nrvs

Thanks for the helpful responses, both of you.

I think I understand what's going on now. How annoying! The last thing I want to do is go back to MBK to fix it, because I hope to leave Bangkok tomorrow. Can this hard reset be done at typical mobile phone shops elsewhere in Thailand?

I just emailed iMangoWhatever and I will call 1-2-Call later to see if they can unsubscribe me. I couldn't find any applications list in my phone. It's very old -- an o.g. Nokia 3315 straight out of 2000.

Mark

Yesterday I purchased an old secondhand Nokia phone at MBK for use on my holiday. The shop assistant activated a 1-2-Call SIM and we tested it before I left the stall. No problems. An hour later I was bored on the bus, so I checked the balance (*121#). I discovered that I had 0 baht left. 15 baht came with the SIM, so I don't know what happened.

Still, I didn't think much of it, and bought a 100 baht top-up card at 7-11 last night. I successfully added 100 baht (*121# showed 100 baht). But this morning I got a SMS that my balance was running low. I checked and saw that I only had 35.80 baht remaining! During this time I hadn't made any calls or sent any texts at all. Even if I mistakenly made a call, it wouldn't cost 64.2 baht. Almost immediately afterwards, I got another SMS: "Thanks for using iMangoWeb service. Please use GPRS-Internet for optimal browsing speed. Click Cancel in My-Account section of iMango to unsubscribe." This is ridiculous because this Nokia doesn't have web-browsing capability -- it doesn't even have a color LCD!

So...<deleted>? Can someone explain what's going on here? How I can avoid having it happen again?

Thanks in advance,

Mark

Hello Chris:

Thank you very much for your response.

Ban Salok Bat sounds like a good spot to stop off along the way. And only 5km from a bat/monkey park with...uh, evening entertainment? Sounds good to me, even if I have to cycle on a busy highway for a few hours. Thanks for the tip. I've marked it in my GPS device.

Still, it'll be a tough choice. Thaivisa poster Tim has offered to arrange a homestay with his neighbors in Bang Ta Ngai. It's along 1084 near Banphot Phisai. It's closer to Nakhon Sawan than Kamphaeng Phet, but it could break up the 130km nicely.

Most of all, thanks to your wife for her suggestion about safety. I'm actually looking to stick to small roads for much of my ride, just because I think there will be less traffic (an immediate threat to my life as a bicyclist). Have there been incidents of foreigners being targeted in this area? I may have to reconsider. I'm a pretty big guy and am not a good target to most people, but yaabaa surely gives criminals the illusion of strength...

Thanks again,

Mark

Hello Thaivisa:

I hope to ride my bicycle north from Ayutthaya in December. I've got a plan from Ayutthaya - Lopburi - Chainat - Nakhon Sawan and again from Sukhothai north to Chiang Mai.

However, according to the internet, there remains ~130km between Nakhon Sawan and Kamphaeng Phet without any obvious tourist spots or places to stay. I don't think I'll be riding on Highway 1 from Nakhon Sawan, but on Route 1084. It runs parallel to Highway 1 on the opposite side of the river. I hope it will be more pleasant to ride on. Are there Thai-style roadside "resorts" or concrete-block hotels along Route 1084? Or maybe along Highway 1 instead? In any case I'm not averse to loading my bike onto the bus between NS and KP, but I do like to ride whenever possible.

Any advice you could offer about this area of central Thailand OR points north would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you very much,

Mark

P.S. I can speak and read Thai so language won't be a problem.

i ended up buying tickets jfk-icn-hkg return on asiana (1476 usd) and mfm (macau)-bkk return on air asia (172 usd) for my winter trip to se asia.

i almost bought a ~1390 USD japan airlines ticket jfk-nrt-bkk return, but i read too many horror stories about jal's 30" seat pitch. that's fine for japanese people, but i stand 6'2". asiana has 34" seat pitch in economy! i can also accrue united mileage plus miles on asiana since they're part of the star alliance.

although i'm looking forward to spending a few days in hong kong and macau, the 1717 usd i paid thai airways last winter seems like such a great deal. oh well.

well, i'm glad i had the opportunity to fly on the jfk-bkk nonstop at least once!

it was a real pleasure. not even considering thai airlines' superior service, flying to the west coast of the u.s. from philadelphia and then onward to bangkok via narita (on united) isn't much fun. i flew bkk-jfk-bkk last winter -- it was so exciting seeing that thai airbus waiting for me at the gate in new york city.

i was hoping to fly that route again this december. i think the ewr-sin nonstop on singapore airlines might be a good replacement. or should i just fly via japan as usual? what do all of you think?