Vodafone Pocket Wifi Pro weird symbol (circle with up arrow)

Device: Vodafone Pocket Wifi Pro aka Huawei WIFI Pro aka R205

Ok so I pulled my pocket wifi out of my bag and this is what I see. I've never seen it before and I've been using it for over a year now.

The power button doesn't do anything. The only thing that worked was pulling the battery out.

If anyone can explain what this means I would greatly appreciate it. I called Vodafone and they had no idea.

2013 Trip to India

So my Project Manager asks me to step into an office. On arriving I was told I was heading off to India for 4 weeks and they wanted me to fly ASAP. They suggested Sunday night. This being 4pm on Thursday mind you. I said I'll have to get back to them as I will need to see what I need to do before I left. Having just been side swiped less than a week earlier I needed to organise to get my car to the panel beaters not to mention I needed to organise a real estate agent for my newly vacated property.

I somehow managed to get everything organised. Dropping off my car keys to the panel beaters on Monday and signing up a real estate agent on Tuesday. Flying out on Wednesday morning.

I'm not ashamed to admit I was a little apprehensive about this trip. But as a keen traveller I couldn't turn down to get another stamp in my passport. This is probably the last trip I'll make with this passport as it expires this year.

My flight was with Singapore airlines. So I flew from Melbourne to Singapore where I had a 4 hour stop over then Singapore to Hyderabad. On my Melbourne to Singapore flight. I experienced my first aborted landing. The plane came down and it felt like we were centimeters above the ground. But we never touched down... We kind of skimmed the runway for what seemed like a long time. Having flown quite a bit I knew something wasn't quite right and I heard the engines spin up and the nose of the plane pulling up. We had to loop around to come down for a safe landing. The experience wasn't scary just interesting. The pilot came on the PA system to reassure his passengers... But he had a touch of concern on his voice... I assume that was from the stress
of the aborted landing.

So I arrived in Hyderabad on Wednesday night. On Thursday night I thought I would go for a bit of an adventure. I asked the hotel where I can go for a bit of a walk to explore. He suggested I take an "auto" (aka Tuktuk in Thailand) about 3km south to a restaurant that serves bryani. I followed the instructions ate my dinner. The bryani was nice but the place wasn't very clean so I won't mention it's name.

After dinner I thought I would go for a walk. Having a quick look on my phone showed me that the hotel was to the north west of the restaurant. So I made my way in that direction. This is were I found a night market. Definitely not one for tourists. There was fresh produce and household goods. Pedestrians and vehicles shared the road which made for an interesting walk. Having to dodge holes in the ground, cars and motorbikes. I noticed that there were a lot of young children manning these stores.

Asus Transformer Infinity TF700T Review

Purchased: 18 August 2012

Expected uses:
Review images from camera while on holidays.
Watch shows while on the daily commute.
Navigation while travelling.
Navigation while 4WDing.

As of 5 Sep 2012:
Watched shows on the daily commute.
Used as netbook while travelling to Hong Kong and China.
Writing up this blog post while in China.

Pros:
This tablet packs a lot of processing power. Enough to watch HD movies without having to re-encode the movies. Which is a huge benefit for me.
It's very portable and easy to carry and use. My laptop is a Dell XPS 16 which is large and heavy so I needed a device I can carry around everyday. The TF700 fits the bill nicely.
It's very easy to transfer movies, music and ebooks to the tablet via the micro SD card. This is actually the main reason why I bought this tablet over the new iPad.
I had an Android phone with a number of purchased apps. With the android tablet I can bring these apps across without much fuss or having to repurchase them.
Very good battery life. I've been using this tablet while travelling through Hong Kong and Western China. The tablet will last me the while day without any trouble. I'm very impressed considering the size of the screen and all the included technology.

Cons:
There aren't many apps specifically developed for android tablets yet. Which means most of the apps I'm using are actually developed for the phone. Which is ok in most cases. It just means some of the interface might not sit correctly. Or look kind of large or kind of small. In other cases it causes the app to crash or cause the tablet to restart. I will give the Android app market some time. I hope devs catch up. But considering android tablets have been out for some time now. I don't think the android market will. Currently iPads dominate the tablet scene so most devs are trying to hit the largest market.
Accessories are few and far between. There are NO accessories being sold in Australian stores for the TF700. I've even gone as far as Hong Kong to look for accessories to no avail. I'm going to have to buy online which is a shame as I wanted to try out the covers before I buy them but I don't have a choice with this tablet.
Not being able to charge from a standard USB port. The TF700 requires 15W to charge. Which can't be drawn from a standard USB port. This means owners of the TF700 need to use the included charger to charge the tablet. Although there's plenty of life in the stock batteries. So you wouldn't usually need a charge too early anyway.
There appears to be a known bug that causes apps to crash on this tablet. I noticed it because I was using Google maps heavily while I was in China. Here is a report of the issue: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=30737043#post30737043 The saving grace:Apparently this is fixed in the Jellybean update.

Conclusion:
It's a great device. The hardware specs are great. The thing that lets this tablet down is the software. If the Android ecosystem is to survive they need to ensure only well written software (at least for the hardware drivers) are released. Or they will quickly lose the small market share they currently hold.

Mail in the UK

OK, I've had it with the mail service in the UK.

I've had a number of packages waiting for me at the Post office. Waiting for me to pick up, as I wasn't home when they tried to deliver. I don't have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is not being left a card, to let me know this is the case.

I've never had that happen to me in Australia and I've never had any packages lost in the mail in the 7 years that I've been on eBay and doing online purchases. That was until I started buying things online in the UK.

Over the last 3 months:

Service	Expected	Received/Carded	Picked up but not carded	Missing	Notes
DHL	3	3	0	0	All packages were received in the leadup to Christmas. Top job DHL.
Parcelforce	1	0	1	0
Royal Mail	18	11	3	4	One package was missing but ended up being returned to sender

I'll let you do the maths but those aren't great odds.

And yes I know there's been bad weather and Christmas is always a little crazy. But I've done transactions in Australia around Christmas time and I've NEVER experienced any losses.

In the 5 months that I've been in my new address in London I've received 2 letters for someone else. This doesn't include past residents but letters that have a different address, different post codes. It's almost like the sorting office just sent random mail to random addresses.

Just last night my friend in Australia informed me that one of her parcels which she sent to me in November 2010 has just returned to her in Australia. Indications are a delivery attempt was made on 14 Jan 2011. And then it was sent to the post office for collection. But I never received a card. She received it back in Australia on 28 Jan 2011.

She sent another package earlier in Jan which luckily she had tracking for. Again delivery was attempted on 24 Jan 2011. But I never received a card.

I actually think this is criminal. There are some fundamental issues with the UK postal service. But it seems it's all too hard to fix.

I tried to submit a complaint to Royal Mail via their website. I've been told to send it in writing to:
Royal Mail
Complaints Department
PO Box 740
Glasgow
G22 6WW

So save yourself some time and send it in writing to the above address if you are fed up with Royal mail.

I'm going to send a complaint to Parcelforce later today as well:
http://www.parcelforce.com/portal/pw/content2?catId=2500046&mediaId=19900226

Travel Tip: Aussies travelling overseas

Ok so I packed up my life and headed off on my big adventure. I'm going to write about stuff that I think will help other travellers who might be following in my foot steps.

The main concern for most travellers is currency exchange. Do I exchange to cash, traveller's cheques or use my card?

Well it's always good to have a main source and to also carry a backup.

So I took cash as my backup and I have a "Wizard Clear Advantage" Mastercard. It's a no frills credit card. Which has minimal fees but their customer service isn't particularly great. What they do have is no "foreign transaction fee". Which means you can purchase something overseas and not get slogged with an extra fee. Another thing you can do with this card is withdraw cash overseas. You can do this without incurring interest or fees by overloading your card with your own money.

So hypothetically lets say my credit limit is AU$2000. I would pay the credit card up so it has a $0 balance and then load up an extra AU$500 for my trip. So when I log into the credit card's web site I would see Available cash: $2500. I would then rock up to any ATM which accepts Mastercard and then withdraw the funds I needed.

One thing to note, some ATMs will charge you a fee. I wasn't fully aware of this before I landed in Thailand. Most ATMs in Thailand will charge you a 150baht fee. But there is one bank/company which doesn't. Look for AEON ATMs they are usually near Lotus supermarkets. They didn't charge me a fee when I withdrew money from their ATM. But all other ATMs that I used did.

Having said all that. Thailand and Malaysia do have very good exchange rates in those small booths. So bringing cash works quite well in those countries. Countries like the UK and Japan don't have great exchange rates out on the street and for these countries I would recommend my Card method of exchange.

The exchange rate at Aussie exchange booths back at home are terrible. They're ok for small exchanges but if you are going for a long period then I would use the card method. Having said that it's always good to have a little foreign currency to get out of the airport. As exchange booths at airports are far worse.

Another thing to take note of and research are vaccinations. You can just go to your family doctor and get jabbed for everything but you might find that you don't actually need them. Do the research and you might save yourself some money (and a little pain).

The cheapest travel insurance that I have been using over the last 6 years is "Defence Health" travel insurance. I found them while I was serving with the Army Reserves but they also sell policies to civvies. They are the cheapest for international travel insurance (that I could find). But again do your own due diligence. One thing of note, especially for those heading over for long periods like myself. They don't refund your policy pro-rata if you return early. And your policy ends when you set foot back on Australian soil. So if you have a 12 month policy and you come home to visit family 6 months in. Your 12 month policy ends and you don't get any refund for the unused portion. You will need to take out another policy before you return overseas. So what you can do is take out a short policy and then extend the policy up to 12 months. But please check this as their policies might change.

Make sure you read the fine details of your insurance policy to cover you against the activities you plan to do. I know it sounds like simple common sense. But you'll be surprised at what activities you are NOT covered for.

More to come...

Chan's trip since 1st July 2010

Ok, sorry for not posting earlier but internet access was somewhat slow off GPRS.

My flight from Melbourne to KL on 1 July 2010 was pretty uneventful. But it was late by about 30mins which ate into my 2 hour transfer time to my next flight from KL to Bangkok. Luckily that flight was delayed due to weather anyway so I had plenty of time. But LCCT, KL airport's budget terminal can be a bit of a nightmare for the uninitiated even for the veteran traveller. I'm happy to report that AirAsia's new seats are a big improvement over the previous version. More room and you can actually lean your seat back. Although they don't have power points for every seat anymore. Which for an IT guy is a bit of a pain. Luckily I have 5 mobile phone batteries and 2 seasons of Lost to keep me sain. The lay flat seats were actually lay flat. Close but not quite. I'm considering upgrading my seat just for the power point so I can watch movies on the flight from KL to London. I'll have to see how my finances are like.

My flight from KL to Bangkok as mentioned was late due to weather which was a blessing and a pain. It meant my Aunty and Uncle had to wait until about 11pm for me which obviously isn't good. And the approach to Bangkok airport was some what turbulent so much so that the flight host/hostess's had to drop to the floor and there were a few screems from the passengers. It was actually kinda fun. Oh and the lady sitting next to me had a bottle of water in her handbag which exploded due to the decreased pressure. This of course meant that there was water dripping down from teh overhead compartment. Fun and joys of traveling through south east Asia I suppose.

I spent 6 days with my Aunty Namtip, uncle Bong and cousin Tana. I have high hopes for Tana. His English is pretty much as good as a native speaker and he's a bright kid. My time with my family was quite busy. My grandfather was in hospital recovering from an operation so we spent a bit of time with him there. I also spent a bit of time wondering around central Bangkok window shopping and also checking out the damage caused by the recent riots. I'm glad to report that there isn't any more unrest and things are pretty much back to normal. Although there are some buildings that were burnt most places are up and running as per usual.

I attended a ceremony for my father on the 6th of July. It was a very quick one as my step mom and sisters had to go to work and school respectively.

I met up with Jocelin and Adrian on the 6th of July for our flight from Bangkok to Koh Samui. The flight was in a turbo prop plain which means the propellers were exposed. This is my first time in this kind of aircraft so it was a little exciting. It was a pretty small plane but it did the job.

We arrived in Koh Samui and were picked up by the resort transfer guy. We stayed in a resort called "The Kala". It was a pretty flash resort. I think I will be taking Anna back there at some stage. Although there were two things that weren't so good. First was the location being a few kilometres from the nearest eatery and there was no Wifi internet. But the views were to die for. Definately made the trip that much easier.

We expected good diving off Koh Saumi. But we found that although there were heaps of dive shops there wasn't actually any dive sites off Koh Samui. It appears people use it as a launching point to go to Koh Tao. We did how ever do one day of diving from Koh Samui on a site called Sail Rock. It was ok but the vis was poor by my standard. Joz and Adrian loved it though. We also spent half a day snorkelling off Lamai beach. I sustained a few cuts when I slipped off some rocks but nothing that a few days of healing won't mend.

So we've now arrived in Koh Tao. We took the Lomprayah Catamaran from Koh Samui to Koh Tao. It made two stops in between where some of the passengers got off. Apparently one of our bags which contained all of our snorkeling gear was mistakenly offloaded in one of these stops. So the lesson learnt was to keep an eye on your bags and make sure it's not offloaded. I was hoping the crew would know what they were doing... But this is South East Asia... We arrived in Koh Samui at 10am and they told us to come back at 3pm to collect the bag. Oh well. Lets hope it is in fact our bag... And it arrives.

We are currently staying in a place called "Simple Life Resort". So far it's been good. It looks clean and spacious.

More to follow....

Crazy couple of weeks

The last couple of weeks have been something else. Little sleep. Lots of packing and cleaning. I've got way too much stuff for my own good. I'll definately choose wisely before I buy my next gadget.

I still can't believe I got it all done. I sold my Nissan Pulsar today just in time. I didn't get as much for it as I would have hoped but I suppose you have to take the good and the bad.

I'm currently staying at the Hilton Melbourne Airport. Not bad, kind of small and the blinds need maintenance. But acceptable to my standards. That's not really saying much though.

My flight plans are as follows:
Melbourne to KL:
Flight: D72725
Departing:
Melbourne (MEL)
Melbourne Airport
01 Jul 2010
1225 hrs

Arriving
Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
LCC Terminal
01 Jul 2010
1840 hrs

Then dash for the connecting flight:
Flight: FD3576
Departing:
Kuala Lumpur (KUL)
LCC Terminal
01 Jul 2010
2055 hrs

Arriving:
Suvarnabhumi International Airport (BKK)
01 Jul 2010
2155 hrs

I hope there aren't any delays. I might have cut this one a little close...

Wish me luck everyone!