Traveling to Thailand: Gadgets and you
The tech-savvy traveler goes nowhere with out at the least a smartphone in addition to a laptop. Throw in an mp3 player and an e-reader, and you are going to be toting really a little of technologies. No judging; in recent times it is not straightforward to do devoid of. But taking your gadgets across distances worth eight hours of flying or extra is not like taking the same across the states border. You do not want to wind up with dead batteries as soon as there and no strategy to recharge, and also you definitely do not want your smartphone to go dumb if you need Google Maps to locate that restaurant or that hotel. So here are a handful of factors to remember.
First, a checklist! Bringing your charger and energy cables is a given, but should you be coming to Southeast Asia odds are superior the pins will not fairly match into energy sockets in Thailand and also you need to invest inside a energy adapter or 3. Most hotels in Thailand worth their salt will let you borrow one particular totally free, but it is best to take your personal just in case. For good measure, take several further batteries too: again, there is no telling whether or not you will be stranded in an airport on account of delayed flights or other mishaps and regardless of your finest efforts, your smartphone, iPad or iPod Touch could nevertheless run out of juice mid-flight (though inside the case of iPod Touches and iPads you will be somewhat hard-pressed to swap batteries, so look into power mats alternatively or start thinking of option devices).
Subsequent: flight precautions. While the stewards will bother you about shutting down your devices, some airlines aren't as well strict with this (and present in-flight WiFi to boot). However, if you leave your phone's radio on--that is, the bit that checks for cellphone towers-the battery will drain to nothing at all within an hour or two in the plane's takeoff; practically nothing sucks down energy like a telephone searching for a cell tower although becoming absolutely out of selection of any. How do you repair this without turning your phone off? Uncomplicated: turn on airplane mode. It is going to shut down all phone signal and Bluetooth radio, but you may nevertheless be capable of connect to WiFi (if any is accessible) and you may still use your smartphone for every thing else, whether or not to e-read or play games to pass the time. To do this, dig around in your settings. Airplane mode should really fall under "Wireless network" or even a comparable heading; this can differ from platform to platform.
Just before you touch down at Suvarnabhumi or Chiang Mai International Airport, ensure to Google up your phone's specs. Absolutely nothing complicated! Just attempt a search with "[your phone's model] 900 3g" or "[your phone's model] 850 3g," as these are the two bands most conveniently available in Beach Thailand. At the time of writing, 3G in Thailand is may be had via the carriers AIS and TrueMove, which have licenses for the 900MHz and 850 MHz bands respectively. Assuming your telephone is unlocked and GSM, meaning it has a SIM slot, once you arrive you may slot in an AIS or TrueMove SIM and you are going to be in your merry way. Do not overlook to be sure it's a 3G SIM and don't bother with DTac; they're presently providing data at speeds no greater than Edge and what they do supply just isn't cheaper than their counterpart packages from AIS and TrueMove.
