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10 Tips for your long Indochina Trip

Angkor Wat Temple Sunrise

  1. Know the Do’s and Don’ts of each countries you are visiting.  Greet the locals properly with their language and respect their local customs.  They might require you to remove your shoes or dress up accordingly, especially when visiting temples.
  2. Considering the weather and Tip #1, wear comfortable clothes and shoes good for walking a few miles. Don’t bring too much clothes.  Make use of the hotel’s laundry services… it wont cost you much than to pay for an extra weights on airline luggage.
  3. Create a travel itinerary.  Plan ahead!  It helps a lot to get the best of your time during your travel.  Read blogs, reviews and testimonies of the places you are going to visit or the activities you are going to do.  Though itineraries are ideals, consider a list of other places to visit or things to do with-in the area of  your stay for “Plan B”.   Hiring a local guide is also advisable to give you a depth understanding of the culture and story behind of the places you are visting.
  4. Print out your airplane/bus tickets.  Also, keep a printouts of your passport and other secondary ID’s with emergency contact person and numbers at the back.  Of course you can have it on your mobile, but having a printed copy as backup adds peace of mind.
  5. Prepare an offline or printed map with local translation.  It is easier to pinpoint and ask help of the locals when searching for directions using maps with local names of the place, especially when riding a taxi or tuk-tuks.  Uber or Grab taxis are available on some cities and provinces with-in Indochina region, but you need an Internet data connections to book their services.
  6. Enjoy local cuisine and drinks to get the best experience and save moolah.  Observe or ask the locals not the tourist.beers-of-indochina
  7. Bring your meds and also for flu, diarrhea and also a mosquito repellant.  It is safer to have those meds with you when you need it than to ask a local pharmacist.  Keep away from places that might have mosquitos or insects that may cause sickness.
  8. Stay hydrated and drink plenty of clean water especially while enjoying #6.  Drink only from a bottled water or bring water filter with you just to be sure.
  9. You might need to bring a universal travel adapter plugs to charge your gadgets on wall sockets for your power bricks. Check your local standards and compare it to the countries you are visiting.  And also… Most of the hotel rooms have limited power sockets, a lightweight power strips can also save you from hassle of charging multiple gadgets.
  10. Use sling bags or belt bags to secure your gadgets, passports or wallets. Place it in-front of your body and keep on eye on it while walking on city streets and on busy area like public markets.   Although it is less likely to happen, but don’t give pick-pocketers a chance to do it.
  11. [Bonus] DO NOT use public WiFi.  Use VPN to protect your information and privacy and enable firewall on your PCs/Macs. There are many tutorials on YouTube about using VPN for travelers to learn from.
  12. [Bonus] Learn to bargain and practice your acting skills when dealing with the locals.  Don’t look at their eyes if you are not interested. Use #1 as leverage and negotiate using their local language.
  13. [Bonus] Organize your currencies.  Use envelop or currency pouch to separate paper bills and coins.
  14. [Bonus]  Instead of US dollar money changers, use ATM to get local currencies from your beloved currency.
  15. [Bonus] Some countries offers GST refunds on goods and services upon exits.  Keep your receipts to avail if you have plenty of time to line up and filling up forms on airports and on border exits.
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A CircuitrocksPH Experience : Seenzoned

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Frustrations, Unlike other e-commerce site, they will ship your items either with-in the day or the following business day.  But this site called Circuit.rocks doesn’t know the word “Customer Service” at all.
still processingI ordered 13 items worth PhP 3,500 of Arduino’s and some parts late night few days ago in Circuitrocks for my project.  So I expect that they will process it the next day or at least response to my inquiry.  But after calling their number several times and sending private messages to their “Co-Founder” and Facebook Page… I got nothing. I tried calling their number… lucky that someone picked up after few tries… He told me that they already “processing” my order, and they validate payments before business day ends. That was later that night.

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BUT… as of this writing… no updates nor response from Circuit.rocks… I’m little bit frustrated because I expect too much. Unlike http://www.e-gizmo.com/ or http://www.gadgetpinas.ph/ and even https://www.tacticalasia.com … they will give you the tracking numbers once the courier service drop-by as soon as they can and they respond and even call your number.

To Circuit.rocks… prove me wrong… My numbers is on my profile and I sent you PM.

 

UPDATE 2016-10-28 11:06AM:  Finally.. someone responded.

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UPDATE 2016-10-28 11:20AM:  The updated my order with tracker number… lets wait and see

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UPDATE 2016-10-28 01:47PM: DELIVERED AND I’M A FAN NOW!! YIIHAA!!!

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After the drama… Circuitrocks were able to satisfy a customer…  but yet again… they should have answered my messages to avoid miscommunications.  Apparently, they shipped my items yesterday but they failed to update my order status.

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Astricon2006: “in the zone” hours before dCAP certification

DSC03502-2Jet-lagged, pressured, afraid to fail  but inspired and determined.  Ten years ago, 2006, I use an old-laggy laptop lent to me by my boss… Reading the Asterisk PDFs and telecommunications dictionary, the voip-info.org site and practicing and simulating Asterisk configuration.  I took the dCAP certification exam without the “bootcamp” in Dallas, Texas.   After hours of written and hands-on examination,  I became one of the first Digium Certified Asterisk Professional in the Philippines.

Thank you so much Boss Jr. Contreras!

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CableLink TV : Internet Service Provider from Parañaque | Score: VERY BAD

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Speedtest.net

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fast.com by Netflix

These two Internet speed testers provided different results using CableLink TV Internet Service Provider. After several months of complaints through call and on their Facebook page. This service provided did not even bother to improve their service. Their phone support denies that their company is shaping our bandwidth. But using fast.com , obviously they are lying.

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The “Lordman” Marikina Leather Shoes

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Most of the shoes na makikita mo sa malls is either synthetic or over expensive na half-baked leather shoe.  Yung tipong kitang kita mong dinikit lang at madaling masira.
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The only place na tinatakbuhan to get a pair is Marikina Public Market.  Pwede kang makapili from cheaply made to very affordable quality leather shoes, at ang daming pagpipilian.
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My newly found spot is yung Lordman Marikina Shoe store.  They sell genuine leather shoes and belts.  My pair cost me PhP 1,400 … more affordable than the brands sold in malls.

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Drop by kayo sa Lordman shop kung hindi rin kayo satisfied sa mga shoes na nabibili sa malls.   Bukod sa sulit, support the local industry na din 😉