gearbox

USSR was preparing for nuclear war with NATO, not with Ukraine. They have tons of nukes(biggest pile in the world). For sure the former USSR wasn't relying on China and India for help, and the incumbent Russia doesn't need their help either.

Nothing to judge here....be a man and own your problems. What world do we live in, where people are holidaying in remote countries and expecting others to cover their shortfall? I haven't seen yet any appeal from an Italian mama begging for her son...she would be disdained for life doing this. She'll do anything necessary to gather the money without begging the public.

For those who can't afford to fork significant amount there is a risk distribution mechanism called insurance. Pay for proper insurance and follow the rules, there won't be any need to find 30k. Acquaintance of mine had bad accident in Samui, weeks in coma, after 2 months ICU and multiple operations he got evacuated to his home country. All in all the bill was probably in the vicinity of 10 mil baht, no issues with insurance payments.

Pathetic are the freeloaders living on government benefits paid by our taxes.

I have a kid around that age, and yes I can find 30k within an hour. I have something called dignity...i don't expect other people to pay my bills. Unless the parents are homeless they can take a personal loan with some guarantee. If they are that poor, their son has no business in Thailand, unless he has proper insurance.

I was asked sometimes ago to contribute to a similar case by a friend who knew the family personally. Turned out mom and pop had well paid jobs, own house plus investment property. I politely declined.

The parents can't find 30k?

Thailand has nothing to do with the poisoning, it provides health care. It happened in Laos. Wrong headline. It was similar in Sydney Morning Herald, later they corrected it.

How do you classify someone as a leftie? Most of the self proclaimed "righties" are more on the left than the lefties as they are first in the queue for government handouts. I have little doubt that you'll be back in Canada when time comes to claim state pension.

The forward non-subjective tourism data statistics for Samui is pretty much never available, so it is mostly personal anecdotal evidence. However unavailability of flights is not a bad indicator. I flew back to Samui from Europe last Friday with the first flight at 6am. November is the lowest season, and I was expecting pretty empty flight, to my surprise the flight was full, and mostly with tourists.

Honestly if I had to go there I would just drive to Kuala Perlis, leave the car in paid parking and get the passenger ferry which is every 45 min until 7pm. It is around 400km from Donsak to Kuala Perlis, just a bit more than driving to Phuket. You won't depend on anyone for timing.

The most convenient way to fly to Langkawi is via Singapore, but it will cost you...on the way there you can get a single airline ticket with Scoot, retuning back to Samui you need to fly with different airline to Singapore to avoid overnight layover. Batik Air should be OK, they used to be known as Malindo. Sort of between full service and budget airline.

I walk and cycle here all the time, and last month came back from 3300km cycling trip in Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia. Never had any issues. In order to stay alive you just need to assume that there are no rules, that's all. A lot of Thais bought their licences and never learned the rules too. Heaps drive without licences at all. By the way I've seen a lot of foreigners breaking the rules as well.

Further to that....as everything else there are grey areas. https://www.expattaxes.com.au/medicare-for-australian-citizens-overseas/ It is not very clear what happens if you are tax resident and pay Medicare levy but live overseas. As discussed in the above article the government may take Medicare access as a factor when deciding on tax residency. And also one subtle thing about travel insurance - all the insurers I know about require the policyholder to be a resident of some country for medical purposes. It is usually the country of citizenship. If the ongoing medical expenses are piling up, they may decide to dump the policyholder to the national health service and terminate the cover. So it is not clear what happens if you are in trouble, have travel insurance, but not Medicare.

From the government source: https://www.smartraveller.gov.au/before-you-go/activities/retiring-overseas Living overseas and Medicare Only Australian residents can use Medicare. You can access Medicare for treatment in Australia up to 5 years after you move overseas. After 5 years, you won’t be able to access Medicare unless you move back to Australia to live. You’ll need to re-enrol before you can access payments. You must show proof you intend to stay in Australia to re-enrol. However this doesn't seem to be tracked and enforced at the moment. You are ok as long as you have an address in Australia to get Medicare card sent to. There is no guarantee it will be the same in the future. The government has the data from the border to track and enforce, but it seems low on their to do list.