Ryan Matthew in Thailand

Being gone for 2 months I am going to have to do some internet banking and bill paying. I was barely ok logging into the internet cafe computers for my gmail the last time I was in Thailand (I changed my password like 5 times over 3 weeks). I am not going to be ok logging into one of these computers to do my banking. I guess I know too much about packet sniffers and key loggers to feel comfortable about putting my info in some random computer. So I will be taking a laptop with me this time. (warning geek content) I will also be using a ssh connection to my server to proxy all my web traffic through. This will keep me safe from the shady internet cafes.

Another issue I didn’t have to deal with last time was a visa. When, as an American, you land in Thailand you get a 30 day visa. Well that is not going to be enough for me this time. They do have a 60 day tourist visa, but it must be obtained from an embassy before you arrive. So I will be sending my passport to the Thai embassy in Washington DC to get a visa.

I am debating what I want to do about voice communication this time. If you have read this blog then you know last time I had this cool setup where my verizon cell phone forwarded to voip number here in America that was then forwarded to a cell phone that I had in Thailand.

I am going to go through some of my options and maybe typing it out will make it more clear to me or even better yet maybe I will get some comments with ideas I never thought of.

Things that are for sure:
1. I will have a Thai cell phone that gets free incoming calls
2. I will have a laptop that I can use skype on (when I have a connection)
3. I can use skype to call home an unlimited amount for 3 bucks a month
4. Calling cards to call Thailand are cheap

So my thoughts are to suspend my verizon account for the 2 months that I am gone. Get a Thai cell phone. Buy a calling card for my mom to make her much needed check up on her son calls. And then use skype to call home with.

There are some other things I will need to do and I am sure I will make more posts about them before I go.

I ordered my ticket yesterday to return to Thailand on July 15th. I will be spending 2 months there this time and will return September 8th. I have a million and one things that I will need to do to get ready for this. I will try and make some posts about my trip planning, but I am planning on frequent updates after I arrive in Thailand.

I am leaving tomorrow morning. Look for my first update from Bangkok sometime around Friday afternoon (american time).

***Disclaimer: I am not a doctor***
I get asked what vaccinations I needed to get and what I am doing about malaria a lot. As far as vaccinations go I got Tetanus, Hepatitis A and B done. You really only need to get A done, but my doctor wanted me to get B done also. I am still curious why he wanted me to get that done. My guess is he thinks I am going to Thailand for a different reason than what I am actually going for.

If I was going to be spending time in the remote parts of Thailand I would have probably got a vaccination for Japanese Encephalitis also. That is some nasty stuff that kills lots of people and turns most of the survivor’s brains to mush. But your chances of getting are very slim with the areas I will be in. You can throw Typhoid in there too if you are really paranoid.

Malaria is also very low risk where I will be. So I am actually not going to take anything for it. I will have some malaria medication on hand to take a remedy dose of it if I get sick and think it is malaria. A remedy dose consists of taking 100mg of doxycycline immediately, and 1 pill twice a day for a week. You can buy a remedy dose (14 pills) of doxycycline in Bangkok for a dollar or two at any pharmacy without a prescription.

Malaria causes a flu-like illness and these would include:

• fever
• rigors
• headaches
• sweating
• tiredness
• myalgia (limbs and back)
• abdominal pain
• diarrhea
• loss of appetite
• orthostatic hypotension
• nausea
• slight jaundice
• cough
• enlarged liver and spleen (sometimes not palpable)
• vomiting

Please don’t take just my advice though. Check www.cdc.gov/travel and do your own research on it.

I figured out a way to have a cell phone in Thailand that is going to turn out to be pretty inexpensive. First you need a quad band cell phone that is un-locked so that it can take a SIM card from any carrier. Turns out that I had a NEC 515 that I had unlocked a couple years ago. Well the phone was broken, so I got a almost new one on ebay for 20 dollars. I already had the data cable and knew how to un-lock it. From what I understand you can pick up a basic cell on the 4th floor of the MBK mall www.mbk-center.com in Bangkok for 30-45 dollars that will work. They will also unlock a phone there for pretty cheap. The trick is to make sure your US phone is a quad band phone or it will not work in Thailand.

The next step was to figure out how much a SIM card would cost me in Thailand. After doing so research I found that AIS www.one-2-call.ais.co.th (good luck figuring that web site out) has a prepay plan “one-2-call” that costs about 15 bucks for roughly 500 minutes (I am not positive of that number) of in Thailand calling, and most important it has free incoming calls. It will last for about 100 minutes for calling to the US, but I should not need to do that much.

I will not need to call the US much because, I got a US VOIP phone number that will forward to my cell in Thailand. The cost to call Thailand with a VOIP phone is dirt cheap. I will also have my US cell phone forwarded to my VOIP number. So anyone that calls my US number will get me on my cell in Thailand. I am going to put the email I got from IT Vocal www.ITvocal.com below so that you can see how much the setup and the costs were. All that is left to do at this point is forward my US cell the VOIP number before I leave the US and email IT Vocal my phone number in Thailand after I get it.

Email from IT Vocal:

When someone calls that number (most likely someone within the US), it answered by one of
our PBX servers. We answer the call and immediately place a separate call to the phone
number of your choice (usually an international fixed-net/landline since international
mobile calls are considerably more expensive).

Once the call has been placed to the destination of your choice, we join the calls together.

Costs are determined by the per minute rate of the 1st call segment (usually very low)
combined with the per minute rate of the 2nd call segment (depends on the country and area
of the destination phone number, but always much less than a traditional telephone company
would charge).

Example setup:

+1.222.333.4444 forwarding to +66.2.205.4000
1st segment = answering the call ( ~1c/min)
2nd segment = making the international call ( ~4c/min)

August 2007 Charges:

~$0.05/min (combined) for the voice call (depends on destination number)
$4.00/month per phone number
$1.25 per change of destination number (initial destination number is included)
$5.00 setup fee

For more information, or to request service, please call 1.866.66.VOCAL [1.866.668.6225] www.ITvocal.com

I am not sure if I will try and take my PADI open water certification or not. But I did a lot of research and figured I would pass on the info that I collected.

A board member (that was a instructor on Koh Tao for 2 years) from http://boards.bootsnall.com sent me the following advice:

As for shops…it is a really tough choice and there are several issues.

1) don’t try to go too budget, they will be cutting corners somewhere.

2) meet you instructor before you sign up.

3) try to be in a small group.

Number one is easy – if they are too desperate to get you into the shop or offer you a “deal” don’t go. Number two should be easy. If the school is too big, then you’ll not be able to meet your instructor as they just like a factory.

Number Three is the hardest one of them all.
So I would say, take a few names of schools that interest you. When you get to Koh Tao, get a ride to the school of your choice. Talk to them. Leave your bags there, and walk to a couple of other schools and see how you feel. Comfort and confidence in your instructor is VERY important.

I would suggest Scuba Junction. (I am very good friends with the manager/owner – so take it with a grain of salt). But The manager is VERY anal and strict about standards and I love that. Very well run, and I try to emulate many of his methods in our shop.

I also recommend Big Blue, but only certain instructors. It’s a much larger school and there are shining stars and not-so shining stars. Again, it’s a well run school so standards will be met. I also like the community atmosphere there. People often stay longer than they expect…

Here is a list of websites for diving schools:

http://www.phoenix-divers.com – This is where I did my open water and went back two years later to do my dive master with them. I obviously highly recommend them
http://www.planet-scuba.net
http://www.kohtaodivecenter.com
http://www.crystaldive.com
http://www.taatohdivers.com – highly recommended on boots board
http://www.kohtaobansdiving.com – looks to be the biggest outfit on the island
http://www.bigbubble.info
http://www.divepoint-kohtao.com – another very highly recomended school
http://www.scuba-junction.com – recomended by SimilanDiver on boots
http://www.bigbluediving.com – also recomended on boots as a very experienced teacher

I looked at a lot of sites before I bought my international tickets. I ended up using http://airfare.bootsnall.com/ to buy my ticket. The service was pretty good. They were fast with all the communication we had through email and phone. I think if I ever used them again for a ticket I would try and communicate a little more though email. I spoke to a few people on the phone and none of them spoke very good english. This made it a little confusing for me and I am sure for them too. But like I said the email communication worked much better.

For the domestic flights that I have booked I used www.airasia.com If you book far enough in advance you can get super cheap flights. I was able to get a one way flight for $35 dollars with taxes and everything included. Its barely more than taking a sleeper train to the south and yeah its over twice as much as a bus…but not having to sit on a bus for 12-14 hours is going to be well worth it.

By taking Air Asia I will have to fly in Surat Thani. From the airport I will need to find a taxi or a bus to take me about 45 minutes at this point I will catch a ferry from the mainland to whatever island I will be going to first. Surat Thani is also only a couple hours away from Krabi wich would provide access to the Western coast.

My other option to get to Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, or Koh Tao would have been to take www.bangkokair.com You can fly straight from Bangkok to Koh Samui. This would be much easier and faster than the route I chose, but for this convenience you will pay 3 to 4 times more. Not to mention I wanted the adventure of flying into some random city and having to figure out how to get myself from the airport to the ferry. Also I think that taking a ferry will be a more exciting way to see the Islands for the first time.

Well the time for me to leave for Thailand is coming closer and closer. I wanted to be able to keep all my friends and family updated about my adventure so I setup this blog real quick. I am going to try and make a post every day that I am there. But that will all depend on if I have time or can make it to to a place to use the internet everyday.

My definite plans for the trip are:

1.  Leave Pittsburgh August 16th and arrive in Bangkok just before Midnight on the 17th (24 hours of flights and layovers + 11 hours ahead in time) I will be on Bangkok for about 36 hours on my own and plan to do some shopping
2. I will be staying at Suk 11 when I arrive in Bangkok www.suk11.com
3. I leave Bangkok on August 19th and fly to Surat Thani. After getting to Surat Thani I will take a bus and a Ferry to one of three Islands to meet up with Jill. She does not know where she will be yet, but it will be Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, or Koh Tao.
4. I will spend the next two weeks Island hopping.
5. Jill is going to fly back to Bangkok from Surat Thani with me. I will only be in Bangkok for about 10 hours before I fly back home super early in the morning on September 3rd.