Day 7: Telephone prepaid cards in Thailand

Since the weather in the morning didn't really invite us to go to the beach, we decided to go to the nearest larger supermarket instead of going to the beach to firstly replenish our beer supply (and whatever else we might need) and secondly to get a new SIM card .

Since we already knew the area practically from the previous year, we drove to Kamala, about 15 minutes away, where we could get everything we needed in the Big C market.

After I only bought an 8-day prepaid card at the airport in Bangkok when we landed in Thailand, I was able to get a 30-day card from a cell phone stand in front of the Big C market.

To explain: In Thailand you can find WiFi almost everywhere, but independent internet access on your cell phone is more convenient.

The second reason why I need my own SIM card here is that we also have to call Austria “normally”, i.e. not via WhatsApp or other internet telephony (Daniela's mom doesn't have a smartphone, she can only use her old one key telephone).

There are 3 major mobile phone providers in Thailand ( AIS , dtac and True Move ). The offers are all roughly the same and all providers offer excellent network coverage for Internet in Thailand.

Since I already had a Thai SIM card from dtac last year, I wanted one from the same provider again this time because I was also familiar with the associated app and you can easily top up your credit using a credit card. However, there was no corresponding offer at the airport, which is why I bought a True Move card for 8 days for 299 THB (approx. €8) for the first week, which was installed and activated straight away, so we We were able to order our GRAB taxi regardless of the airport WiFi. This card had 100 THB credit for international phone calls, which meant Daniela was able to talk to her mom on the phone for about 2 x five minutes.

The 8-day card could probably have been extended or credit could have been topped up, but True Move does not offer the option of paying with a Visa card. You can either buy prepaid cards at supermarkets or vending machines, or you can top up credit in the shop.

It was too complicated for me, so I immediately got a 30-day card from dtac . These were available for 990 THB (approx. €26). A similar one, but with only half the data transfer speed, would have cost 790 THB. Probably would have been enough, but 200 THB isn't the world...

Of course, the card was also installed and activated in this shop straight away. In addition, I had my credit topped up with 500 THB, which Daniela can use to call her mom a few times. Lt. The provider costs 22 THB (approx. €0.60) for a 1 minute call to Austria (via a 00400 area code).

You can easily track your consumption on the dtac app and, if necessary, top it up immediately with VISA. I also have a free WISE Visa card (more on that another time).

Now that we had everything together for the next while, we drove back towards the apartment. But not without stopping by DOOB – our local bar on Surin Beach.

Some of the staff were known to us from the previous year and they also recognized us. After a Mai Tai in the beach restaurant and reserving two loungers for the next day, we headed home where we made ourselves comfortable by the pool.

In the evening we went to a Thai dinner on the “main street” and the first week in Thailand was already over.