Contact

Connectivity in Thailand is generally quite good.

Telephone

To place an international call, you can buy a prepaid card (available for 300 baht at many convenience stores and guesthouses) to use with one of the bright yellow Lenso payphones. You should rarely have trouble finding either of these unless you're way out in the countryside. The international access code is 001.

For mobile phone users, Thailand has three GSM mobile service providers - AIS [27], DTAC [28] and Truemove [29]) - which may be useful if you have (or can afford!) a mobile phone that will work on either one or both of the GSM 900 or 1800 frequency bands (consult your phone's technical specifications). If you have one, you can buy a prepaid SIM card for any of the Thai carriers in any convenience store for as little as 200 baht and charge it up as you go. Most mobile providers lock the phone to their own SIM card when you first purchase the service, so if your phone refuses to work with another SIM card, the wizards at Bangkok's MBK shopping mall will be happy to solve this for less than 500 baht. If you need to buy a mobile phone, you can pick those up at MBK as well, as a huge selection of cheap secondhand mobiles can be found on the upper floors. International rates from a Thai carrier are surprisingly good - DTAC, for example, charges 10 baht/minute to call America (and, with DTAC, you can reduce rates even further - up to 5-6 times for some countries like Russia - by predialing 008 or 009 instead of + before the international country code - for instance, 008 0011 for America). Coverage is very good in Bangkok and at many tourist destinations, including resort islands.

• Thailand SIM cards [30] - Pre-paid Thailand nationwide SIM cards for use with your mobile phone.
• GSM World - Thailand [31] - list of networks, coverage maps, and frequency bands

Internet

Internet cafés are widespread and most are inexpensive - prices as low as 15 baht/hour are commonplace, and speed and reliability of connection is generally reasonable. Higher prices prevail in major package-tourist destinations (60 baht/hour is typical, 120 baht/hour is not unusual). Islands with multiple Internet cafés include Ko Phi Phi (Don), Ko Lanta (Yai), Ko Samui, Ko Pha Ngan, Ko Tao, Ko Chang (Trat), Ko Samet (Rayong), Ko Si Chang (Chonburi), and of course Phuket. Many budget hotels and guesthouses ("mansions") now provide free or inexpensive Internet access by LAN or Wi-Fi, so bring your own laptop computer.

Keyloggers are all too often installed on the computers in cheap cafes, so be on your guard if using online banking, stock broking or even PayPal. Using cut and paste to enter part of your password may defeat some of them. Otherwise take your own laptop to the Internet cafe.

If you suddenly and unexpectedly find yourself typing in Thai (or any other alien script) you've probably accidentally hit whatever key-combination the computer you're using has been configured to use for switching between languages (often Ctrl+spacebar). To change back, use the "Text Services and Input Languages" option (a quick-access menu is usually available via a "TH" icon visible on the taskbar - simply switch it to "EN").