Sosua Reports

[Tempoecorto]

i also have the simple plan from t mobile. it's 20 cents a minute for talk and free international data and text. the data sometimes throttles down to 2g speed. it's okay but i just use my dr phone and add orange or claro minutes.

ah ok thanks. i am not going to watch movie or you tube or football game on my cell so it does not matter even if it is 2g but that i can use my regular phone for email and apps like whatsapp already is a good thing. unfortunately, yes, it still calls for a local phone for local calls.

[Tempoecorto]

The other point that I missed is that if you provide one of these roaming SIMs to your DR fuck buddy, then you can call each other both ways as a local US call for no international cell phone tariff. At least I think so.

Actually, T mobile states that the number cannot be abroad for more than 6 weeks and not more than 3 months out of a 6 month period to prevent abuse but, LOL. Why complicate life? Fuckbuddies come and go and let it be that way; at least for me. Rolling stones gather no moss!

[Rahsta]

Something new. Coming in to POP this time, the young guy checking my passport smiled, extended his palm downwards and said in a low voice,"Do you have a present for me?".

He had my passport, so I gave him $5. 00. I didn't need to get into a hassle by complaining to his supervisor, and who knows where that would lead, and how long it would take.

Figured it as just another tax, so I'll leave it a younger more vigilant passenger to do the crusading.

In 2009 a passport agent stamp my passport then pointed down to a note that said something like " Today is my birthday, can can you give me 100 pesos". She had the note out of site of everyone else. It was written in english. I just took my passport and kept it moving.

[Mr Gogo]

i just found out that one can roam free internationally on t mobile since this month or last and so i plan to use it on my next trip. this essentially means that i can use the data. gps or texting etc. for i cannot use that to call locally but call out only to us using wifi is ok blabla (speaking of making you jump through the hoops). how is it panning out for you given that you are on t-mobile? who is the carrier of tmobile in the dr?

i also have the simple plan from t mobile. it's 20 cents a minute for talk and free international data and text. the data sometimes throttles down to 2g speed. it's okay but i just use my dr phone and add orange or claro minutes.

[Frannie]

Sure, but you are a full time world traveler, or it appears that way from the messages you post. We are talking about someone making a first time or casual trip to the DR for a few days who is interested in avoiding common problems that the unwary can run into, like being parted from a very expensive phone.

Incidentally the T-Mobile plan sounds like a great deal and I would absolutely get it myself except that T-Mobile 4G Internet has no signal at the US location where I spend some of my time (but At&T does). The $80 per month plan includes unlimited 4G date on the phone (plus unlimited calls and texting) , plus up to 5 gigabytes of unthrottled $4G tethering data (I. E. You can use the phone as a modem to connect a tablet or notebook computer to the Internet.)

http://www.cnet.com/news/t-mobile-to...al-data-texts/

By the way, the T-Mobile plan will work perfectly well with a $100 Nokia 521 Windows phone and this includes the free downloadable maps that can be used in rural locations without any data connection.

One could presumably buy the T-Mobile plan as a gift for a "friend" in the DR. Used in conjunction with a prepaid international calling service like this one:

https://www.unitedpinless.com/how-it-works

The person in the DR could make free calls to landlines in the DR and buy calls to cell phones for 7. 7 cents per minute, which would be cheaper than buying prepaid time from Orange or Claro (I think.)

The other point that I missed is that if you provide one of these roaming SIMs to your DR fuck buddy, then you can call each other both ways as a local US call for no international cell phone tariff. At least I think so.

[GrownMan1]

[QUOTE=Surfer500; 1547067]

If you have a plan with cheap international roaming, it will work just as well if you bring your SIM from home and put it in a $10 unlocked phone in the DR. If you get a DR SIM card and phone, you can call the US for the same price as a local call in the US. You can make cheap international calls from Internet cafes in the DR. If you have a Skype enabled phone you can make cheap international calls via your hotel's wi-fi or from restaurants. You can get a year's worth of unlimited calls to US phone numbers for about $30, or you can use Magic Jack too.

There are lots of ways to skin a cat.

On my last trip I bought a cheap phone from Orange for 800 pesos which I used to contact the Chicas in Sousa / Puerto Plata and left my "I" phone back in the USA. I also have a worldwide plan thru Skype on my laptop so I was able to call my USA phone to retrieve any messages and also call the USA via Skype. I was also able to call the USA on my Orange phone but it was expensive to do so, so Skype was the way to go and what I would recommend to have. I found no need to be have my "I" phone with me utilizing a local phone and Skype on my laptop.

On HTC or better phones you can download magicJack For the free. The service isn't always good but as long as there is wifi you get to make unlimited free calls to the US and Canada. As well as you receive them

[GrownMan1]

[QUOTE=Surfer500; 1547067]

If you have a plan with cheap international roaming, it will work just as well if you bring your SIM from home and put it in a $10 unlocked phone in the DR. If you get a DR SIM card and phone, you can call the US for the same price as a local call in the US. You can make cheap international calls from Internet cafes in the DR. If you have a Skype enabled phone you can make cheap international calls via your hotel's wi-fi or from restaurants. You can get a year's worth of unlimited calls to US phone numbers for about $30, or you can use Magic Jack too.

There are lots of ways to skin a cat.

On my last trip I bought a cheap phone from Orange for 800 pesos which I used to contact the Chicas in Sousa / Puerto Plata and left my "I" phone back in the USA. I also have a worldwide plan thru Skype on my laptop so I was able to call my USA phone to retrieve any messages and also call the USA via Skype. I was also able to call the USA on my Orange phone but it was expensive to do so, so Skype was the way to go and what I would recommend to have. I found no need to be have my "I" phone with me utilizing a local phone and Skype on my laptop.

[GrownMan1]

Its sounds like the 6'6 cop either isn't too bright or he has the worst luck in the world. After reading about his adventures, I am positive it is a combination of both! Its probably best he stay in NY walking the beat. (I will admit, it is highly entertaining to read about his exploits)

When people know that you're a new in the area they take advantage of your politeness and lack of knowledge. Street hustlers the police and chicas can pinpoint newbies a mile away. If you're by yourself that makes you a bigger Target for their bullshit. I applaud any newbie that has been on this site for information prior to there trip.

[Frannie]

I would say it all depends on your M.O. An 800 peso Orange phone is not going to do shit for me. I have that free international internet plan from T-mobile so I keep my Galaxy S1 with my US SIM on in the 100 countries that I am able to for free.

Sure, but you are a full time world traveler, or it appears that way from the messages you post. We are talking about someone making a first time or casual trip to the DR for a few days who is interested in avoiding common problems that the unwary can run into, like being parted from a very expensive phone.

Incidentally the T-Mobile plan sounds like a great deal and I would absolutely get it myself except that T-Mobile 4G Internet has no signal at the US location where I spend some of my time (but At&T does). The $80 per month plan includes unlimited 4G date on the phone (plus unlimited calls and texting) , plus up to 5 gigabytes of unthrottled $4G tethering data (I. E. You can use the phone as a modem to connect a tablet or notebook computer to the Internet.)

http://www.cnet.com/news/t-mobile-to...al-data-texts/

By the way, the T-Mobile plan will work perfectly well with a $100 Nokia 521 Windows phone and this includes the free downloadable maps that can be used in rural locations without any data connection.

One could presumably buy the T-Mobile plan as a gift for a "friend" in the DR. Used in conjunction with a prepaid international calling service like this one:

https://www.unitedpinless.com/how-it-works

The person in the DR could make free calls to landlines in the DR and buy calls to cell phones for 7. 7 cents per minute, which would be cheaper than buying prepaid time from Orange or Claro (I think.)

[Tempoecorto]

I would say it all depends on your M.O. An 800 peso Orange phone is not going to do shit for me. I have that free international internet plan from T-mobile so I keep my Galaxy S1 with my US SIM on in the 100 countries that I am able to for free. I keep a separate Galaxy S4 knock off with a local SIM for local calls. I am going from city to city and communicating with most of my chicks through whats app. I just brought a chica home in the capital. She had no idea how to get to her house. If it was not for my smartphone with GPS I would have been stuck hiring a taxi to follow to and from.

I just found out that one can roam free internationally on T mobile since this month or last and so I plan to use it on my next trip. This essentially means that I can use the data. Gps or texting etc. For I cannot use that to call locally but call out only to US using wifi is ok blabla (speaking of making you jump through the hoops). How is it panning out for you given that you are on t-mobile? Who is the carrier of tmobile in the DR?

[Mr Enternational]

I would say it all depends on your M.O. An 800 peso Orange phone is not going to do shit for me. I have that free international internet plan from T-mobile so I keep my Galaxy S1 with my US SIM on in the 100 countries that I am able to for free. I keep a separate Galaxy S4 knock off with a local SIM for local calls. I am going from city to city and communicating with most of my chicks through whats app. I just brought a chica home in the capital. She had no idea how to get to her house. If it was not for my smartphone with GPS I would have been stuck hiring a taxi to follow to and from.

[Surfer500]

[QUOTE=Frannie; 1547054]If you have a plan with cheap international roaming, it will work just as well if you bring your SIM from home and put it in a $10 unlocked phone in the DR. If you get a DR SIM card and phone, you can call the US for the same price as a local call in the US. You can make cheap international calls from Internet cafes in the DR. If you have a Skype enabled phone you can make cheap international calls via your hotel's wi-fi or from restaurants. You can get a year's worth of unlimited calls to US phone numbers for about $30, or you can use Magic Jack too.

There are lots of ways to skin a cat.

On my last trip I bought a cheap phone from Orange for 800 pesos which I used to contact the Chicas in Sousa / Puerto Plata and left my "I" phone back in the USA. I also have a worldwide plan thru Skype on my laptop so I was able to call my USA phone to retrieve any messages and also call the USA via Skype. I was also able to call the USA on my Orange phone but it was expensive to do so, so Skype was the way to go and what I would recommend to have. I found no need to be have my "I" phone with me utilizing a local phone and Skype on my laptop.

[Frannie]

The average business person in the DR probably has an expensive phone. You think it's asinine for them to own and walk around with an expensive phone just because somebody else has issues with it? I would think a person in the DR with an expensive phone would be just as concerned about losing their phone with their sim and memory card in it as someone from the states. But it aint gonna happen that they are not going to have the phone of their choice, just because other people have a problem with it. What makes sense in this discussion is how you secure your stuff. Not how much you spend on your stuff. If a person has no use or doesnt see the value in using such devices, then thats their personal preference/concern.

I am not so sure that the average business person in the DR has an expensive phone. When I have seen them with smart phones, they are usually the cheaper models, and anyway if you have the really expensive ones insurance is available including for robbery.

http://www.orange.com.do/web/beneficios/precios

Anyway if you are willing to lay down your life for your cell phone, then good luck with that, and you won't be the first.

People are asking how to avoid these kind of catastrophes in the DR. Yes, one method of risk management is to lock up your valuable stuff carefully, but another is simply don't bring it down in the first place, thus sidestepping the whole issue. Leaving your smart phone lying on your desk at work in the US while you go to the bathroom is one thing, leaving it lying on a table in a chica bar in Sosua while you go to the bathroom after a few beers is quite another. People drink alcohol on vacation. Drinking impairs their judgment and makes them less able to read the character and motives of others.

If you have a plan with cheap international roaming, it will work just as well if you bring your SIM from home and put it in a $10 unlocked phone in the DR. If you get a DR SIM card and phone, you can call the US for the same price as a local call in the US. You can make cheap international calls from Internet cafes in the DR. If you have a Skype enabled phone you can make cheap international calls via your hotel's wi-fi or from restaurants. You can get a year's worth of unlimited calls to US phone numbers for about $30, or you can use Magic Jack too.

There are lots of ways to skin a cat.

Yes, you can bring your $700 phone if it is essential for whatever you need, or if the amount of money sunk in the phone is not significant to you, but just be aware that it is likely to attract interest of the wrong kind.

[Bravo]

Its sounds like the 6'6 cop either isn't too bright or he has the worst luck in the world. After reading about his adventures, I am positive it is a combination of both! Its probably best he stay in NY walking the beat. (I will admit, it is highly entertaining to read about his exploits)

[Tempoecorto]

I have made maybe 50 trips to Sosua and lived there for extended periods and have not encountered any of these kind of situations. Honest! You just have to blend in, be nice to people, make friends, avoid confrontations, avoid any kind of display of wealth, don't carry a lot of money, and you will be fine.

Remember there are also lots of women and babies and school children and old people living in Sosua and going about their daily life without anything happening to them at all.

I felt the same way about visiting the US, having read about muggings in New York and the massive murder rate in the 70's, but when I actually plucked up courage to set foot in the US in the 80's I found it wasn't that bad after all. I have even visited Jacksonville, which is one of the most murderous cities on the planet and have yet to witness a killing. If New Orleans was a country, then it would have the second highest murder rate in the world, yet tourists flock there for Mardi Gras. Miami has the same murder rate as Colombia, and Atlanta is equal to South Africa, which is generally regarded as pretty unsafe.

I have been to all of those cities and lived to tell the tale.

I completely agree. Once, long before GPS was known, I was lost trying to find out the hotel in Philly downtown (for those who are aware of the place) and wound up in the wrong area at 10 at night coming from the airport. May be I was stupid, but I just walked out of my rental car and asked people for directions. Chevy Chase movies would show the tires being ripped off and hauled away during that short period but nothing dramatic happened to me. Kind people just directed me the right way.

Speaking of my first trip to Sosua, I had a rolex on and the Italian guy mentioned it but frankly, with so many fakes going around, a thief can never figure out which is real and in any case, as I knew, nothing ever happened. I cannot speak of Sosua but I rarely even use the safe in hotel (Once I left my passport locked in the safe in an Istanbul hotel as I flew to Ankara or was it Izmir. Fortunately my itinerary back and out of the country was through Istanbul so no real damage) and I have left a woman alone watching TV in the room while I was downstairs chatting with two guys staying at the hotel. My motto is be wary but trusting. The kind of people you deal with has a lot to do with it but it begins with a good attitude as you pointed in your first paragraph. Of course, the more you travel, the better you get at that.