A Dongle?
Saturday, March 31st, 2007New Luxury tax on internet usage in Thailand
All internet accounts to be taxed with 970 Baht/month. ($235)
Hardware dongle required for internet use
BANGKOK: — The government has announced heavy investment to upgrade Thailand’s international bandwidth, but has introduced an internet tax to help fund investment, and control usage.
The internet tax will be based on bandwidth and would be applied on a graduated scale according to the speed of a users internet connection. The internet luxury tax will be 970 Baht/month for most users.
Foreigners without a work permit and retirees will be required to pay the monthly tax at a higher rate, 1,490 Baht/month. ($361)
Sombat Merou-Ruang, director of the Alien Internet Control Division at CAT headquarters in Bangkok says “foreigners that do not have work in Thailand only hang out on internet forums, visit pornographic sites and other website lamock, different from Thai citizens who mostly use the internet for banking, ecommerce, and furthering their education.” (Right…and I have a bridge in Oaxaca to sell you! Now the bar girls will have to pay more for writing to their johns in Germany or the US of A begging money for their grandmothers’ operation before she dies!}
In addition to the bandwidth tax, an extra usage tax of 490 Baht will be levied on those using Bittorrents and surfing foreign language internet forums.
[read on]
Travelled last p.m. from Tengshau to Yangzhau--train left at 7 p.m.--reported to be a 10 hr ride--however was aroused at 2 a.m. by the train mother that it was time to get off--so ... 
My medications, that had gotten held up in Custums in Frankfurt, finally arrived in Berlin via fedex. We had planned on taking the train through Austria and Hungary but now we are ... 
Down the Yangze River
From it's origins in Tibet through Tiger Leaping Gorge to Chonqing every Chinese calls China's longest river Chang Jiang and at 6300km is the third longest in the world. From ... 
Tuesday October 1-3, 2002
Took the narrow gauge train to Lao Cai on the Chinese border and then traveled an hour by 4-wheel drive over a torturously slow single lane dirt road to the ... 
A Sleepover in Soweto-Africa's largest township
On our way to India we stopped in Johannesburg for two days to stay with Lolo Mabitsela in her Bed and Breakfast in Soweto-a township about 30 minutes outside ... 
I think it is more difficult to ignore your own cultural filters when in a country similar to yours-for example-Europe as to America. There is a tendency to want to think that everything about ... 
Zoe