#TeamPixel in Thailand

Recently, my boyfriend and I went to Thailand.

While most would be going for the beautiful beaches and a sunny vacation, we were going for MotoGP. I had bought the tickets for his 30th birthday. We are both motorheads, and he is a devoted Rossi fan, so it seemed a great idea.

While we realized that this was going to be a unique and potentially challenging experience, as MotoGP had never been held in Thailand before, we were not prepared for what the experience was actually going to be. The fundamental missing piece to my calculation was this — While my boyfriend was engaged in my off-grid travel prerogative and very engaged in experiencing the real Thailand, he had never traveled outside of the United States.

Through the food sickness, poor sleep, exhaustive heat, and regular turnover of address (the first three being him), my Pixel phone is really what saved our first holiday together. While I’ve traveled off-grid many times before, I hadn’t really thought about what had made it all possible until I really saw the difference in the experience between him and I.

The understanding of mechanisms and patterns within societies is key to going places that are not documented on Travelocity and getting the real feeling for the country. While you can understand this without technology, a powerful understanding of your pocket computer can accelerate your understanding of these patterns.

It’s what really sold me on always staying with my phone…

We got around mostly with offline maps. They were key to us getting around no matter how far away from city center we were or how much further away we wanted to get. I built these into shared routes so we could leave major cities and understand how we could get back - at least two options just in case.

Project Fi really had me covered. While he had purchased a travel plan, the coverage was poor at the best moments. Project Fi treated me just like I did in the states, and the data network was still pretty good. This did run risks in terms of data usage, which is why offline maps and datasaver mode were amazing. I got the same experience as I did in the U.S. without paying a ridiculous price.

When we got really out in the sticks - cows outside the windows and neighborhood dogs roaming like Detroit street gangs — downloaded languages in Google Translate were instrumental in understanding our Airbnb hosts. She was a sweet woman with amazing coconut and banana pancakes for breakfast, but she could not speak any english and was illiterate in Thai. By downloading the language in translate, we were able to understand each other mostly. We got through the major questions - bathroom, towels, etc. Going in to town in the far reaches, shop keepers were typically literate, though not all, and downloaded keyboards helped saved data while allowing us to have more intricate conversations and haggling at markets.

Neither of us is very good at taking photos. We only brought our phones as cameras, and in everything we were seeing, there was an insane number of photos. Sharing an online album allowed us to be strategic with our phone batteries.

He mostly took photos since mine is the one that got us around - haha.

I’m 100% an advocate to go to Thailand, and to travel off-grid. However, if you are not accustomed to no hot water, no accustomed food, unique sleeping arrangements and challenging your problem solving skills on a regular interval, these features will make your adventures more obtainable.

Also - always keep a digital version of your passport. It’s just smart.