Now that we are close to the US release of the iPhone, many of us expats here in Thailand are looking forward to being able to buy one here. I know I am.

Looking at the spec it should work fine in Thailand straight out of the box, the reason for this is that the iPhone uses GPRS/EDGE rather than 3G/HSDPA/EV-DO/CDMA or any of the faster data services and THATS GOOD! Thailand has virtually wall-to-wall EDGE service across the country, and even where there are holes in the EDGE network it will fallback to GPRS.

I spoke to Tim at EdgeThailand.com the other day. Tim had been importing and selling all the latest gadgets for years and I’m confident that he will have a batch of iPhones for us here in Thailand within days of the US release..he did not confirm that, but he did not deny it either.

I will be interested to see what the UK spec iphone will have, there is no EDGE in the UK and GPRS whilst it’s ok for fallback is still a bit too slow. Anyone importing “grey market” iphones into Thailand will have it easy if they source them in the US.

Expect to see a review here soon after US launch!

Back in January I decided to buy a Motorbike, and I had figured that a cruiser was what I wanted. I started to look around the bike shops in Northern Thailand and discovered that

1. There are a hell of a lot of bikes for sale in Thailand.
2. Most of them are crap!

I looked at lots of bikes and then decided the choice was down to a Honda Shadow, Kawasaki Vulcan or a Yamaha Dragstar. If money was no object then I would have bought a Harley, of course.

I found my Kawasaki Vulcan Classic in a small bike shop near the airport at Chiang Mai, the shop owner seemed to know what he was selling and his prices were fair. He had a batch of Kawasaki Vulcan VN400A imported bikes that had just come off the boat from Japan, so I picked a bike and then got him to swap a few bits from the others in the batch so that I had just about all the best bits on mine.

When I collected the bike it had a fresh paint job, and all the alloy bits had been polished to look like new, but there were a couple of problems. The front brake was useless and the headlight was not working, so I decided to fix that myself. I traced the headlight problem to a faulty switch and ordered one on ebay which took about a week to arrive. I bought a uprated twin pot caliper with a new set of brake pads, and I changed the brake fluid so that the front brake is like new. The tank badges were not with the bike, I found a new set on ebay for about US$20, and a handful of other bits to finish it off.

The bottom line is that this bike, which is a 1996 model now looks new, drives like new and cost me about 90,000 Thai Baht (under $3000) with all the bits that I bought. Or, about the same price as a new Honda Phantom 200 which is the biggest new bike you can buy in Thailand.

Now I am enjoying my Kawasaki Vulcan, I have not been on any long rides yet but I will do as soon as the rainy season is over. Call me a wimp, but I don’t like getting caught out in the monsoon rains.

My most valuable accessory is the Clymer Workshop Manual that I bought from the states, it turns out that this model is also manufactured by Kawasaki in the USA so parts are plentiful and cheap on ebay.com

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 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.

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?