an architect at heart,
a photographer by passion,
a truth-seeker by nature.
I run PORTFOLIOGRAPHY with this Twitter
I came to this town in a different sets of time and company, that rendered a wrongful picture. Only at a second look, with at a different time and fresh sets of eyes that I see her true color. (i) Red Cliffs, Vang Vieng.
Route 13, en route to Luang Prabang (Taken with Instagram at Luang Phra Bang, Laos)
Funny how the biggest carrier in Laos that has a perfectly functioning corporate website doesn’t provide a basic information like how to enable 3G manually.
At the time of this writing, Unitel of Laos is yet a member of iPhone’s 100+ official carriers. That said, enabling 3G connection on your iPhone needs a little more work than a regular Stupidphone like your old Nokia.
Also at the time of this writing, Unitel offers ambiguous data package for pay-per-usage DM0, 8mb package for 1 week DM5, and 20mb package for 1 month DM10, and so on…
It’s not a typo, but after phone calls and conclusive usage check, indeed their bandwidth standard is measured with megabyte not gigabyte, ambiguous as it is, after using my iPhone for Google Maps and tethering my iPad via Personal Hotspot, a quick usage check [*122#] confirms the ambiguity further, what feels like a two digit megabyte consumption is merely -3000kb off the allowed bandwidth. It means, despite the allocated price and bandwidth, Unitel’s 3G offering is actually priced aggressively compared to other ASEAN carriers.
To activate 3G (GPRS) simply send your preferred package (I chose DM10) to Unitel’s 3G SMS center: Message body: DM10, send to: 111. Go to Settings > General > Network > Cellular Data, and input ‘unitel3g’ on the APN field. If you want to enable personal hotspot, make sure you do the same with ‘Tethering’.
A message will be sent to confirm whether you want to activate, or not. Reply with ‘yes’, and the glorious wait begins.
The wait is arbitrary. Sometimes I’d loose coverage and the 3G will be stalled for 15–20min again before you can use the data again.
But all annoyances aside, having Google Maps in Laos is like Indiana Jones with his whip: we function better as a traveler in a strange town.
UPDATE: Turn out that my purchased SIM has a free data bonus, one simply needs to enter the APN [unitel3] to start using. The occasional drop and slow connection is the result of that being free.
If you run out of the free data, you can subscribe to their 3G packages:
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MI0 – pay per use (default)
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MI5 – 5000kip/day, free 50mb.
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MI15 – 15000kip/month, free 100mb
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MI40 – 40000kip/month, free 500mb
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MI150 – 150000kip/month, free 2GB
Send <PACKAGE NAME> to 209
I really wish our residential landscape can be as scenic as our fields. We used to be good at this. (i) Around the southern loop of Four Thousand Islands’ Don Khong.
Don Khong, Si Phan Don (Four Thousand Island), #mekong #lao (Taken with instagram)
The miles ahead. (Taken with Instagram at Savannakhet)
Days of bus rides and one train ride later, I’ve traveled the first 1000km of the journey. Next stop: Laos.
One man cruise // beating them banks // day in // day out // sun, rising and setting // keeping up an honest man’s work // in a great little journey called life. #indochina (Taken with instagram)
Shadow of the past — Ancient neighborhood with a touristic face lift. (Taken with Instagram at Hoi An)
Saigon, Jan 1, 2012, 02:05 AM.
The loud music dances with the blinding lights. On one end, a company of glamourous stage stars were singing westernized Vietnamese pop tunes. The passionate crowd dances to the music and the lights guide the night.
As I stand amidst thousands of strangers who were celebrating the coming new days of 2012, I witnessed a different kind of celebration inside. As the noise builds up, serenity dawns upon me as I walk around the streets of Saigon in these festive night; a different kind of serenity where the world is cheering with beers in plastic cups, where couples kissed and the lonesome wanderers smile as they walk passed them, and when strangers where simply friends of the celebration.
The world seemed to have stopped when the countdown were closing in, … 3, 2, … and 1. The smirking strangers became laughing buddies as one extends a muted celebratory greets, no words needed, just simple handshakes, hugs, even head nods would do. The stars were bright, the lights were blinding and the music was loud, but nothing can seem to match the simple sensation of selfless joy.
Mankind, like any other kind in the universe is a species of joy. We are made to celebrate. We are celebration. It does not matter who, when, where, what or why, let’s just celebrate life, with all of its quirkiness and shame that makes it wonderful.
