Cell Phones and Gym Memberships

At the risk of this becoming a rant, I'll try to keep it short and informative.

Cell phones and gym memberships fall into the category of locked-in contracts, where you would sign up for, say, a year and pay a fixed fee and monthly fee. Certainly, a contract is involved where you need to sign off, with your name, etc.

It probably comes as no surprise that this is a North American concept. As for why it's like this, it remains a mystery. When you consider the technology involved in cell phones, it can't be figured out why you would pay 10 times more for the rates than most Asian countries (at least in Canada, not sure about the US). Not only that, but there are all these complications like wireless plans, evenings and weekends, minutes, etc. etc.

Of course, you still need to pay yearly fees for gym memberships in Asian countries but most of the time the deal is negotiated verbally, through word of mouth, and there is little of this bothersome paperwork to deal with the damn contracts. If you wanted to just drop in for a visit every now and then, I'm sure a deal could be arranged for that.

As for cell phones in Asia, well as mentioned earlier, the rates are much cheaper. You can get pay as you go plans with small activations fees, and of course, there are no contracts to sign.

Heck, you could purchase a SIM card on the sidewalk if you wanted go. Go to Bangkok and you'll see that soon enough.