlucky one to have been given the seat right next to two kids. Having just gone through near 11 hours on a plane, I really didn’t feel like being exposed to screaming kids for additional 5 hours. I felt tired and wanted to take a nap. I’ve asked the flight attendant if it was possible for me to sit elsewhere as I didn’t want to sit by the kids, but since this was the flight between Seoul and Siem Reap (aka none of the ports of call were English speaking), my words were not understood.
One person who did understand me was the father of those kids who was willing to aid me in re-seating myself. He however suggested that his daughters are well behaved and generally quiet. That was a bit encouraging, but I was really tired to risk it and it did prove a good idea. Well behaved or not, kids talk too loud and too much disturbing everyone around and while it’s sometimes bearable, it becomes excessively difficult if you’re exposed to it right after a long flight.
Luckily for me, I was able to increase the distance between me and the kids and even ended up taking a brief nap during the flight. Before I knew it, we were landing in my terminal destination for this trip – Siem Reap, Cambodia. And yes, it was pissing cats and dogs.
As I have mentioned, I love the atmosphere at the airports. When you’re at the airport, the change is imminent. I got off the Air Canada plane and followed the International Flights signs at the Vancouver International. I had a few hours to kill, so there was no need to rush, however I still needed to get boarding passes for my Korean Air flights so I wanted to get that off my hands as soon as possible in case it was necessary to go at the opposite side of the airport.
Vast Hallways of Vancouver International Airport
It took me good 20 minutes to get from one end of the airport to the other where international flights depart from. Information panel suggested that my flight takes off form gate 58, which I found, but there was nobody there yet. I simply got there too early. I had no other option but to wait until someone shows up as they would either issue my boarding pass, or tell me where to go to get it.
I have decided to kill the time getting on my laptop and checking emails. I have noticed signs all over Vancouver airport stating that YVR has free WiFi internet. They were advertising it big time everywhere so I found nearest power outlet, plugged my laptop in there and logged on. However after 20 minutes of desperate attempts to get connected to their unsecured network I had no luck at all. It was really frustrating.
Large Flat Screen TV Advertising Free WiFi at YVR
I have eventually given up, packed up my laptop and started walking towards where I came from to track someone who looks like they might know what’s going on and ask them why they advertise free WiFi when it’s impossible to connect as system rejects all connection attempts.
And as I’m walking back, I see that cute girl sitting there on her pink Sony Vaio laptop, chattering to someone on a webcam. Since she was obviously on line, I stopped by her and asked if she had any troubles connecting. She said she had no troubles whatsoever so I sat opposite of her, plugged myself into the wall and made an attempt from this location. However, same lack of luck as before. I made no sense.
But I kept trying as that girl kept chatting and eventually I got to some window that was telling me that the host wants me to confirm something on their website and was asked if I wished to visit that website. I agreed and was taken to Vancouver International Airport site where I was asked to click on Agree button to agree with some of their TOS (quite likely confirming that I won’t be using this internet connection to download viruses or porn or what not).
The moment I got on, that girl asked me if I had any luck connecting. I said it just started to work for me and got down to doing my on line business. Being used to cold people from Edmonton, I ignored the girl believing she will be the same as regular Edmontonian, but was surprised after she repeatedly kept talking to me. She was cute and barefoot, so it was awesome. It was just something I am not used to, coming from the city where when you talk to a stranger, you get weird looks. Here I was a stranger to her and she talks to me.
Eventually, I put my work on hold and engaged in conversation with her. She told me her name was Irene and that she was from the Philippines. She lived in Calgary for 5 months but her contract didn’t get renewed or something like that so she had to return back home to the Philippines. I told her about my photography and it immediately increased her interest in my even more and asked me if I was on yahoo messenger, cause she wanted to add me. Seriously, I could already feel big time the difference it makes leaving Edmonton. There was no point for me to linger in the city that turns you into a chunk of stone.
Passengers Without a Laptop Computer Can Access Internet at YVR Via One of Numerous Paid Internet Stations
Sadly, I don’t use Yahoo messenger. I once installed it, many years ago and it came with so much bloat ware and spyware and pop ups that it went off my computer before I first used it. Perhaps Yahoo got their act together in the meantime, but this initial experience was good enough for me to keep away. I have always used friendly and safe MSN messenger and have never had issues with it.
I explained that to Irene, but told her that I do have a yahoo email address and gave it to her. She made note of that and also took my Hotmail address in order to add me to her MSN messenger when she gets it installed so we can chat in the future. That’s how awesome people are outside of the corporate lifestyle world. I have just left Edmonton and I was back at living the life, instead of spending it.
Irene then came to sit next to me with her laptop and showed me some of the pictures her brother, who’s a photo enthusiast took. We talked about photography as she was actually well familiar with many aspects of it. I asked her to send me an email to the yahoo address I gave her so I could respond with links to my sites. I did not want to just give her the URL to my personal site which has a lot of nude photography, so I sent a link in an email with appropriate warning.
Right after that, I took a glance at the clock on my laptop and realized it was already 1.40pm and my flight departure was scheduled for 2.20pm. I didn’t have a breakfast so I wanted to go get something before boarding and I also wanted to pick up a bottle of mineral water so I don’t die thirsty on a plane. It was going to be a long, long flight so I had better taken care of myself or else I’d be looking at 10+ hours of pain.
I liked hanging out with Irene form the Philippines, but I really had to go. I still needed the boarding pass. So I said my Good Byes, Irene insisted that I visit Philippines on my travels and let her know so we can hang out in her country and then I took off. I quickly picked up a sandwich from Subway, went to just grab it and go to the place where they sell bottled water so I can dart off back towards my gate, when I noticed on the board that it was only 12.40 – my computer clock was still on Canadian Mountain Time so being in Vancouver put me back one hour.
This Oversized Fish Tank Greets Tourists at International Departures Section of Vancouver International Airport (YVR)
This gave me an extra hour so I ate my sub in peace, picked up a bottle of water which is BTW extremely expensive within secure area of the airport (grrrr, cause you can’t take any liquids with you as security precautions don’t allow that, so you are forced to buy overpriced water or stay thirsty on the plane) and went back to gate 58 to get a boarding pass.
Boarding Passes for my Entire Journey from Vancouver, Canada to Siem Reap, Cambodia via Seoul, South Korea
It was a pleasure to be served by absolutely gorgeous Korean girls. Beautiful, slender and tall, these girls are jaw dropping. I got my boarding pass and was told boarding would begin at 1.50, which gave me a bit over 5 minutes to spend on a computer again.
I knew I wouldn’t want to be the first one to board a plane, so I sat back, plugged myself in and started the laptop for the thirst time in Vancouver. Low and behold, after 15 minutes of trying, no luck getting connected. I was messing around hoping to click on a button that would open a message which prompts me to visit the website but it never happened. I don’t remember how I got there the first time. I tried everything but to no avail. Frustrated, I have eventually turned the computer off and boarded the plane. And it was a nice plane. Korean Air rules in more ways than just by having the most stunning flight attendants in the world.
At this point things really started to look crappy. I only had a week until my departure and still didn’t have a laptop. I had last two options left – either go for a large screen laptop but be stuck with this heavy, oversized piece of equipment I will have to haul around endlessly, impossible to use in confined spaces, such as plane seats, or purchase extremely expensive, but super lightweight and super small laptop from Sony or Panasonic. Sony was not a brand of choice as I had previously had bad experience with their laptop, so Panasonic Toughbook seemed like the only option. And while these ToughBooks are impact resistant, small and lightweight, they are super expensive making it more than unjustifiable (unless you have lots of money to waste). Performance is nowhere near where it should be, however the fact that they are so small and so light (and so durable) would make it a perfect companion on the road.
Price tags for these laptops are sky high, however. Cashing out $2,500 for a laptop is not an easy thing to do. And it was at that time when Samsung introduced its laptop to Canadian computer market. Their laptop model was Q320 and even though Samsung is not known as being a solid computer maker, I have been using 24″ Samsung screen on my desktop and it’s the best screen I’ve ever owned. The Samsung Q320 specs were impressive. More than I could ask for which was making it very attractive. It cost $1,299 Canadian which was more than any previous laptop I have looked at but it had components to well justify the price. As a matter of fact, when it comes to value for money, Samsung Q320 was on top of the game. Given high performance components inside this laptop, the price was amazing.
I was still a little bit reluctant because Samsung is simply not a make you ever think of when you talk laptops so I went to search for Q320 reviews on line. Surprisingly, people did not have enough good things to say about these machines. It almost seemed unreal that there would be a laptop with such amazing set up for such an attractive price. I went to take a look at it in Future Shop and sure enough, the feel of Q320, the performance, the screen output – this was one amazing machine. Unfortunately in Canada, Samsung Q320 laptops were only available in white. That made the unit look like a MacBook which is not very visually flattering, but I wasn’t buying the laptop for its looks. I needed performance, reliability and small size. They way a laptop looks was vastly irrelevant so I got past the Mac-like looks and gave myself just one day to think it over (I’m not an impulsive buyer, no matter what).
My original intention was to only spend up to $1,000 for a laptop and this Samsung Q320 was way over my budget. Given the components this laptop was equipped with, however, the price tag made it more than worth it so value for money was there more than with any other laptop. I went back to the Future Shop the following day only to find out with horror that the only model they had there yesterday sold during the day today. Since this was a brand new model, no other outlet in Canada carried it. I went to Future Shop in Northgate, Edmonton and was told that they didn’t even have any of those yet. As a matter of fact, first two sales reps I was talking to didn’t even know this model existed. I had to refer them to their website to make them believe that I’m not making it up and Future Shop does in fact carry this model.
I spent whole day trying to buy the best small laptop that was currently available in Canada only to end up with nothing at the end of the day. At least formerly worthless sales reps from Northgate did me a favor and called other Future Shop locations in Edmonton to see if anyone still has one of the units in stock. Luckily, the west end location did have it so I assured them I would be there tomorrow to pick it up and asked them to secure it for me. The following day I jumped on my mountain bike and rode all the way to west Edmonton where brand new Samsung Q320 was waiting for me. Without second guessing I bought this laptop and headed home to enjoy its performance.
Photo: Samsung Q320 Laptop - The Best Laptop buy in Canada in 2009/2010
This machine worked like clockwork. The best laptop I have ever owned. It had the speakers on the bottom giving out poor sound when you had the laptop on your lap, covering the output, but other than that I could not think of any other downside. The best laptop ever. Never let me down in any way. I was really happy with the choice I made and as I kept using it, I even grew to accept the not-so-flattering, Macintosh-like white exterior. I had the most important piece of electronic device needed for my travels. I was ready to board the plane. As far as laptops in Canada are concerned, Samsung Q320 is hands down the best model to buy.
Shortly after I started to look for the best laptop to buy, a note came from Dell that they are releasing new small screen laptops that will be powered by the latest components and preferential pricing was offered for initial orders (Dell Vostro 1220). This pricing was available only through Dell website as these units were not available in stores yet so a chance was given to web savvy computer users to take advantage of this attractive offer before general public could lay their hands on them for a regular price. I went through the process and ordered one right way. These Dell laptops seemed exactly like what I was looking for. The screen was only 12.1″ across and guts had latest and fastest components making it a super computer for the time. They would still not have Windows 7 installed on them, but there was an option to get free upgrade when it becomes available.
Trouble was that 2 days after I’ve purchased one on line, I called Dell customer service to make sure the unit was shipped to me as I was leaving in less than two weeks, but was told that these units will not be shipping until mid September. Needless to say, I had to cancel my order because I would no longer be at home when the laptop arrives and I would need something with me to make sure I can continue making money and posting about my adventures. Dell support is notoriously awful so I did not sweat over not being able to get a Dell laptop much.
It was becoming very frustrating, though. I really didn’t want to opt for an emergency solution and purchase a large screen laptop but since there was nothing in under 14″ I would be comfortable with, I started looking at the next step up in size. Then I’ve given a closer look to one of the HP 13.3″ laptops. There were two versions of this one and while less expensive one was the more popular one, it did not offer good value for money for components were really underpowered, the more expensive option had fast components, lots of storage space and a great battery which would power the laptop for up to 9 hours. I went to give this one a closer look at one of London Drugs locations.
Luckily for me, they had one in stock and it was still in the box, never on display. I’ve asked if they could bring it so I can take a look as I was seriously interested and they’ve obliged. I was under time pressure and this laptop seemed to bear components I was comfortable with and came at a price I liked so I bought it on the spot. However as soon as I started using it, things were popping up that made me not like it. First of all, this laptop just as all HP laptops was extremely bloated with bloatware. I spent half the day just removing the HP bloatware yet dozens of useless utils still kept popping up, mostly forcing you to upgrade to a full version for a fee. It was horrible.
But what I didn’t like the most was the placement of the battery. Yes, according to the specs, the battery was supposed to provide an extended operating time without the mains, but it was protruding from flat bottom making it impossible to have it on your laps and making it awkward when on the desk. Plain and simple – stupid. However, since there was nothing else available and I was leaving the country in a little over a week, I was sticking with it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the end of it.
Once I had most of the bloatware removed and all latest updates installed, I went to make a full back up of the system so I can restore it should some catastrophe occur and erase my hard drive. You always need to have a back up and since this laptop didn’t come with installation CDs, unless I made a back up, I would not be able to get the machine back up and running. It would become a chunk of electronic garbage that’s of no use. If anything at all corrupted the hard drive, I’d be screwed. Knowing that they are not providing system discs, HP equipped the laptop with their own, proprietary back-up software that urged you, the user to initiate the back up right away because you had no discs to do anything should there be a hard drive failure. So I started with full system back up with that HP soft.
It looked like I would need 4 DVDs in order to have entire system disc backed up so I loaded up the first one and had it burned, then inserted a second one to start burning, but it would get stuck at 9%. It would just hang at 9% for hours upon hours and once 10 hours had passed and nothing new happened, I knew it froze and is not going to unfreeze. I had to hard reboot the laptop, having lost whole day trying to make a back up, discarded the busted disc and started the whole process over again. It went fine, first disc got burned, the request to insert disc 2 came which I did, burning of disc 2 started and behold – it froze at the same spot again. Stuck at 9% for hours upon hours until I had no option but to hard reboot the laptop again.
This HP backup software was useless and it wasted two days of my time. I phoned HP customer support to see if they had a solution for that as it’s obviously a glitch with the software given that it freezes at that one specific spot all the time, but the tech support was completely useless. HP obviously outsources their support to India or somewhere cheap and those people are completely useless. As he started to ask questions such as whether I can make sure that there is disc inside the CD ROM tray I knew I was just wasting more of my time and HP is not a company to go with.
I hung up on the tech support guy after a few irrelevant, stupid questions and went straight back to London Drugs to have this laptop returned as per their 30 day return policy. I was extremely unhappy about it because it wasted a lot of my time and I only had so many days to get myself set up on a new laptop. HP is completely useless. I didn’t like anything about that laptop even before their software started crapping out on me and their support proved that it’s worthless. It simply didn’t feel right as I was using it but I kept giving it second chances just because I was under time pressure. It didn’t work out.
I was only two weeks away from my booked departure to Cambodia and I still needed to purchase a few essential electronic devices to make sure I am able to document my journey around the world and maintain my positive cash flow while I’m on the road. The absolutely most essential piece of equipment was a powerful and reliable laptop. Throughout my life, I have owned and worked on several laptops so I really didn’t need the buying a laptop for dummies guide. I purchased a top of the line SONY laptop a few years ago, but the screen on it died shortly after a year of moderate use. I sent it in to SONY authorized service centre and was told that whole screen needed to be replaced which would incur the cost of $1,400. Given that I paid $3,500 for this machine just a year ago (it was the most powerful and advanced laptop at the time), I was not impressed with the quote. I did not pay this much money to have to pay an additional $1,400 to keep this expensive piece of machinery usable after one year. But because it was shortly after one year of ownership, the warranty on the laptop was expired so SONY was not willing to assist. I was basically left with the extremely expensive piece of laptop I paid a lot of money for but could not use it. Needless to say, this was the last time I have purchased anything made by SONY.
I also had another laptop. It was an old Toshiba I bought back in 1999. It still have Windows 98 Millennium Edition installed on it, it was ridiculously old and slow, but still worked like a charm. This laptop went through hell with me yet it has never let me down. I purchased the above mentioned SONY laptop in order to replace this old Toshiba because it was old and no longer matched modern criteria for computer use. I could still use it as everything on it worked like new despite extensive use for almost a decade, but it was simply too slow so I needed a new one.
After SONY let me down and burned $3,500 out of my pocket, I fell back to using a desktop which is what I was on at the time of making all of these arrangements to start the worldwide travel. I could not take the desktop with me. I needed a new laptop. I simply had no way around it. It’s impossible to haul the desktop around when travelling, Toshiba laptop was too slow and SONY didn’t work because it’s a piece of junk. So I brushed off my buying laptop for dummies guide and started to look around to see what there was for laptops at the moment so I could buy one.
One thing I have learned after purchasing the SONY laptop was that when buying a laptop, go for as small a screen as you can read. The SONY laptop had a 16.9″ screen. I thought it was awesome cause I was gonna get this nicely large viewing area along with super-powered components inside, but it proved to be the worst decision ever. Case in point is – if you want large screen, get yourself one for the desktop. When buying a laptop, go for light weight and small size. Even if you’re not a traveler, you will want to take your laptop with you when leaving your house for a variety of reasons and the bigger a laptop, the heavier and larger a chunk you will have to haul around with you. 17″ screen laptops are near impossible to use onboard a plane or in a car. They are simply so big that you can’t even open it on your lap. Plus you will need a rather large case to fit it in making your carryon luggage chunky and heavy. Lightweight laptops are the only way to go, whether you travel a lot or not.
So I went out to look for a laptop to buy but was discouraged by low availability of quality machines. I looked at Toshibas because the one I have still works and it’s more than 10 years old, but Toshiba seemed to have fallen asleep in 2009. Their laptops were underpowered and overpriced. The processors were from 2008. Memory was insufficient, hard drive space not much – plain and simple no where up to par with 2009 laptops. And these machines were priced at the same level as other brands which were equipped with superior processors, twice as much memory, larger hard drives, better video cards and all other components. It made no sense buying any Toshibas in mid 2009.
After ditching Toshiba laptops, I had very few options left. I only had a couple of weeks till departure so I really needed to get the laptop asap so I can load it up with necessary software and all files I need to have instant access to. But the quest to find a machine I’d be comfortable with was failing. Mid 2009 was also the time when Microsoft announced the release of Windows 7 operating system which would mean that one would want to wait until laptops loaded up with this new operating system are available (#2 rule from the Buying Laptop for Dummies guide), but I simply could not wait. I was leaving in two weeks so even though the laptop purchased now would come with operating system that’s becoming obsolete, I had to buy it.
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