Credit card verification & cheap Samsonites

Normal credit card verification questions -

1) What is your mother's maiden name?
2) What was your last credit card transaction?
3) What is your normal petrol station?
4) New IC number?

But last week, I got the weirdest question -

"Sir, in June this year, which ancient city did you visit?"

I was speechless.

One thing I noticed in Vietnam last week. Original Samsonite bags are 40% cheaper. Worldwide warranty and latest designs. Get it all at Parkson Ho Chi Minh City.

Spooky story in Saigon

Stayed at Saigon central - Majestic Hotel. Tag line - "Since 1925".. Typical pre-war (which one? :)), colonial style, but jacked up to 5 star and charging more than USD 100 per night. Checked in late afternoon, hung around the lobby until dinner and later some drinks. When I went into my room at 12midnight, it was a strangely quiet time.

Took a shower and started to read my emails (via wifi). Switched on the TV. Then suddenly the TV goes off. I switched it on again. Then it goes off within a minute. But before I could switch it on again, the radio comes on.. I quickly off the radio and switch on the TV again. Then the TV goes off, radio comes on and the curtain lights go off. It happens a total of about 5 times. Freaky.

I call my colleague next door to come over. We wait 15 minutes. Nothing happens. Okie dokie, time to change room. Moved both of us out and into a twin sharing room. Managed to get some shut eye. Mental note to self - no more hotels more than 50 years old. Some pictures of hallway, lobby and downtown Saigon during evening rush hour, beside Saigon river.

CMCC and Mobile Data in China

Always had trouble with mobile data connection in China. Bought a prepaid CMCC card. And the settings below, managed to get Gmail Mobile sites and some other wap sites. However note that during daytime, may not be able to connect for reasons unknown. Opera Mini works occasionally. Found the follow link very helpful and excerpt below- http://www.shanghaiexpat.com/index.php?name=MDForum&file=viewtopic&p=449343

Now with my Thinkpad X60s, Nokia N73, Dopod 838pro, I'm a very light but extremely effective road warrior. Hi-ho silver!!

Quote - "Hi All, I know there are posts here and there about MMS settings but having just gone through setting up my phone, I thought I'd post the official website for it so people can refer to it in one place if needed. All the linked sites are in chinese only but with Google or Altavista you can sort of make sense of it. WAP The WAP information page is : http://www.monternet.com/moneditor/cs/wap/wapguide/ The settings you need are: Wap Home : http://wap.monternet.com/ Gateway IP : 10.0.0.172 Port: 9201 if you have GPRS: GPRS APN : cmwap No Username/Password needed if not then the CSD number is: 17266 username: wap password: wap Type: Modem (or simulated) MMS MMS setup is found here: http://www.monternet.com/moneditor/cs/help/mms/ APN: cmwap Server Name: http://mmsc.monternet.com/ Gateway: 10.0.0.172 (some phones link this info together with the wap setup) SMTP/POP Mail The info can be found at http://mail.monternet.com/ http://mail.monternet.com/free/gb/Help_QA.htm#a15 First thing you've got to do is register on the mail site: http://mail.monternet.com/ Its all in chinese but I had GoogleTranslate in another window to translate the options Choose the first plan which is the free one (its the one that says 0RMB/Month (0元/月) The others may be better if you have larger email needs. Enter your mobile number and you'll get an SMS with a confirmation password. Enter the confirmation password Enter your password and a question/answer in case you loose your password. again it ask you for the plan... Once that's all set up you need to setup your PDA. The instructions are here. http://mail.monternet.com/free/gb/Help_QA.htm#a15 I assume you've setup your GPRS, Wap, MMS already so the relevant info for you is Outgoing SMTP Server: smtp.17288.com Port: 25 Incoming POP3; pop.17288.com Port: 110 Username: Your Mobile Number Password: Whatever you entered in registration After that you should be able to send/receive mail from your phone/PDA. The email address is YourNumber@17288.com eg 137xxxxxxx@17288.com"

Zhengzhou & Xinxiang

Pictures of a hot pot meal in XinXiang and downtown. Quite different from the coastal mega cities like Shanghai and Shenzhen.