My first question to the desk clerk at a hotel in a strange country is no longer, “What time does the restaurant close?” It’s more often, “Where I can get a SIM card?” $2-a-minute voice and $10-a-megabyte Internet roaming in many parts of the world make acquiring a local card a must. I recently had a pleasant first morning in an Egyptian town center haggling for a data-only 3.75G SIM card. I paid — or rather overpaid — about 30 bucks for 4 MB, which was plenty for a week’s Skype calling, Dropbox photo uploads, and continuous Web browsing. 
