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One thing many people don’t realise before moving to Australia is just how hard it is to get hold of certain basic things – bank accounts, mortgages are some of the more obvious ones, but mobile phones are among the surprises waiting for any ex-pat with an expiry date on their visa.

So, what to do? We managed to get pay as you go mobiles without even having addresses, but as soon as you want the better value offered by a monthly contract (especially for mobile internet junkies like myself) the shop assistants start throwing the rulebook at you. Apparently, the standard credit checks for all the major networks (Three, Optus, Vodafone, Telstra) require a visa with an expiry date far in excess of the end of the contract, and for those on a 12 month working holiday visa, that counts out most options.

Except… TPG. TPG, for the uninitiated, provide cheap broadband and telephony for the more courageous consumer – their customer service is limited, but their product hugely better value than all their competition. And… They offer 1 month rolling contracts! Their ingenious approach sees them take 20 dollars’ at the time of sign up, which covers any time you incur charges outside your basic plan.

For us, it is perfect, and I was surprised firstly by the speed of delivery (2 days from online order to receipt) then by the quality and speed of my 2gb mobile internet connection. They repackage ‘Yes’ Optus airline, so you get the same coverage and speed for less money and less commitment. Genius! Confusingly the SIM card is branded ‘SOUL’ but it turns out that TPG own SOUL.

As a sideline, 2gb is far too much for a mobile deal – my usage counter tells me that with push email running, plus downloads and extensive web browsing I’m scraping 10 megabytes per day… Or 0.3 gb per month. Oops!

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The TomTom One XL is an TomTom One with a widescreen and $100 bigger price tag.  Software, hardware, user interface, windscreen mount, speaker etc etc all the same, just a bigger screen.  So, why?  And why wouldn’t you buy one of those sleek, black, high-resolutuon, Bluetooth, iPod-interfaced Navmans (Navmen?) for the same price or less?

Continue reading…

Bought this for our Australian roadtrip, from JB Hifi somewhere in Sydney for $80 or so. Usually I object to expensive “Made for iPod” accessories… did this one work out for me? Continue reading…

Anyone who’s ever visited South East Asia will be familiar with this scenario. After a morning coffee with the guide book, you’ve planned your route for the day, taking in the back streets, the rivers, the sights, tastes and sounds of the city. You step proudly out onto the street, ready for whatever new experiences the day holds.

20 minutes later, you’re world-weary, cynical, and every 2 steps automatically barking “No thank you”, “NO” then “IF I WANTED A TAXI I MIGHT HAVE SAID YES TO THE TWELVE GENTLEMEN DIRECTLY NEXT TO YOU TO WHOM I’VE FIRMLY SAID NO”.

While they definitely serve a purpose, the self-defeating cycle of increasingly aggressive sales tactics which in turn put off the potential punters and make them harder to sell to has undermined the core value of their services, and tourists are so hardened to saying “NO” clearly and promptly as soon as eye contact is made that the very option of taking a bike is never considered.

For self-destructive sales tactics and generally being a blight on a tourist’s day: Rating: