Don’t forget to bring your laptop to Palestine: When going on vacation, you want to cut loose. You’ll break out your dusty old Hawaiian shirt, clip on your fanny pack, strap your oversized camera around your neck, leave the cell phone at home, and swear to yourself that you’re not going to read single email that comes in from work or school. On the way out the door, you’ll look in your full-length mirror one last time, admire how your shirt’s bright yellow floral pattern really brings out your eyes, give yourself a little hand-gun-wink in the mirror, and run out the door for a cab ride to the airport.

Don’t forget to bring your laptop to Palestine

Even if you swear that you will spend just two weeks without technology, it is best to have a device with wireless internet access, just in case. Don’t be a Luddite. Bring your laptop.

The notion that you can comfortably spend some significant period of time without modern technology is an outdated one. Airlines, bus stations, cab drivers, and hoteliers all expect travelers to have some modern electronics with them. Before smartphones and laptops were so ubiquitous, customer service hotlines and help desks were more heavily staffed to assist travelers when unexpected things arise. Unfortunate though this may be, you will be in a much better position when the unexpected happens while traveling if you bring a laptop or smartphone. And when traversing from your home country to Tel Aviv, then to the Jerusalem, then to Hebron, you ought to expect unexpected things to happen.

A case in point it my recent trip to Hebron. I did everything you’d expect a typical vacationer to do – minus the Hawaiian shirt, fanny pack, big camera, and full-length mirror. Believing I had sufficiently prepared for an analog vacation, I left all my electronic devices in my apartment in London. I had all the flight numbers written in my notebook, directions to the different bus stations in Israel mapped out, and was sure I could rely on memory from my last trip for how to navigate from Jerusalem to Hebron.

Shortly after stepping out of the taxi at Heathrow I began to regret my decision. The flight number had changed en route to the airport, so when I checked the departures lists I could’t find my flight. Normally I’d get a notification on my phone when this happens, but sans smartphone one must wait in the customer service line to learn of the flight number change. After which one must lightly jog to the departure gate to not miss the flight.

No problem, I thought. Small hiccup. I landed in Dubai, played around in that great airport for five hours, and then caught my connecting flight to Amman. Smooth sailing here on out.

Not so fast.

Since I was flying Emirates, I knew I’d need to change airlines at some point. Most Arab countries’ airlines do not fly to Ben Gurion airport, so to get to Israel via Emirates people usually change flights in Jordan, Turkey, or Egypt. All of these countries have normal relations with Israel, and so have direct flights.

Let’s just say things did not go smoothly for my luggage after I landed in Amman. Something happened whereby my luggage was not handed off from Emirates to Royal Jordanian and, unbeknownst to me at the time, I caught my connecting flight to Tel Aviv without my luggage.

Only after landing at Tel Aviv at 11pm did I realize that my bags were not in the same city as me. The baggage-handling personnel are less than helpful in Ben Gurion, and there is a significant language barrier. Had I had Google Translate handy as I usually do, things would have gone much smoother. However, in the end, I needed to just blindly trust what the baggage-handling personnel was telling me. I signed a lost-luggage form written entirely in Hebrew (which I do not speak) and bought a hotel in Tel Aviv for the night, trusting the personnel’s assurances that my luggage would arrive in the morning.

Then I got another hotel in Tel Aviv, trusting the new assurances that my luggage would arrive the next morning. Then I extended that hotel for another night, after strong assurances from airport personnel that I need to wait only one more night for my luggage. The next morning I was assured that they knew my luggage was in Amman, that “it is in the system,” and that it will arrive the following morning. Already a good part of my vacation in Palestine had been eaten up in Tel Aviv waiting for my bag, so decided to just wash my clothes and catch a bus to Jerusalem, hoping to return sometime soon to retrieve my luggage.

Shortly after arriving at the bus station in Tel Aviv, it became apparent that the names of all bus terminals are in Hebrew. I know now that this Israeli bus company, Egged, has a portion of its website dedicated to helping English-speakers understand what busses to take. But sans smartphone/laptop one must wait in the customer service lines and battle the language barrier to understand where to be. This usually means you’ll miss the bus and must wait an hour for a new one. C’est la vie.

Luckily I did manage to disembark the bus in Jerusalem and find my way to Hebron, and the next day was able to call the airport to check the status of my bag. I learned that it had been delivered to the hotel I had last stayed at, so the next day I needed to turn right around and head back to Tel Aviv to retrieve it. Unfortunately, the hotel sent my bag to a different hotel, and the hotelier at the different hotel did not know anything about my bag.

Frustrated, exhausted, and already a week into my trip to Palestine, I gave up actively pursuing my bag. I bought new clothes for very reasonable prices in Hebron’s Old City, and decided to look forward and just enjoy what remained of my vacation.

And I bought an iPad.

The moral of this tale of self-pity is simple: Bring your laptop. Each time I needed to deal with an unexpected event in an analog way, delays were added to my journey, my situation was complicated, and my frustration mounted. In hindsight this is entirely expected, since companies have been aggressively cutting down on customer service personnel and non-digital support mediums since the iPhone was released. They expect customers to have their app with schedule-change alerts enabled, or at least a web browser on a device with WIFI.