danbradster

I got tested for HIV about a week ago in school, I'm clean for that.. I'm kind of worried about getting blood tests done in case of getting HIV to be honest

I've been here for a month and a half though, and my family has already given me medicine that made me feel better for a while.. shouldn't it have cleared up by now? None of my other exchange student friends have the same problem.

I'm 18, female, from the US, never been abroad before, I've been in Chiang Mai for a month and a half, I'm studying in a high school here, no previous medical history, my host family has given me zyrtec and some herbal medicine when I told them I don't feel well, I've been sick since I was on the airplane here.

I'm sorry my symptoms are so unspecific, I don't know how much more into detail I could go into.

The problem with going to the doctor by myself is that my Thai isn't good enough for that yet. Thanks for the well wishes though.

Either find a doctor that can understand you (shouldn't be too hard in Chiang Mai) or get a friend to go with you to explain the symptoms or get a friend to translate your symptoms into Thai language on paper (or Google translate) for you to show the doctor.

I an not afraid of getting HIV from blood tests. They have used new needles every time I've had one, and new razor blades every time I got a shave at a barber. A blood transfusion would be more worrying than a blood test with new needle.

Zyrtec is an allergy med and the herbs may or may not work. A doctor may be more useful. Personally, I like to look on Google and diagnose myself if possible. The pharmacies have treated me pretty successfully too (for simple things), but if you have lots of symptoms, they probably won't understand the cause.

Being sick since on the airplane is weird, since that could mean the sickness is unrelated to Thailand.

As for myself, in 2 years here I have had diarrhea like 5 times (I guess from too much Chilli or unsanitary food), tree/grass/flower hay-fever, an unknown cause whole body skin irritation for 24 hours, and cold/flu a few times. My local friends have been more sick than me in that time-frame, I think because I avoid things like som tum with fish juice and food stalls that seem unsanitary.

If I had your symptoms for a day or a few, I'd assume food poisoning, stomach being unaccustomed to the food, or cold/flu. But since you've had the symptoms for so long, I have no idea and would see a doctor.

No the 3.9 bill. is not a typo, it went from 3.9 bill. down to 3.5 bill. the following year, the year of crash.

Just checked. It was $36-38 billion all of 1996 and dropped to $24 billion in 1997.

USD 37,282 million (March 1996) equalls USD 3.7 billion, there's one thousand million in a billion.

http://www2.bot.or.th/statistics/ReportPage.aspx?reportID=80&language=eng

It looks like you forgot how to divide by 1000. 37,282 / 1000 = 37.282

The problem with this is that there is always the fish thiefs.They see the fish as anyones fish if you are not around.Seen many people with that problem.

And 'your duck is my duck'. And it doesn't apply just to farang's ducks.

I was given good business advice many years ago that has always worked for me "To make money stay close to money" i.e. Always pitch to where there is money to be spent. Unfortunately my limited experience of Isaan leads me to believe that dirt poor farmers heavily into debt secured by their next rice crop have little money to spend.

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,,, and, therefore, no one in their right mind would target this end of the market. There are plenty of non- 'dirt poor rice farmers' in Isaan but finding the right service/product is not always so easy.

I still believe there is scope to provide better quality food outlets. Offer something better than poor quality food in a Thai 'BBQ' environment and charge a bit more for it. I am seeing growth in this area where Thais have raised the bar in terms of food quality, environment and service.

Meet and talk with a moderately rich, hard working doctor or something. Find out where he spends his money (on his kids, house, etc) and you'll better understand the richer Thais.

I get your position. You are asserting the 5/2 isn't just another diet and/or fad diet and thus doesn't come under the FACTS about what we already know about the massive failure rates of ALL diets. That's fine. I don't agree. I don't see any compelling evidence the 5/2 doesn't fit under the category -- DIETS. Be clear I am dissing ALL weight reduction plan diets, not only fad diets. Cheers.

A reference for your statement. The top 2 lines show strict diets and the bounceback after ceasing, and the bottom 2 lines show strict diets combined with exercise and the smaller bounceback on ceasing (I believe the exercise continued without the diet).

It has never been scientifically proven that dietary fat causes you to be fat. The real culprit is carbs. That is why the Atkins diet works a lot of protein and the associated fat that goes with it and cabs. limited to fresh vegetables.

The culprit is calories, not carbs. So fat at 9 calories per gram, and sugar (carbs) at 4 calories per gram taken in large quantities (e.g. soft drink, Oishi, blended milk drinks with tonnes of sugar, ice cream) are some of the worst.

8 tonnes = $332,000,000 USD.

10,000,000,000 baht. Sounds implausible...

I understand to get a Non-O marriage visa I have to visit immigration to convert my tourist visa to a 3 month Non-O.

My question is: can rural immigration offices (like Khon Kaen) do a visa conversion or do I have to go to Bangkok?

Thanks.

I had a mustache in Thailand for a while, but not any more.

I guess you could call that the Mexican Mo.

The music is too damn loud EVERYTIME without fail.

I'm guessing it's a cycle where the parents deafen the children, then when the children grow up they need the music loud to hear it properly and they deafen their children too. Maybe that's why they seem to yell rather than talk.

"Can anyone anticipate problems I might have" ?

You mean except from posting it on a public forum with a picture of yourself ??

Relax. Thailand is very much a cash-society, so a lot of money is moved around every day in different fashions. And 500k isn't THAT much, so why the safe (!) in the car? A Tesco plasticbag and in the pocket will do the trick. When the "showing" is over, count the money, back in the plasticbag and to the bank you go, Hope your new inlaws are going to keep some of it ??

I agree with Soi41 THB500k is not a lot of cash in Thai society. I know many locals in my village who buy a 900K pickup with cash. I have not heard of any robbery during any weddings in my village either. Best not to show the safe. I think you will be the laughing stock in the village thereafter - the first farang to bring a safe (and from your description a 'portable' one) to keep his 500k safe!

Just have a buddy take 100% care of it, from the time it is out of the bank (or money changer) to the time it gets deposited back into the bank account. And make sure he or she doesn't drink on that day! Good luck and congratulations.

I am supposedly the first falang to ever set foot in this village. this village does not have any nice houses. only one nice pickup truck.

also, with all due respect.....I am not worried about what a bunch of people in an Isaan village think of me. they don't determine anything in my life. Do you think they worry about what we think of them?

thank you for the congrats and your post.

Not atall, the only people to be affected by what you do before you get back in your car and drive away are the parents and family of your wife to be, a little thought and consideration for their feelings during and after your wedding would not be amiss, after all a small Thai village is a relentless place to live if you are the focus of all the gossip and trust me they would be and for along time. A cheque and small amount of money would cause your future wifes family to "lose face" and could therefore soil future relations with you and them, also remember any deemed wrong doing by you would put excessive pressure on your wife and in turn possibly on your relationship.

The safety of your money is more important than a loss of face by them.

What about your loss of face , 500k is far to much for this type of wedding. If you show this much you'll l never get them off your back asking for money. They already think all farang are millionaires. Be wise and don't play the big shot.

Tell them you have a cashflow problem and can only get 200k, which is still above normal for a poor village in Issarn.

If they have a problem with this, its best you know now.

If you are happy with them all saying that your wife is only with you for your wealth, then go ahead and take a safe to your wedding.

You have not been to too many thai-thai weddings in Issan then, most farang would be classed as equivalent to at least middle class Thai or above, middle class Thai would be teachers, police or industry management types in any village, the teacher who lives with his family next door to me just paid B1.5M + 5 baht gold and the cash was laid out on view. It was brought to the wedding just before the counting and returned to the bank straight after, Thais more than most understand the security issues with displaying large sums of money and should have no problem with a small time frame for show and counting in your presence before returning it to the safety of the bank vault.

B500K has already been agreed and there is no desire for them to keep the money, flip the coin how would he feel if they suddenly for no reason decided B500K wasn't enough and they wanted him to display B1M.

And before the ditch her or run for the hills comments are made, i didn't ask what he would do, i asked how he would feel.....

the teacher who lives with his family next door to me just paid B1.5M + 5 baht gold

I can assure you that certainly aint the norm for Thai/Thai marriages in Issan.

Anywhere from 10k to 100k is more usual, I would sure like to know what type of girl and family he was marrying into to pay that sort of sin sot.

Another question, you say teacher, earning lets say 20k per month, thats over 10 years salary if we assume 5 baht of gold at 20k per 1 baht.

In fact the above would be considered above the norm in Bkk, unless you start getting into HiSo types.

I see some with regular jobs or small businesses displaying 1 million + gold. It's an annoying precedent.

She thought you wanted to eat dog because you said 'maa' instead of 'maak'.

Yes but apparently maa means different things depending upon the tone?

Yes, maa has various meaning depending on the tone, but 'very' is not one of them. You simply didn't pronounce the k to make it 'maak'.

She thought you wanted to eat dog because you said 'maa' instead of 'maak'.

Oddly Akara Mining mentioned in the text has a capacity to process.......yep ....1 million tonnes a year.

This must be nonsense - 1 million tonnes of gold.

Akara is processing 6-7mtpa in Thailand now. But I think this is a joke article.

So they have 150 tonnes now and expect to increase to 1 million tonnes? hahaha

Clearly they mistaked ounces (28 grams) for tonnes (1,000,000 grams).

I have lots of shares in Akara Mining (Kingsgate Consolidated) by the way. They have a few million ounces in Thailand, and I think they are the biggest gold miner in Thailand. They have lots of trouble with beurocracy/permitting.

I think they can stay in Laos easier than the visa runners can stay in Thailand, and maybe there's less prostitution in Laos so it has a more business oriented image. I don't know though, that's just my perception.

Vientiane feels really international and a little Western compared to any Isaan city (which is where the visa runners are likely coming from).

i think it's a fusion between western food and stereotypical American food.

Although I also see it as anything easy to consume for farangs, ie. low fish sauce and chilli. For example, Indian curry is farang food compared to isaan som tum. Also Black Canyon serves farangized food.

"On one occasion I was short of time and flew to Brisbane to apply in person.. Less that an hour later I walked out with a fresh visa."

They have changed from a stamp system to a sticker system in 2013 and now it takes 2 hours.

What medicine were they taking that people think killed them?

I haven't seen it yet. But I do see that taking a lot of rip-off supplements. I go to wikipedia for a quick summary when I see someone taking some random supplement, and most of them say 'no evidence for the claimed health benefits'.

I do take supplements, but only ones that there is good research behind it. The best solution for my girlfriend is not to tell her that she's buying rip-off supplements (since it's often from her friends) but to instead buy her lots of good supplements, a year's supply should do it!

There are plenty of exercise machines in parks all over Thailand which are well maintained and cost nothing to use, but if you want to look ridiculous like over muscled monkey men, Stallone and that Arnold chap spring to mind, some parks also have good weight lifting equipment.

Nobody will look like Arnie by only going to the gym. They would have to be using stedoids too, and being one of the best bodybuilders in the world.

I would barely even recommend those park machines to a girl. You can do so much better on a running track or gym.

I use these machines nearly every day and I have never yet seen a girl using them, and the park I use has a running track.

The machines I see are used 80% by girls. Maybe we saw different machines.

Wot! No horse?

There is a buffet restaurant next door to my place that serves horse. The ladies at the table took lots of it thinking it was pork, then I had to eat the lot to avoid a 30 baht surcharge for not finishing our food.

It was oddly sweet, I'd prefer chicken or duck.

There are plenty of exercise machines in parks all over Thailand which are well maintained and cost nothing to use, but if you want to look ridiculous like over muscled monkey men, Stallone and that Arnold chap spring to mind, some parks also have good weight lifting equipment.

Nobody will look like Arnie by only going to the gym. They would have to be using stedoids too, and being one of the best bodybuilders in the world.

I would barely even recommend those park machines to a girl. You can do so much better on a running track or gym.

You guys have presented a lot of interesting ideas of what to look into. I just don't have the slightest idea to figure out which of the scenarios is actually the case... or how to go about contacting these people at all.

I wouldn't know how to do this in the USA either BTW.

In Australia some liquidations are listed online, on general liquidation websites or niche specific websites. Like there are mining liquidators, car liquidators and general liquidators.

I imagine the chance of that happening in Thailand is less though. I see there are ex-bank auctions listed online at least, mainly motorbikes and cars. I haven't looked too deeply though, there could be more.