Category: Travel

A Chiang Mai Travel Guide For Shorter Visits

by Anil Polat | Apr 17, 2025 | Culture, Food, Pictures and Video, Travel | 0

Chiang Mai, Thailand is the kind of place where you plan for a short trip, realize it’s amazing, then make plans to return for a longer stay. You can see in the video why and if it’s your first time, here’s what I recommend you try.

Where To Stay

There are a lot of hotels in Chiang Mai but if you want something central and cozy, Wannamas is a good choice. It’s near the Saturday and Sunday markets, has a home vibe and servers breakfast daily.

Get Coffee And Go

Akha Ama Coffee sources all of their beans from local farms around Chiang Mai. The food is strong and the drinks creative – try the mana mana, a blend of strong espresso, honey, and orange.

As your caffeine buzz kicks in you can walk a few minutes to the nearby Wat Phra Singh. It’s a beautiful complex of several temples with large open spaces, statues, and monks often engaged in meditation. There are plenty of temples in Chiang Mai and in town this is one of the most central. Admission is free to the site, the main temple has a small charge. A short car ride away is Wat Chedi Luang.

Getting Around

To avoid the heat during the day your best bet is to use the Grab app. It’s a local ride sharing service that let’s you pay by car, see how much a ride will cost, and choose from cars to tuk tuks. There’s even an option for electric vehicles if available and overall much more convenient than hailing a cab on the street.

Highlights And Food

There are temples and then there is Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. This large temple complex sits on a mountain overlooking Chiang Mai and is one of the most interesting, peaceful, and idyllic places that shouldn’t be missed. You can arrange a ride through your hotel or take public transportation up – with the ride being around 30-40 minutes from town. Be prepared to walk when you are at Doi Suthep and plan to stay at least 90 minutes, there is so much to experience here.

There are also some amazing places to eat from street food to the healthiest local Chiang Mai dishes you can find. Don’t neglect visiting Chiang Mai during a trip to Thailand and for some extra fun, plan your trip around Songkran.

How To Kill Indoor Mosquitos With Water

by Anil Polat | Mar 27, 2025 | Health and Fitness, Pictures and Video | 0

Mosquitos are the worst. Seriously, even many scientists are wondering if we shouldn’t just kill them all. Until then though, the pesky blood suckers have a way of getting indoors, despite your best efforts. And nothing, I mean nothing, is worse than hearing the annoying buzzing of a mosquito near your ear at 3am.

Fortunately, there are a few ways to kill indoor mosquitos by mainly using water. You can watch the video above or read on for the highlights.

Use Your Hands

Well, duh is what you’re probably thinking. But ever notice how mosquitos tend to always be just out of reach when you try to slap them out of existence? There are some theories as to why this happens – from a cushion of air or the mosquito simply bouncing off your hand – but either way, having wet hands solves the issue. Have a bottle of water nearby or if there’s a faucet close, wet your hands and grab mosquitos out of the sky (i.e. smoosh them).

Manage Pools Of Water

Drains, that odd bit of water under the toilet scrubber, any sitting water you can eliminate the better. And for drains where it might not be possible, if you can, close their doors. Bathrooms, kitchens, wherever there might be standing water, try to create a barrier between you and that area.

You can also use smelly socks as mosquito traps or make use of that leftover vodka from the night before.

Visible By Verzion Has An International Problem

by Anil Polat | Mar 6, 2025 | Pictures and Video, Tech | 0

Visible by Verizon, the monthly prepaid cellular service has a two big problems: their customer service and international coverage. Here’s what can happen to your IMEI if you use Visible’s Global Pass abroad and how it may potentially brick your phone from network coverage.

What’s An IMEI?

IMEIs are International Mobile Equipment Identity which are essentially a number unique to each individual mobile phone, they are something all phones have. Most newer phones have 2 IMEIs to support dual SIM functionality, which basically means you can use more than one physical or electronic SIM card at the same time. So what do IMEIs have to do with Visible? Well, network carriers can block IMEIs which means you can’t connect or use their service.

This could happen in the case where you report your phone stolen to your carrier, to prevent someone else from activating it on Verizon, T-Mobile, Visible.. whichever your current carrier is. These blacklists are a way to prevent stolen phones from being used on specific mobile networks and reporting a stolen phone to your carrier is generally a good practice.

Global Pass On, Off, And IMEI Blocks

The issue can happen where you activate, then deactivate Global Pass when you’re abroad. Doing so can automatically security flag your IMEI, getting it blacklisted from your Visible service or use on other U.S.-based carriers. An IMEI blacklist also means Visible won’t let you use another phone on their service, making things even worse.

Visible doesn’t have a phone number to call or email address, you can only really get in touch with them through a live chat. It’s very slow and you’re often waiting more than 5 minutes per response and more support cases in my experience take over half an hour for even the simplest requests.

Unblocking IMEIs Ain’t Easy

Visible will ask you to prove the phone is yours and not blacklisted by a previous carrier or manufacturer (for example if you bought the phone directly from Apple.) This can be a lengthy process of you getting in touch with your old mobile providers or maker of your phone, getting the needed evidence, then waiting for what is usually a negative response. Visible seem to keep placing the blame elsewhere for their own block.

Mint Mobile for example, who have their problems no doubt, at least let you get in touch with someone on the phone to sort out issues. Even an email address for Visible customer service would be useful – they send you responses but you can’t email them. Which means you have to waste your time waiting for a chat window when you could literally be doing anything else.

It’s a shame because Visible has good deals, good service in many places, and a solid set of features for the price. But it’s not worth the hassle if you ever have to deal with their customer service or plan to use their service abroad.

Does Using A Microfiber Cloth Destroy Your Macbook?

by Anil Polat | Feb 13, 2025 | Tech | 0

There’s a secret between your keyboard and your Macbook screen – finger grease. That’s not surprising but the secret is if you don’t keep those two things separate, eventually the oils from your hands will wear away your laptop’s protective screen coating. As the protective coating of your screen breaks down from skin oils, it becomes less reflective, distorted, and significantly reduces resale and Apple Trade In value.

The Solution

As you can see in the video here, the solution is to place a thin microfiber cloth on your keyboard before your close the lid, every single time. This helps keep a natural (and soft) separation between the keys and screen making sure your finger grease doesn’t contaminate the screen. The key is to pick a sufficiently thin but strong microfiber cloth. Below is one I can recommend.

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Regular Cleaning

You also want to regularly clean your Macbook or laptop keyboard, ideally once a week. Apple Stores use this iKlear cleaner so a spray plus a wipe down using another microfiber (not the one you use for screen-keyboard separation) is recommended to prevent the accumulation of grease, oil, and dirt that can damage a screen.

As laptops get thinner, the amount of space between the screen and keyboard has shrunk. Even more pressure is applied when you stuff your laptop into a backpack so the strategic use of a microfiber cloth can increase the longevity of your Macbook or any other laptop.

How To Protect Yourself In London From Phone Snatching

by Anil Polat | Feb 6, 2025 | Advice, Pictures and Video, Security, Tech | 1

You may have seen recent videos like this one from London, England where brazen thieves on e-bikes snatch people’s smartphones out of their hands in broad daylight. It’s a quick crime that’s been reported over 73,000 times in a recent 12 month span. Despite the headlines though it’s an classic crime and the tactics to avoid it are nothing new.

What’s Phone Snatching?

Phone snatching is a type of theft that’s just what it sounds like: someone grabbing your phone out of your hands and making off with it. In London the increasingly common tactic is several thieves working together on e-bikes in busy areas who quickly and quietly come up on someone texting, talking or just holding their phone. It’s a quick grab and by the time you notice they’re speeding away down the street.

Phone snatching also occurs on metro platforms where thieves can grab your phone just as the doors close. Again, the tactics is snatching, whether it’s a phone, purse, or backpack so here’s how to protect yourself.

Avoid Being A Phone Snatching Victim

There’s often a spotter looking out for people texting, talking, or simply walking with their phone held in hand. The crooks are looking for distracted people so the first line of defense is when you’re not using your phone, keep it in your (front) pocket or purse. When you need to text or make a call “pull over” away from the center of the sidewalk so there’s some physical barrier like a way on your back. This cuts off the angles someone can attack you from or just have a look around and get to a less crowded spot.

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Same thing goes for when you’re taking photos. When you are looking at your phone it’s most vulnerable so try to be mindful of what’s going on around you. Also, knowing where phone snatching rates are highest in London can help you increase your own awareness.

What To Do If Your Phone Is Snatched

Now if your phone does get snatched make sure to report it as soon as possible. Then, as quickly as you can, log into Find My Device on Android or iCloud for iPhone to mark your device as lost. You’ll also want to update your phone service carrier as well. If your phone was unlocked when it was snatched then be sure to change all of your passwords as soon as possible. That includes email, iCloud, social media, and cancel all of your credit cards and report them stolen if they were on your phone through Google or Apple Pay. I would also let your friends and family know in the meantime that your phone was stolen and to ignore any suspicious calls or texts from you until you’ve had a chance to reset all of your passwords and get a new phone.

Prevention is key to avoid being in this situation so no matter where you are in the world, be mindful when you take out your smartphone, know the local areas more prone to snatching theft, and create a backpack security system.

How To Properly Wash Your Water Resistant Gear

by Anil Polat | Jan 30, 2025 | Advice, Health and Fitness | 0

We’ve all had a new outdoor jacket that can wick away rain better than you can handle most problems in your life but like your existence, over time its ability to remain resilient fades. Fortunately for your jackets and other water resistant gear, unlike your life, there’s a relatively simple fix.

Here’s the only way to properly wash your waterproof or resistant hats, jackets, pants, and other clothing.

Water Resistance Comes From Two Places

Tiny threads that are finely woven together are your first line of defense against water. The way this works is those threads are close enough to effectively act as a barrier against water droplets, which have a tendency to stick together (a phenomena known as cohesion). As you wear and potentially stretch those fabrics, the small gaps between the fibers tend to widen over time. Another ally to the physical barrier, which can also get broken down if it’s wet long enough, giving the water time to absorb, is a water resistant coating.

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This coating, which can be a mix of perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, breaks down with washing. You can however restore water resistance and do it without PFAS as well.

How To Wash Your Clothes

For anything that you bought which has or had water resistance, you’ll want to wash that separately but not with regular laundry detergent. The supplies you’ll use are Nikwax Tech Wash and TX Direct. The Tech Wash is used to actually clean your clothing so depending on the size of the load (try to limit to 2-4 large items at most) use the measurement suggestions (100-150mL) on the bottle and then wash using warm water on a gentle or synthetics cycle.

Once the first Tech Wash cycle is done, you’ll then do a cycle with TX Direct. The TX Direct replenishes the water resisting coating of your clothing and can be done using warm or cold water.

Air Dry For Best Results

Using a drying machine is not recommended as this can deter the coating from setting evenly on your clothing and also damage the threads, further reducing water proofing efficacy. For any stains you can spot clean with Tech Wash before throwing it in for the machine cycle. Remember, use these products for only your water resistant gear like a The North Face Triclimate and for shoes and boots, Nikwax makes a waterproofing spray.

About Anil Polat

Hi, I'm Anil. foXnoMad is where I combine travel and tech to help you travel smarter. I'm on a journey to every country in the world and you're invited to join the adventure! Read More