Date: October 16, 2006
Subject: Laptop?
I'd like to ask if you travelled with a laptop? I like to upload photos to my travel blog and aren't sure whether using a usb cable from my camera in an internet cafe is do-able in Asia.
If you did travel with a laptop, did you have any problems connecting to the net in cafes?
Hi Natalya!
We did in fact travel with a laptop, but seldom used it in internet cafes (we preferred for it to keep a low profile). That said, the once or twice that we did take our laptop to an internet cafe (for instance, when we were doing our taxes), we didn't have any problems getting online.
One thing we did carry, which served us very well, was a USB card reader (specifically, the SanDisk MobileMate SD+ 5-in-1 USB 2.0 Card Reader). We could insert our camera card into this little cigarette-lighter-sized stick, and plug it into the USB port on the computer at the internet cafe. I'd say this worked about 99% of the time, as opposed to trying to plug our camera into the computer, which we soon stopped bothering to attempt because the MobilMate worked so well.
Hope this helps!
Happy Travels,
Tim (and Jessica too)

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That said, the once or twice that we did take our laptop to an internet cafe (for instance, when we were doing our taxes)…
That is an experience I do not soon want to repeat! Doing taxes at home in the States is bad enough, but doing them in Bangkok (when you'd much rather be out exploring the city or eating Pad Thai from food carts) is not fun in the slightest.