Jan
07

Pantip Plaza

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If you are a geek, you can’t miss the tech headquarters in Bangkok. It’s called Pantip Plaza, and you can get just about anything you are looking for… RAM, hard drives, curling irons, pens, stationary, robots, puppies, and electric shavers.

I was just telling a friend the other day how the place never lets me leave without spending money! It’s good though, I found a cheap capacitive stylus for my iPad (200 baht) and a micro-to-normal SIM card adapter (70 baht). Both have been incredibly helpful, the latter even more so because I managed to top up the wrong SIM and still need access to it in my Android device. Very cool.

If you are interested in over 4 floors of tech goodness, then don’t miss it. The plaza is a 10 minute walk from Ratchathewi BTS station. Ask anybody in the area and they can point you in the right direction.

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Jan
07

Pantip Plaza

Categories:

If you are a geek, you can’t miss the tech headquarters in Bangkok. It’s called Pantip Plaza, and you can get just about anything you are looking for… RAM, hard drives, curling irons, pens, stationary, robots, puppies, and electric shavers.

I was just telling a friend the other day how the place never lets me leave without spending money! It’s good though, I found a cheap capacitive stylus for my iPad (200 baht) and a micro-to-normal SIM card adapter (70 baht). Both have been incredibly helpful, the latter even more so because I managed to top up the wrong SIM and still need access to it in my Android device. Very cool.

If you are interested in over 4 floors of tech goodness, then don’t miss it. The plaza is a 10 minute walk from Ratchathewi BTS station. Ask anybody in the area and they can point you in the right direction.

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Dec
13

AIS Prepaid Data

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We arrived in Bangkok last night and I decided to get an AIS SIM before our beach days on Koh Chang. I have had good luck in the past with AIS and bandwith, and figured spending an extra couple of bux was worth having consistent internet.

This time I managed to get a micro SIM for my iPad. The price was 69 Baht for the SIM, and 100 Baht for 30 hours of Data. As far as I could tell, there is no way for you to purchase the SIM card and set it up yourself. So, if you would like to try this out you’ll have to find a Telewiz/AIS store. If you are on Khao San, there is a store near the post office (ask and you will be pointed in the right direction).

Why do you need to go to a store you might ask… well, the process actually required me to test compatibility with the Micro SIM (not exactly sure why since iPads are unlocked). It was just a matter of popping in the SIM that they have lying around for testing. Next, another card (full sized SIM) needs to be activated. I’m assuming this is done so that you have a number to top up. Last, a micro SIM card needs to be registered and the information from the previously activated card needs to be transferred. It all seemed like a big effort for something that should be prepackaged.

When I got that done I was rocking out a speed test enroute to my next destination (Koh Chang). Here’s the result from that test:

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Do note this was in a taxi near the Khao San area of Bangkok. The iPad registered the cell service as 3G. Sadly it’s a not quite the 7.2 Mbps as advertised.

UPDATE: Once I got to the island I did another test of the AIS service. Below is a screenshot of the speed test from Koh Chang.

20111213-135312.jpg

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Nov
26

Stray Tour

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Been out and about on a Stray tour for the southern part of Laos. We’ve had various internet speeds along the way, but have been mostly disconnected for a majority of it. I just wanted to update quick to say that we have been out in the middle of nowhere in Laos. I’ll post again soon with some more updates!

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Oct
19

Vietnam

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We’ve successfully finished 2 weeks here in Vietnam. It has been a great mix of culture, food, and of course, a little tech. After a bit of web surfing, and asking a lot of questions to the hostel staff in Hanoi, I was finally able to setup GPRS so we could access the intranet via Vietnam’s cell network (check back for a post on that soon). Of course what would be the fun of mobile internet if I couldn’t do anything on it? Well, I’ll tell you now that I could.

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I did this speed test while on the overnight train from Hanoi to Sapa, the northern most region of Vietnam. You can see why I was quite surprised from the screenshot. The 3G speed sustained well until bedtime when we were far outside of Hanoi. It was perfect for Joel, G, and I. We were easily able to do work, read some websites, and send some emails. It even afforded me the ability to download some moderate size iPad app updates and some festive horror books for the October Season!

So, all-in-all we’ve had very good luck with connectivity while on the roadbeds in Vietnam. The setup was a little hairier than other countries, but only because most of the info wasn’t in English. More on that soon!

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