I just returned from a trip to Bangkok which is 650 Km away, easy enough to get there as Thai roads are excellent and well signposted in English, but getting around Bangkok by car is a bloody nightmare if you get lost.

In December last year I bought a new car and decided that the time was right to buy a GPS unit. To be honest there is not much choice in Thailand, and after a chat with Maurice at Eagle GPS in Chiang Mai I went for the Garmin Nuvi 300.

Now 6 months later I simply would not consider driving any distance without my Garmin, the maps are excellent and it’s so very easy to use. Outside of Bangkok I’m fairly good at finding my way around, but the Nuvi can find things like fuel stations, ATMs and Hotels for me which is more useful than it sounds.

The last update to my Nuvi was in January so I am hoping now that there will be an update soon as there are a lot of new roads in Thailand. The software is licenced from ESRI in Thailand, and they supply updates via dealers rather than by download..so I’m hoping that Eagle GPS stay in business for a while yet!

If you have a Garmin from outside of Thailand you can buy just the maps for 11,200 baht which is good value if you are planning on staying a while and driving about, especially driving in Bangkok.

I spent a couple of hours this week looking at lots of portable DVD players in MBK shopping center in Bangkok. I decided a while ago that despite their higher price than the nameless clones, Sony seem to be making the best of the portable players.

Sony have just released the DVP-FX850 which looks to be the one to beat.

Spec includes a 8 Inch, 180 degree swivel screen, USB port to allow viewing of photos on a usb stick or playback of MP3 files ona memory stick. The player is described as being compatible with DivX format but it’s not clear if you can play movies that are on a USB stick.
The battery is described as 6 hour. I have failed to be impressed in the past with Sony’s description of battery life vs real world use, but even if makes it to 5 hours that’s not bad.

Included is a nice little credit card sized remote control.

I reckon this is the nicest portable DVD player that I have seen, but I’m at a loss to why Sony could not include a couple of card readers and allow support for playback from them, that should result in better battery life too. For now, it’s my top choice. The Sony feels like a quality bit of kit and for my money it’s the one to have.

I downloaded the Parallels trial and tried it with Windows 2000 by installing windows under the Parallels environment. It worked like a dream and it installed all the correct drivers the moment I selected Install Parallels Tools from the menu.

My trial expired and I decided to buy it online, I also decided to buy Windows XP to replace my old but very original Windows 2000 and to use XP with Parallels..this is where the problems began because I read that I could use a boot camp partition for Paralells and it sounded like the perfect scenario.

I installed boot camp and then installed Windows XP together with my new licence from Microsoft. I installed the drivers and checked that windows was working perfectly under boot camp, then I activated Windows XP on my MacBook Pro.

Next I licenced Parallels and removed the Windows 2000 configuration and virtual hard drive from parallels..not easy as you need to do it manually. Then I re-installed Parallels and took the option to use the boot camp partition. It started very slowly and then windows said it had noticed a significant change of hardware and needed to be re-activated within 3 days..oops. So I clicked “Activate Windows” and it failed.

I did a search on Google and found hundreds of other users had the same problem, some of them stuck in a perpetual loop of having to re-activate windows by phone when switching from boot camp to parallels… I was not impressed.

My other gripe is that running Parallels with windows that’s on a boot camp partition is slow and cumbersome. This makes it not practical to start a Windows App in coherence mode, which is the main reason why I licenced Parallels.

My solution was to have Windows XP on boot camp and have a fresh install of Windows 2000 running from a virtual hard drive in Parallels, so I can at least use my windows apps in coherence mode…this is important to me as there are one or two apps that I need but I do prefer the Mac OS for most of the time. Also I need to be able to boot to windows via Boot Camp for apps that need to use the 3D graphics card (Flight Simulator is the only one at the moment).

In conclusion.. Parallels is great, but don’t even think about using it with a boot camp partition.. it’s awful, instead install a virtual drive and use it like that..much better.

I have always been a big fan of real wireless data. Not the Wi-Fi rubbish that is about as useful as a cordless phone, but GPRS. EDGE, 3G HSDPA or EV-DO technologies which allow real wireless freedom.

Since I changed to a MacBook Pro I have had to use a mobile tethered to my my Mac by a USB cable, not very elegant and to be honest the data rate has never been able to match my trusted old Sierra Wireless 860 which will not fit in the Mac’s Expresscard slot.

I just found salvation in the form of a Novatel Merlin XU870 supplied by www.edgethailand.com.

The card is a dream to use, supplied from Edge Thailand complete with data sim card and easy to use software for both Mac and PC, and it’s quick too.

Now I’m truly mobile once again, thanks to Tim at Edge Thailand.

A friend of mine who has lived in some very interesting places around the world shared a theory with me a little while ago. His theory is that you can judge the cost of living in any country by two things:

1. The cost of a Big mac
2. The price of the cheapest washing machine.

I was not convinced, however after a bit of research I have to agree with him. It’s True!

In Thailand a Big Mac is about 70 baht , Thats 1 UK pound or about $2 US, and a basic washing machine in Tesco is about 3000 Baht which is 46 UK pounds or about 91 US Dollars.

I’m sure that if I had the time or the inclination I could work out a formula to prove this theory, but I don’t have either.. let’s just say that I am convinced and it should at least be taken as pretty good indicator of the cost of living.

I love eBay, I really do. I live in Thailand and there are many things that I just cannot source locally, eBay is nearly always the answer if the item I want is not too heavy or bulky.

A few months ago I bought a Kawasaki Vulcan motorbike from a local dealer which had just been imported from Japan. I’m really very fussy about my bikes and I like everything to be perfect and original, and though my Kawasaki looks like new it is in fact a few years old. I made a list of all the things I needed to make it perfect, including changing a few after market items for Kawasaki original items, including the front turn indicators.

I found everything I needed on eBay, and with a combination of bidding and using “Buy Now” I had bought everything that I needed..so I sat back and waited for it all to arrive.

All items except the Indicators had arrived within 2 weeks, so after about 3 weeks I sent a polite email to the seller who is based in Canada. I asked him if he could just confirm posting and let me know which carrier he had used. I explained that I’m not in a panic for the parts but that I would like to be reassured that they are on their way. He replied to state that he has sent them by surface mail! Whoa, Canada is on the other side of the world, and I know from experience that the postage price I paid was more than enough to cover air mail (I did check this with Canada Post to be sure). I asked the seller if he had proof of posting, a tracking number and if he could let me know the actual postage cost.. guess what, no reply!

Now before I go any further I know that the postage cost can be used by the seller to cover all his or her costs and will often be more than the “actual” postage cost. But this guy charged me a lot more than the “actual” cost of airmail and then sent it by surface mail, which to me is wrong.

Anyway, fast forward nearly 2 months and I’m still waiting. I have now emailed him and told him that IF he does not have a tracking number or proof of postage then I’m holding him responsible and I’m inviting him to suggest a course of action before I leave feedback for him. I really really do not want to leave negative feedback for this guy, but I feel cheated on the postage and I’m out of pocket USD $79 for a pair of indicators..not to mention I cannot finish my bike.

Any comments from readers would be welcome. Am I being hard on this guy or should I go ahead and neg him?

For a couple of months now I have been using a Blackberry Pearl, but as I have a Prepaid AIS Sim Card I have not been able to use data services.. not until today.

Usually I leave my phone switched on all the time, but last night I had a headache so I decided to switch off my phone and go to lie down for a couple of hours. When I woke up I forgot to switch my phone on and did not do so until midday today. Immediately I switched it on I got an SMS message from Blackberry with the following message:

From: BlackBerry
Subject: Registration
Your handheld has been registered with the wireless network.

Hmm, surprising as I’m not paying a subscription.

Then I noticed that the edge logo was uppercase EDGE, I had never seen that before as it only happens when a BlackBerry has data enabled, also the normal message that says “Data Connection Refused” was not there.

I switched the phone off and on a couple of times, and still my phone registers on the data network with no active subscription, Im totally baffled as to why.

I went to the AIS BlackBerry website to look for more info, but none is available. I guess they are just testing something on the network or there is a problem that is allowing unsubscribed BlackBerry handsets to register, but whatever the reason I’m getting data service on my prepay sim as confirmed by the diagnostic utility.

After searching high and low for a genuine copy of Windows in Thailand I had to resort to buying it online direct from Microsoft.

It’s amazing that Microsoft don’t see fit to actually make the effort to sell Windows in Thailand. Actually they do, they sell a limited version of it which has stuff missing and only allows you to have a couple of applications running at a time..even then it’s only a couple of shops in Bangkok that sell that, in a country of 64 million people. REAL Windows XP is impossible to find in Thailand.

Even new PC’s and Notebooks do not normally come with Windows as an option here. The exception is a few of the more expensive notebooks, but 90% of PC’s and Notebooks come OS free and the shop will ALWAYS install a copy of windows and microsoft office etc on the computer after the sale.

Tesco and Carrefour supermarkets here sell a good range of PC’s and Laptops, NONE of which have any option at all to buy windows, yet it magically appears complete with activation crack on the computer before it’s handed to the customer. It’s a cultural thing I guess and I’m convinced that most of the sellers don’t even know that there is any reason why anyone should pay for windows.. well no more than the $2.50 price of the copy CD anyway.

My Windows XP is real, I bought it online direct from Microsoft Singapore and it was delivered next day by Fed-Ex, the cost was just 3910 Baht. What I actually got is the Windows Genuine Advantage Kit, a Windows CD and some notes about how much better it is to use genuine Windows rather than a copy. I’m just annoyed that I had to buy it from Singapore…

My Toyota Vios will be due it’s 20,000 km service in the next week or two, I had been thinking of changing it shortly but considering the amount of kilometers I’m putting on it I think I will just keep it.

I bought it brand new in December 2006, it was a recent face lift model so I expected to be seeing a new model in the next couple of years, but they released the mew model in Febuary, just 2 months after I bought mine. The nice girl at the Toyota dealer said that I could return mine and get a new model without it costing me too much (though she did not specify how much) and I figured that it might be a sensible move. Trouble is that I just cannot make up my mind about the new model, and when I bought this car I expected to keep it a few years not just a few months!

I really like my Vios, for those of you not familiar with the model they are built by Toyota Thailand and marketed in Thailand, Malaysia and Singapore. It has a 1500cc VVTI Twin Cam Fuel Injected engine which is sooo sweet. They are priced at the lower end of the market, mine was just 480,000 baht with a discount, though I upgraded the wheels to the ones in the picture above which took it to 498,000 baht. I got loads of free extras including 12 months first class insurance, over mats, tinted windows etc.

My only real gripe is that wish I had not got a black one! The black paint looks fantastic when it’s clean, but Thailand is such a dusty country that it’s never clean.

Thailand is not the sort of country where you wash your own car, it’s either baking hot or it’s dark..not much in between. When I do wash it myself I end up drenched in sweat and it looks like I pointed the hose at myself. Also, it’s cheap enough to get it professionally cleaned every week or so and it helps keep the local car cleaning lads in a job. The cost of a proper hand wash and valet inside and out about 100 baht ($2.20), shockingly cheap compared to the west.. but hey, why do you think I live in Thailand?

I finally bought the MacBook Pro 17″ that I had been promising myself for ages, and to say that I am pleased with is an understatement to say the least. It’s fast thank’s to its Core 2 Duo 2.33ghz processor and 2gb of memory, and the screen it totally amazing.

Being located in northern Thailand there is never very much choice when it comes to buying Mac hardware, but fortunately my local Mac dealer MacZone are very helpful and thoroughly professional, which is not always the case with dealers in Thailand. I emailed them on the Friday to ask how long it would take them to get one for me (it’s not a stock item) and by 2pm the next day they had one sent by courier to their office in Chiang Mai for me to collect.

Anyway, I still have a few lingering doubts about my ability to totally give up on windows, so I decided to run Windows XP via Parallels. This introduced the first of my problems, as I found it totally impossible to buy a genuine copy of Microsoft Windows in Chiang Mai (Only the second biggest city in Thailand), so I called my friend Tim in Bangkok and asked him if he could pick one up for me. After a few hours of scouring Bangkok’s IT malls he had the same result.. Nobody is selling “real” Windows XP.

The Biggest IT retailer in Thailand “IT City” had Windows in stock for 3999 baht but it has a big sticker one the side of the package stating “Not for retail sale, only to be supplied with a new PC”, I pointed this out to a bemused sales assistant who suggested that I go next door and buy a fake copy for 100 baht ($2.50) the same as everyone else!

Now let me make my position clear, my decision to buy “Genuine” is not on moral grounds, it’s simply too much of a headache running unlicenced windows and putting up with error messages. Even when it’s cracked you know that the next update may well cause all the error messages to start again.

In the end I bought a Windows licence online direct from Microsoft, for 3910 baht, which is just over $100. They said that the CD would take up to 4 weeks to arrive, but they sent it Fed-Ex from Singapore and it was here the next day!

So, now I’m the happy owner of a 17″ Macbook Pro with genuine Windows and MacOS, but I didnt get on too well with Parallels so I ended up with a plain Boot Camp partition.