doctormann

PayPal has its uses as an alternative payment channel. I rarely use it but it's convenient sometimes. I've only ever had a personal account so I have no idea how trading accounts have been affected.

Quite. I'm not saying that it's intended to be used on PayPal but it is an official ID and it does appear to be acceptable. Those of us without a yellow book/pink card do not have any sort of Thai ID anyway. Even your Thai driving licence only has your passport number on it.

Yes, if you have a pink card then the number from that would be the one to use. Pity that PayPal didn't make it a bit more obvious though. I don't have a pink card - my Amphur steadfastly refused to issue a yellow book for me so I can't get one!

13 digits - numbers only. Yes, i think that any 13-digit number would work as i don't think that they have any way of checking. If you have a pink card - I don't - then the number from that would be the one to use.

Update: I just tried entering the ID Number from my vaccination certificate and this was accepted. Then got a pop-up saying 'Thanks, you're all set' That ID Number is the one that I used to register on the Mor Prom app so I guess that it must count as a government-issued ID. Is my PayPal account now OK> We shall see!

Yes, exactly the same here - they want a 'Population ID Number', whatever that is. Passport number doesn't work,

Yes, a 'developing nation'; lots of glitzy shopping malls etc but scratch the surface and it's still very much third world underneath.

The promotion is still running. I went to Jomtien Hospital last Friday, 07 Jan, and the cost for single lens replacement was quoted at 39,000 Baht per eye - and I have this in writing. I fully expect there to be additional charges for medication or whatever. The eye examination was free but I felt was not particularly thorough - no check for glaucoma, for instance. The consultation with the doc could have gone better. I was trying to get some idea of what glasses I would need, post-op, particularly if varifocals would be appropriate, but I didn't really get an answer. I also have some astigmatism and the standard replacement lenses will not correct for that so that would need to be included on any glasses prescription. I did ask about multi-focal replacement lenses but these would, as expected, be far more expensive - about 100,000 Baht per eye. I do have one major concern that remains unresolved. I have been taking Tamsulosin for prostate issues for many years and I believe that this can cause issues with cataract surgery - floppy iris syndrome, which can be very serious. I tried to raise this issue but the doc seemed uninterested. This is not a show stopper but I would really like some answers. Anyway, the current state of play is that I have a couple of weeks to decide if to proceed. I go back for a follow-up appointment on 26 Jan so I shall try to get some answers then.

Even better - red on the front and white on the back. That really confuses them and yes, I have seen this idiocy, more than once!

I can put up with the large forehead. The sh*t-eating grin, not so much. Looks better in a mask when we don't have to look at it!

I also heard that Registered Mail FROM Thailand was being discontinued but whether or not this has happened I don't know. I believe that the EMS service will still be available - quite expensive though. Past experience with Registered Mail to UK is that you can get lucky or it can get stuck at Suvarnabhumi, waiting for a flight out for maybe a couple of weeks. EMS is usually very much faster - but COVID may have affected this. I haven't needed to post anything to UK for a while now. It's also quite normal for post to languish in the Heathrow (Langley) Mail Centre for a while before making it into the UK postal system.

It would have been a good option pre-COVID but probably not viable at the moment.

Yes, i noticed that the 'promotion' has disappeared from the website. I still have the intention to make an appointment to see their ophthalmologist just a soon as this NY holiday season is over - maybe this week but it depends on how busy they are.

I always get my UK bank - Barclays - to send out ATM cards using a courier service and they are amenable to this. i had a replacement card reader sent out by courier as well. DHL delivers to my door - usually takes no more than three days. I rarely get any mail delivered by Thailand Post. Occasionally we get some - usually a month or more old. In my experience, Xmas cards never get delivered - you can speculate as to why but maybe something to do with the possibility of having cash inside!

I have used Queen Sirikit Hospital in the past, when I had bladder surgery there. Couldn't really fault the degree of care and professionalism and the cost was extremely reasonable. A lot of waiting around though. I may well approach them for my eye problem but, as I understand it from at least one report on this forum, they are not doing any non-urgent surgery at present because of COVID. I suppose I could wait a while but there seems to be no end in sight for the pandemic. My problem isn't urgent but it is beginning to affect my quality of life so I would like it fixed asap.

Agreed. Actually, 40k seems suspiciously cheap. Of course, this was not an actual quote, just what the nurse told my wife, so may bear little relation to the true cost. I'm planning on scheduling an appointment after the holiday so I may find out more then. I want to avoid nasty surprises, i.e. additional charges that I was not told about in advance.

Yes, I'm well into dark mode as well. I found that with cheap varifocals the field of view was very restricted and so they were fairly useless with a computer. My current pair do not have that problem - but they were not cheap!

How does that work then? Surely you need a prescription and the correct centering of the lenses is absolutely vital with varifocals. Maybe you can get lucky but, as I said, I went through a few iterations before getting a pair that really worked well. I will have a look at Zennioptical when the time comes - $50 is not a big risk.

Maybe varifocals would work. I've used these for quite a while very successfully. There was a bit of a learning curve though and I went through a few iterations before finding a pair that really worked well for every situation. Good ones are not cheap - my current pair came from Germany - sourced through Euro Optic in Pattaya.

I have heard that multi-focal lenses can be problematical. Reading glasses are a pain but maybe a safer bet than the multi-focal alternative. What about close focusing at different distances - for example, reading distance for a book would typically be 30cm whereas reading a computer screen would probably be more like 45cm and viewing a large screen TV would be 1m or more. How many pairs of glasses would you need! I'm assuming that there is no adaptability with the single vision lenses so the eye cannot adjust its focus. I have also heard about mono-vision lenses - just curious as to how this affects your stereoscopic vision, if indeed it does.

I'm getting to the stage where I am going to need cataract surgery - halos and star bursts from bright lights and reading black print on a white background is getting increasingly difficult. My local clinic doctor recommended Jomtien Hospital <https://www.jomtienhospital.com/en/eye-department.html> so I took a trip there with my wife as interpreter. Unfortunately, the ophthalmologist was not there on that day but my wife talked to a nurse. 'About 40kBaht' was mentioned but I don't know at this stage if that was for one eye or two or for single vision or multi-focus lenses. I intend to go back early in the new year to find out. One caveat - it appears that Jomtien Hospital is now part of the Bangkok Group, with all that implies, price-wise. Unfortunately, with COVID being rampant - so we're told - I don't think that government hospitals are currently doing much in the way of elective surgery so we may be stuck with going private or waiting until the situation improves.

I don't know if paying ToT by direct debit provides a monthly bill but signing up to the ToT eService certainly does. <https://www.tot.co.th/en/eservice> I had the same problem with ToT bills not being delivered and often had to go to the ToT Office to pay. The eService works flawlessly - I get an email every month with the current bill attached. It's printable - looks just the same as the normal hard copy bill - and has a QR code so that you can pay with your bank app or at any 7-11. I use the printable bill as proof of address for Immigration etc - works OK for that. Just seen that Stocky beat me to it!

Reminds me of an old adage concerning banks - very happy to lend you an umbrella when the sun is shining but as soon as it rains they want it back - NOW!!

That was music??

When does your permission to stay expire? It may be that your next reporting date is tied to that.