JohnAllan

On 1/19/2024 at 11:00 AM, NokYai611 said:

Hi….Can anyone recommend an Opthomologist.  Prefer Pattaya but would be willing to travel to Bangkok.

Thanks!

Not per se ... but this is Thailand.

Go to a hospital ... either a recommended one, or the closest one, to where you're staying. Try Bangkok General ... there is a branch in Pattaya.

So much for the 'safety' campaign.

Probably as well to just let them get on with it.

On 1/2/2024 at 4:08 AM, scubascuba3 said:

Mr DIY has a selection of razors, pretty cheap from 17 baht for 5. Trial and error to find ones that are sharp enough and last long enough

At 17B for five ... they aren't DESIGNED to last!

I've got a few.

No idea from where ... but it would have been Lotus, Big C, or Villa. Villa would almost CERTAINLY have them.

On 12/29/2023 at 9:09 AM, 5davidhen1 said:

I can't abide all these new-fangled razors which "blend with the contours of your face."

 

I wonder how the Thais would react, were we to charge THEM more, in the West?

Or refuse to treat them as British NHS patients ... which we certainly should, as the taxpayer-funded NHS ISN'T free!

2 hours ago, prakhonchai nick said:

Some years ago, my dual nationality daughter spent a night in a well known Pattaya hospital following a minor motorbike accident. No surgery, no x rays, just overnight monitoring. When I received the ridiculously high bill  the following morning, i took it up with the hospital management.  Same story  farang price!  When I produced her ID card , the bill was cut down to 30% of the original price

20 hours ago, Celsius said:

Has anyone watched the video? They are literally blaming the driver for truck being too heavy for this road.

20 hours ago, Celsius said:

Has anyone watched the video? They are literally blaming the driver for truck being too heavy for this road.

This IS Thailand!

Where WOULD we be, without TiT!?

21 hours ago, Crossy said:

Seems to be a bit of an epidemic.

 

 

 

I wonder which part of the formula, PTPvsH²O the science minister doesn't understand.

"Mr Somchai said the runway area, where the planes are taking off and landing, has absorbed the aircraft's weight and need regular maintenance."

That's what runways are for, Somchai, and runways globally need regular maintenance . . . but not, I'll warrant, as regularly as those at Suvarnabhumi.

I'm sure the government does operate within the rules. The question that was posed asked: whose rules?

I'm not due to draw my pension yet, but a few observations in regard to the question and the replies posted.

I would be surprised if FX at the UK end were more favourable than at the Thai end – they are generally way worse – but possibly the UK pensions dept. has agreed a special rate. I do have my second state pension, from which I was contracted out and later had transferred to a private scheme, paid by International Direct Payment and converted when it hits my Thai account. There is no charge at the UK end, but the deposit fee is B200 and is typical of Thai banks, all of which will normally charge a fee, as do UK banks. It is not a currency conversion fee.

As Ijerams rightly pointed out, the UK government, when it comes to annual pension increases, discriminates against retirees living in certain overseas countries, and has so far resisted all attempts to change that; supported, surprisingly, by a recent European Court decision. Interestingly, UK citizens living, for example, in the US, benefit from the increases, while those in NZ and Australia do not.

For anyone who is not currently drawing their pension, you may defer payment, hence benefitting from future increases; and when you do decide to draw it, may take it in the form of an increased income or a lump sum. As well, if you have family still in the UK, you might consider 'changing' your residence back; though that comes with cons as well as pros.

In utilising a UK bank account, then, unless things have changed since I last lived in the UK, their account fees are not particularly prohibitive – although they are not necessarily transparent, either – and you access your pension via ATM; though that involves an FX rate and a fee each time you withdraw.

And as an aside, and I would imagine a situation unlikely to arise with state pension transfers: there have been recent instances of intermediary banks – with GBP transfers as well as USD – skimming extra fees off the top of the transferred funds, fees that often do not show up anywhere and can be as high as ₤35.00.

The article asks whether many members of the middle class and elite, who support one military coup after the other, including those who supported the latest putsch in 2006, really understand what democracy is all about?

As many people who were neither middle class nor of the elite class physically demonstrated their support for the 2006 coup, I think it safe to say that they did understand what Thaksin was all about, seeing in his paranoid megalomania the spectre of ever increasing state control exercised by an autocratic plutocrat.

And the PTP government has more than its fair share of Redshirt MPs who demonstrate similar traits, though with less of the plutocratic constituent.

I can't wait for the day when the military are subservient to democracy in Thailand.

Until then the current shambles will continue unabated. Democracy with a gun under the table is no democracy at all.

They first need to have a viable form of democracy.

I can't wait for the day when the military are subservient to democracy in Thailand.

Until then the current shambles will continue unabated. Democracy with a gun under the table is no democracy at all.

Establishing some sort of viable democracy would be a start.

"Under his watch, the Internal Security Operations Command has, meanwhile, turned blind while the opposing camps are build up respective mass movements to sway public sentiment."

"Unfortunately he appears to have chosen the role of an uninterested observer awaiting retirement instead of giving his all to end the bitter social division."

In pursuit of grammatical pedantics, '. . . turned blind . . .' should read '. . . turned a blind eye . . .'; there shouldn't be an 'are' before 'build'; and 'uninterested' should read 'disinterested.'

Jatuporn's pronouncements aren't often seen as a source of gratification. It remains to be seen whether his 'principles' will override his obvious fondness for the good things in life.

Thais are impressed by braggarts and boisterous blusterers. Look at how Chuwit became a powerful and influential politician. He staged the physical destruction of an entire city block in downtown Bkk, then threatened authorities who tried to rein him in. Look at how Thaksin maintains his power: he bankrolls and incites rioters who wind up killing dozens and burning down large buildings. Jatuporn knows this, so in his quest for ever more political power and prestige, he's threatening to use a mob to browbeat people in power, who might get in his way. As expected, many Thai voters will be impressed.

Fortunately, many are intelligent enough to see right through this particular windbag. And Chuwit didn't stage the destruction of a city block, but a market - unless I missed something.

Difficult to fabricate a statement of any sort against Jatuporn, whose rampant mouth needs no assistance in getting its owner into trouble.

typical thaivisa.. immediately assuming there are 'real killers' and that every arrest is some sort of conspiracy, and that the 2 arrested were tortured into confessing.. even though there hasn't been anything to suggest this is happening.. they always find these guys so fast because they have surveillance cameras everywhere and they put 100 cops on every hi-profile case, especially one that involves the killing of a foreign tourist..

Really? So you are in a position to assert that 100 cops will be put on each and every case where a foreign tourist is killed in suspicious circumstances? And that the numerous surveillance cameras will generally be working and operating? I think, if you do your research, you'll find that there several unsolved cases still out there.

And I don't begin to suggest that they haven't caught the perpetrators; that it is part of a conspiracy; that the little turds were tortured into confessing.

"The survey found that 41.7 per cent of respondents said they were somewhat interested in the charter and 12.01 per cent were very interested; 31.5 per cent said they were not interested much; while 14.7 per cent said they were not interested in the charter at all."

"Up to 39.7 per cent of respondents said the current charter was rather imperfect, while 14.3 per cent said it was absolutely imperfect, and 37.4 per cent said the charter was rather perfect, while 8.6 per cent said it was already perfect."

Seems that while 31.5% had little interest in the charter, and 14.7% none at all, a 100% of those polled were knowledgeable enough to have a view on the imperfections, or otherwise, of the current charter.

Thais have had enough of being 'controlled' and most see this as a positive sign

You think the redshirt masses - the cannon fodder - are NOT controlled?

"The country has been riven by political tensions since Thaksin was ousted by royalist generals in a 2006 coup." Army generals, not royalist.

"Judicial rulings have played a pivotal role, with courts forcing two pro-Thaksin premiers from office in 2008." One was found to have breached parliamentary rules - albeit, only by appearing on TV - the other was forced out through his party having - again - been found guilty of electoral fraud.

"Mass opposition protests by the Red Shirts in April and May 2010 paralysed parts of central Bangkok, triggering a military crackdown that left more than 90 people dead in the country's worst civil unrest in decades." Conveniently overlooking the fact that the redshirts were left to their own riotous devices for two months, with their leaders having turned down all offers from Abhisit's government, before the troops finally moved in. And several soldiers were among the 91.

"Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon who lives in Dubai to avoid a jail term for corruption, is loved by many rural and poor Thais for his populist policies while in power, but hated by the elite who see him as a threat to the monarchy." Not only the elite; many of the middle class, and a fair proportion of the working class, too.

Seemingly another reporter who either needs to make more of an effort to check the facts, or less of an effort to manipulate them.

Thailand, in particular, Phuket, has been getting an awful lot of negative press lately, and rightly so. It ill becomes a tourist to then make false accusations of such a serious nature, and for her family to treat it as though she were in the right and was about to serve a life sentence.

She got 15 days, not 15 years. And so she damned well should have! Mr Tunks, keep quiet, let your daughter serve her well deserved sentence - one considerably shorter than an innocent accused found guilty would have served - and when she does return home alive and none the worse for wear - which is more than another Australian tourist will be doing - I suggest you remember just why she served time.

Perhaps they could market such a quaint concept to other governments.