Category Pages For: Practicalities

Along-the-way practical experiences and lessons learnt which may be of interest or use to my readers

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GENERIC: OVERVIEW People say that, when you come to India, you either love it or you hate it. In this post I give you some important tips, tricks, and traps that (hopefully) will help you love it … rather than hate it. As I learn more, I will update this post with new information … if you plan on coming to India, why not tag this page so that you can get the latest information before you arrive. MONEY The currency in India is the Rupee (the ‘INR’ or ‘rs’). At the time of writing, the exchange rates for the […]

India – Tips, Tricks & Traps

AUGUST 2016: Why not read our Mexico Retirement Reviews. OVERVIEW: If you are considering buying a mobile phone prepaid plan in Mexico, you will most likely end up buying one from TELCEL. TELCEL has the widest coverage. MY STORY: I plan to travel in Mexico for 4-5 months. I will be travelling to some remote places. I need TELCEL’s wide coverage. I do not call or text often. When I do, I am happy to pay by the minute. I need a prepaid Data Only plan that allows me to connect to and communicate through the internet. I arrived in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico […]

TELCEL – Mexico – Buying A Prepaid Plan

MARCH 2016: Why not read our Philippines Retirement Reviews. OVERVIEW: I was, primarily, in Boracay to extend my Tourist Visa. I was given a free 1 month Tourist Visa in Manila on entry to The Philippines (this is standard for most people) whilst in transit to Puerto Princesa. You can only get the 6 month LSVVE (Long Stay Visitor Visa Extension) in Manila. I was only in transit in Manila – so I could not get one. So, I extended my free Visa in Puerto Princesa. For this first extension, I was only allowed to extend for 29 days. The cost was PHP3130. […]

Boracay – Philippines – Visa Extensions

DECEMBER 2015: SUMMARY: When I started my travels in November 2014, I went with an ASUS Transformer Book T100 which had excellent online reviews. In my own ASUS Transformer Book T100 Review, I told you about how maddening the T100 was in real life and how disappointed I was with it. What this experience did was help me really focus on exactly what I needed out of a 2-in-1. When I briefly returned to NZ in August 2015, I purchased an ACER Switch 10E at the Harvey Norman online store for NZ$499 (US$329). Here is my practical review of the ACER […]

ACER Switch 10E – Review

NOVEMBER 2015: OVERVIEW: I purchased an Acer Switch 10E 2-in-1 Tablet when back in New Zealand to complete the Sale Of My House. I was disappointed with the Asus Transformerbook T100 that I had purchased for the first part of My Travels. As a side note, I am much happier with the Acer Switch. The Acer Switch came with Windows 8. After first boot-up and configuration, Windows Update upgraded me to Windows 8.1 After Windows 8.1 had FULLY INSTALLED (with about 5 cycles of updates!), I chose to upgrade further to Windows 10 (for free). Unlike some, I am reasonably […]

WINDOWS 10 – Can’t Connect To This Network

AUGUST 2015: YOU MUST READ THIS: If you are going to Kuta, Bali, Indonesia and expect to change money, BEWARE and read on… This is, most probably, NOT CONFINED TO KUTA. This could be happening all over the island – and, maybe, further field. A HISTORY LESSON: I remember back in 1989, when I first went to Bali, changing some money at a Money Changer in Candidasar. I caught the girl behind the counter ‘flicking’ some of my notes under the counter as she was counting them. When I counted what she gave me I was about 5-10% short. When challenged, she ‘discovered’ […]

Kuta – Bali – Indonesia – Money Changer SCAM

JANUARY 2015: SUMMARY: Don’t buy one. If you are a ‘light’ user, why not get a proper tablet like a Galaxy Note or iPad. If you are a ‘serious’ user, get something else. I replaced mine with an ACER SWITCH 10E. SPECIFICATIONS: For detailed specifications, follow this link: http://www.engadget.com/products/asus/transformer/book/t100/specs/ In summary, it is a convertible tablet / laptop with: Wiindows 8.1 64GB of MMC Storage 10.1 inch screen Quad Core Baytrail processor 2GB of RAM Microsoft Office 2013 A long battery life (upto about 11 hours) If you check out the internet, it gets excellent reviews from all of the usual information sources. […]

ASUS Transformer Book T100 Review

DECEMBER 2014: I Wanted Two 128GB (Micro) SD Cards: I have purchased a Tablet (ASUS Transformer Book T100) to take with me instead of a Laptop computer. The Tablet has a MicroSD slot. Packing a couple of MicroSDs makes a lot more sense to me than packing a couple of External USB Hard Disk drives. The first 128GB MicroSD will be enough storage for my web materials and all of the photos that I am likely to take. The second MicroSD will be backup. I thought that readers may want to know about the bad experience that I have had with eBay and PayPal. […]

The SD Card SCAM