cooked

I too have been looking at this and have seen every answer from 'they sent me a medical card through the post without my asking' to 'definitely only for Thai nationals'. I have to make a decision soon, I am emigrating to Thailand in August and my 65th birthday (cut off point for many insurance companies) is in January. Where this question is asked on forums there is generally little response, making me think that few people have really gone into the question. Or else there are a lot of people out there without insurance...I will get a yellow Tabien Baan card as soon as I can (I have to get married first) and see how to go on from there. Ideal would be to have emergency treatment covered and to be able to put away the equivalent of insurance premiums in the bank every year (ha ha). If the worse comes to the worse I can get repatriated to Switzerland but I don't wish to die there.

I also don't wish to see myself paying insurance for 20 years only to find myself confronted without notice by high premiums or even no insurance at all after a certain age, when I need it most.

I've heard Thai insurers can just stop your coverage at anytime for no reason....any truth in this ??

If so makes continual coverage when needed a worry.

This is the thing that worries me most. It's when you get older and possibly need regular medication or are looking forward to your first or second heart attack/ stroke/Alzheimer that many of these companies either just refuse to continue to insure you or hike the premiums up by 100% (I find one company that does this when you get to 65. I had to ask though, it wasn't visible on their application form) + another 60% when you get to 75, which is the last thing you need at that age. As I will soon be married, I will, if I understand correctly, get a Thai ID number that entitles me to free care. I think. The thing to do would then to establish contact with a doctor that you trust so you can have him by your side when you need him.. I don't mind dying at home with the family nearby and I hate hospitals anyway. I am putting the decision off for the moment, I need to research more

oh dear, I must have felt your vibes...

I just printed out a form from April International Expat for medical insurance, the fact that they promise not to terminate your insurance when you get to 75 was what was most interesting for me - I am approaching 65. I have found other threads on other forums asking for advice about expat insurance and very few people answer. I have tried to find a neutral comparison site, no luck either. All I can see is that you can never be sure that one fine day after years of paying and never making a claim, you won't be let down badly. What I am looking at now is the alternative that many people go for - no insurance at all. So I die at home with my wife looking after me or fly back to Switzerland where I would be treated for free.

Maybe the reason that so few people respond is that so few people have insurance?

QED

get a return ticket to Phnom Penh dated 30 days later (maybe 140 dollars) . You will be in immigration for a long time I think.

Mr Manarak,

I went through a stage where I thought this was good stuff too. It's quite Ok for some medieval festivals where people don't know any better.

Kalenda maia is music my friend. One of the instruments you can use is the human voice. You find arrangers trying to lift what was evidently a peasant dance up into the realms of baroque fantasy, and you find mediocre musicians 'attacking' vigorously, music that was intended for more sophisticated ears: There are plenty of good examples of courtly dance music as it should be. Try googling 'Hauvoy' for example

Any music (including song) that comes from the heart touches me and I don't think your xylophone clonking friends were playing with the aim of moving peoples' hearts as much as moving the contents of their wallets.

You do not have a choice of using combination with Thai wife extension - it is either 400k in account two months or 40k per month income. For retirement you can use 800k in account 2/3 months or 65k per month income or a combination to meet 800k per year.

Ah, thanks very much . It is all very confusing. Even when I think I have soaked it all up I won't believe it until I actually have the visa in my pocket

Hi, newby on this forum asking a silly question. I thought that yearly income + Bank balance should be more than 400K?

This seems to be not well known, maybe because it isn't true? As it happens I have 47K a month so am ok, but I remember my distress when I was initially told that I needed 400K in the bank, and that's it..

Same thing for retirement visa? yearly income + bank balance should be more than 800K?

Hi

I have to put in my sixpence worth here.

More seriously, I believe this music is just primitive - there are similarities with European music from the middle ages, with music from American Indians, etc. I think it is an early form of music, i.e. what people could do with self-crafted instruments and their voice.

Well I feel a bit puzzled here, i have been studying and performing medieval european music for many years (as well as setting dance to some of it) and come to the conclusion that anybody can play any music primitively, but if they went to the trouble of writing it down Not a common thing in those days), it wasn't intended for for an audience of washer women.

You might like to look up medieval music on Youtube, maybe Kalenda Maia...

early 13th century. There are many more. There is no evidence to show that even earlier medieval court music was 'primitive' as there were professional musicians even then. Of course if you went out into the countryside things would certainly have been different, as they are now.

On a personal note I loved the passionate and painstaking performance in the first video clip shown here, had to turn the second one off halfway through. Just clonking on a zylophone to give it a gimmicky sound and then drowning it with none- Thai instruments doesn't do it for me. Mind you, it was loud, That's a good point I suppose.

"Patients hit by vehicles on walkways ..".

Amusing Thailand where these events are areality.

Thai people can not function and abideby laws – not that the Boobs in Brown enforce them. Corruption Rules in Thailand, andpoverty is one of its by-products. So ride on Thailand, but don't be surprisedthat you will not arrive at any new destinations.

Hi. Nice idea. I thought it was poverty that gave rise to corruption? Saying it the other way around suggests a not nice view of Thais in general.

Pudding bowls: statistics show that any kind of head cover, even a headscarf, reduces the intensity of injuries. Anybody driving at high speed without a visor (and hence a helmet) is going to be blinded by insects and dust smashing into his eyes at high speed. (I know). So no helmet = poverty, macho idiot or just idiot.

In Switzerland we had in 1971: 1773 deaths due to traffic accidents! In 2009: 56! Education, seat belts, radar speed checks, alcohol controls etc. It is no longer fun to drive, I collect several fines a year, doubtless paying for all these controls and checks. You have to do the sums: the cost of traffic accidents is enormous, delays, lifelong invalidity and loss of family wage earners... it is probably cheaper in the end to cut down on accidents, but will the people accept it?