Laptop insurance?

You aren't establishing residency in Thailand, right? Thus in fact, you are traveling - you just plan to be in one place while away from home.

Check your current homeowners/renters insurance. Sometimes policies include coverage for your belongings while traveling.

More important than insurance, which won't replace your work or your machine, is backing up to some other device/place and keeping that secure. Perhaps better insurance would be to get space on a internet based back up site. Load copies of your important software there, etc.

BTW how do you plan to stay in Thailand for more than 90 days?

Ruth

I don't know how Mae Sot is specifically, but my wife and I worked and traveled April - July in SE Asia with two laptops (one Macbook Pro) without any problems.

As everbrite mentioned, I used a backup service (Mozy) to make sure I could recover data if either machine was stolen.

One of those cable locks might be a good idea too. You could lock the laptop to some big piece of furniture in the room.

What I meant by "not traveling" is that I'm not carrying the laptop internationally on a regular basis, only taking it on the flight into Thailand and out again, and on the bus to and from Bangkok once. Moving it around in Mae Sot should be minimal, perhaps not even daily. I guess I'm trying to figure out how imperative laptop-specific insurance is vs. "baggage and personal effects" included in travel insurance. Which doesn't always seem to be parceled out in the whole chunk anyway, only $250 per item in most plans I looked up.

To stay 6 months, I will be coming and going a couple times. I will enter on a tourist visa and extend it, then I have a previously-planned vacation to Mali from well before I decided to do this volunteer stint. I'll return on the regular 30-day visa-free stamp. After that runs out I will have to get another tourist visa somewhere, and would happily take that opportunity to re-visit Myanmar if the VOA is reinstated. And in those cases, the laptop will be at home in Mae Sot.

And pathetically, I have never gotten homeowner's insurance. I will be bringing an external drive with me and make it bootable with my OS and software. I'll look into online services as well, I'd never even known about that.

Was thinking of just putting my laptop inside my backpack whenever I leave the room and just locking that...seem reasonable?

I suggest applying for a visa prior to arrival as I am pretty sure that you can get a longer period of time.

If you don't have homeowners insurance, what makes you think that you need insurance while you travel?

An external drive won't help you recover data if a thief breaks into you room or your pack and steals everything. That's why you need an online back up service. Ask about these on the tech travel branch.

Ruth

To be more clear, of course that is what I meant when I wrote I was entering on a "tourist visa"...it's something you can only get before arrival. It only covers 60 days which can be extended to 90, which is why I need to get a second one later. If it weren't for going to Mali the double-entry visa would cover nearly my whole time in Thailand...but I'm not able to change the timing of the Mali trip, and I will return after the visa's validity ends. One org offered to help me obtain a longer-validity visa that gives 90 days without paying for extensions, but I decided not to work with them this time, so the tourist visa is my only option.

Honestly, I just didn't realize I needed homeowner's insurance because I live in a co-op building. I now realize that's not correct. I have also never traveled with any type of insurance, whether trip protection or medical--this is just longer than my usual trips so I'm feeling like I should be more cautious. Also, as I said in my first post, I have never owned a laptop or traveled with anything expensive, which is one reason I never would have thought about insurance before. I'm looking into homeowner's now.

+Was thinking of just putting my laptop inside my backpack whenever I leave the room and just locking that...seem reasonable? +

Never leave anything in your room you cant afford to lose. That said, there may be a wardrobe or something you can lock. A piece of stainless steel wire with loops on each end can be padlocked plus the wire cant be cut.

Edited by: westwood

I saw the "Travelsafe" on the pacsafe website and it seemed like a small simple thing--nylon bag with wire mesh inside, another wire loop that goes around a bedpost or something. But then there are a lot of posters here saying that they never use theirs, they are apparently heavy and a hassle. Although weight wouldn't be an issue since I wouldn't be backpacking with it.

I wonder if I'm overthinking this. Mae Sot foreigners are mostly working there, not traveling around Thailand, and it seemed the vast majority of them had laptops. Perhaps that should be an indication of how safe it is.

A company called Kensington makes a wide variety of laptop security devices. Your MacBook Pro (and most other laptops and many other IT devices) has a special a special little opening that these devices fit into. They are sort of like bicycle locks. As I suggested above, I would ask for recommendations of the Tech Travel branch of this forum. The geeks on that branch will have some suggestions for how to secure your computer, your back up drive, your camera, etc.

Given that you intend to be gone for 6 months, I would also check into emergency evacuation medical insurance and other issues related to medical care overseas. While you might be healthy, you will be living in a tropical area with many diseases and you can't predict about accidents and injuries. This is important, perhaps more so than caring for your laptop which can be replaced.

Ruth