mimithewoof

Saan -

Ive been 'looking closely' on this forum just about every day for nine years now, from two years before I came here. Also, for two full years a while ago I was heavily involved through my job in all aspects of the community - and there was a lot more compassion and genuine, supportive friendship shown on and offline than there is now.

Having said that, Nancy's brainchild, Lanna Care Net, and all who became involved, provided a welcome ray of sunshine visible to all, even those of us in our 'grubby little lives'(Thanks, Frank - great phrase! Agree absolutely with your final paragraph)

Due to a mistake by a Thai visa agent whom we'd used previously without problems, my husband is already on his own retirement extension, although we were hoping to have him back on mine as before in February 2014. Unfortunately, the timing was bad as, in August 2012, he had given up his 'B' visa and work permit and was given 7 days to leave the country as he was not allowed onto my extension. After a Mai Sai run, a 90-day visa and the introduction of 800,000bht into his bank account, it was November before he could get his own visa. There is now less than three months between our two extension dates.

When I arrived, I was mis-sold an eight-year Friends Provident IOM investment with triple charges, trailing commissions, etc, etc - although I had clearly stipulated 5 years and many other requirements which were ignored by the CM 'salesman' posing as a financial advisor. It has, of course,performed poorly and ends in October 2014. I had been preparing to take the cash out around now, but have just found out that the sum remaining had been placed by the BKK investment 'middle men' into a full five-year bond in 2011, without my knowledge or agreement. I am going to have to pay a considerable sum to get my cash, first for the last year of the original investment and then to get out of the five-year plan. Whilst the remainder will still be enough, this new immigration requirement erodes my accessible capital in case of emergency, especially because of the juxtaposition of our two extensions.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who will lose out due to the necessity of losing out in order to bring to bring cash into the country, given the state of so-called financial advice here.

As regards retiree posters who consider the change is a great idea without examining its major flaws, given that they mostly refer to amounts in dollars, I can only assume they are from the American sector of this somewhat divided community. Wherever in the world people decide to retire, most plan their lives as far ahead as is possible, with many investing their nest egg to provide an additional income as well as buying a condo. Moving the goalposts whilst the game is ongoing can destroy any chance of a peaceful retirement, and those couples whose extension falls due at any time during the next several months may have serious problems.

For the two years I was legally employed here, I met a good number of expat couples who were working their butts off to help the disadvantaged in this city and beyond. Many were retirees, and claiming nothing from Thailand except the chance to give of their knowledge, experience and kind hearts. They were also spending their income in the Kingdom. These, and those wishing to live out their days according to their needs, not their wants, are the people who will be worst affected by this change. I don't expect this to cut any slack with Thai immigration, nor do I expect most snowbirds to understand the loss of free help to any community.

It may be that, in future, this sad, confused country gets the migrants it deserves, rather than those it needs.

We're happy to keep going on our UK state pension with a back-up of emergency cash until it's no longer possible, then we're out, sadly without a deal of regret.

Electrified and Frank - you're both very sweet and I thank you:-)

Guess I'll give it some thought, even without the undeniable mental stimulus of a huge wodge of French goat's cheese with raspberries! I'm crying...

Electrified -

Sadly, it's true - for example, the London hospital in the area in which I lived is under investigation for medical malpractice and secondary hospitals in the UK crop up weekly on online media pages, with the reports usually involving untimely deaths.

A report two weeks ago nearly broke my heart - a parent took her two-year old daughter to her local accident and emergency department as she was worried about the little one's severe headaches. 'Growing pains' was the answer, together with a packet of child aspirins. The little girl died the next day from meningitis.

That's just one of so many. The problem began with a combination of the financial crash and the recruitment of overseas-trained (?) health professionals with little English. Now it's at desperation level unless you're very lucky, as government finance has been trimmed to the bone.

At one time, not so very long ago, we had the world's best health service. Losing it was a tragedy for the country.

Stay healthy, man!

Not unexpected - my feeling is that, after the year is up for those who have registered, re-registration will not be an option.

One small piece of news - our local Doi Saket mini-hospital which, before and just after the insurance scheme was brought in, was charging just 30 baht for redressing a wound, has now started charging foreigners 80 baht.

Double-pricing at tourist venues is one thing - in my view, this is a different issue. And no, I'm not a 'cheap Charlene', I'm just not happy about the ethics involved. One can avoid tourist traps, one can't avoid the odd visit to a hospital.

I didn't get round to registering either, Saan, too busy looking after my husband and doing the jobs he can't yet. I'll just have to stay horribly healthy.

AryanicAristocrat - proof that rebirth isn't a myth.

Last time around - Berlin, Germany, 1940.

You guys always make me laugh when any variation of what's enough to provide an acceptable expat life is broached yet again. Within a few posts, the words 'cheap Charlie' crop up, as if being 'cheap' is the only reason why a person may prefer to live a different life than they did in their home country.

Not all of us feel the need to flash the cash in an attempt to justify consumerism as the best idea since sliced bread, and some of us agree (even although we may not be Catholics) with the recently-elected Pope Francis that it's wants, not needs, which are screwing the world.

Another small point - the American retirement pension as set against the UK pension. I know how much the US pension brings in, but perhaps expats from the 'greatest country in the world' don't quite realise that a single Brit here has to get by on the equivalent of around $140 a week, and it's frozen at that rate!. Many of the Brits I know manage on that, which is much more than they could do in the UK.

BUT - this doesn't make them 'cheap Charlies', nor are those who, although they may have much more, choose to limit their spending to their needs and enjoy the hot weather as a bonus.

And no, us Brits don't sit around all day discussing the value of the £ sterling!

Yes - Chiang Mai, probably same dodgy expat so-called FA now living elsewhere, total, lying mis-selling to get the highest commission, made worse over 7 years by the the appalling non-services of a large BKK financial advisory firm also earning from the fund. Lost much more than I could afford to.

'They missed an opportunity to tell him all those things (and more) to his face. Sometimes the educated can be stupid, childish and shortsighted'

No - what they did was to put their own views forward and stick by them because they felt them strongly. Whether readers of this forum agree with them or not, they took advantage of the invaluable democratic asset of freedom of speech, still relatively common in the UK.

Perhaps, one day , the entire Thai population will be able and willing to do the same. Changes bringing in a truly democratic state such as most of us have enjoyed (or otherwise!) in the past, might just be the result.

I wouldn't have known about this option if it hadn't been for you, Sheryl and Lanna Care Net - so I thank you both with all my heart. Yes, it was embarrassingly inexpensive but, given my stubborn husband's utter refusal to go to Ram or such, it was a very interesting experience with a good result. I'm more than happy, so is he!

All's well that ended well!

My husband had his operation yesterday - all is good now. He was passed over to Nakornping's orthopedic specialist surgeon and received excellent care. The nursing and auxiliary staff were extremely kind, efficient and caring and ,although my husband doesn't speak any Thai, there were very few problems with communication. The surgeon had good English, explained how the infection had come about before he amputated the finger, and has given my husband a letter for the doctor at Doi Saket hospital who originally said there was 'no infection'. Should make an interesting read...The entire top joint and below of the index finger had been eaten away by the infection, which had been going on for over a month with no exterior indication or pain.

So - for those who've joined the scheme at Nakornping, it scored, for me, eight out of ten on what began as minor and turned into a serious problem. The nursing staff in both the general and orthopedic wards were great, giving more help than I would have expected, including providing a very late meal last evening after my husband had recovered for the operation and was, typically, starving hungry.

The only problem was the confusion as to when the operation should take place - it was put back for three days due to more urgent cases - orthopedics is so busy with victims of motorbike accidents it's not true. On Thursday, after the infection site had been drained and cleaned, the ward sister took one look at the mess underneath, took a photo of it on her mobile and sent it directly to the orthopedic surgeon, who immediately brought the surgery forward from Monday to yesterday. Unorthodox maybe, but it got the job done.

All in all, if a delay won't cause a life-threatening problem, I'd rate the entire experience slightly better than that in a similar local hospital in London's suburbs. How it would rate against US local hospitals, I've no idea, but the main surprise was that there was no charge for anything but the follow-up antibiotics and pain killers, which were 30 baht.

Muchogra - Nakornping emergency room is where he went, the day after he went to Doi Saket hospital to check it out and was told 'no infection'. Doi Saket's been good in the past for minor ailments, especially the woman doctor.

The following day, when it was more than obvious that an infection existed and that it was serious, the Nakornping doctor stressed he should be operated on immediately to remove the finger as the infection had spread to the bone - same story the next day - he's still there in the orthopedic ward - no operation yet, but 8 hours so far on an antibiotic drip and they've drained the site of the infection.

The ward staff are great, apparently.

With reference to Sheryl's post - spot on - not blowing my own trumpet, but the reason I nagged him to get a medical opinion at DS in the first place was that the heat coming off the bright red site of the infection would have boiled a kettle!

We're living in Doi Saket - my husband registered at Nakornping with no problems - although I'm beginning to think it wasn't such a smart idea given the chaos he's in now.

He was told last night to come back for his operation and overnight stay today, and arrived at 10.00 - he's now had to have all the same tests,X-ray, etc as yesterday, see the same junior doctor and then be passed on to the surgeon who saw him yesterday evening. And all the time,in spite of the the antibiotics he's been taking, the infection is getting worse. So much for urgency - still sounds like the NHS!

Thanks to all of you guys for your posts - yes, the Chiang Rai forum is a lot different in a positive way from the rest of the rant hubs on Thai Visa.

I've lived in Chiang Mai for over 7 years now, and have watched the community change to the extent that I'm now considering a move to Chiang Rai. You've encouraged me!

He's booked in tomorrow - flatly refuses to go to Ram or suchlike, saying he hates being ripped off.

His decision, I'm his wife, not his Mum! It's not worth a divorce...

Nice one, Gazzpa, I'm with you on this - I seem to remember an old London cockney song, something like

'it's the rich that gets the money,

it's the poor that gets the blame...

ain't it all a blooming shame'

Yes, it's one hell of a shame.

Don't know if this is a warning as I don't know yet how it will play out - my husband got an infection in his nailbed three days ago after he'd lost the nail last month. It looked dodgy, so he went to the small Sansai hospital on Monday just in case. The doctor insisted there was no infection and that it was just inflammation and gave him ibuprofen but no antibiotics, Tuesday morning it was worse, and our pharmacist at Mee Chok Plaza gave him antibiotics.

He was due to collect his medical insurance card from Nakornping tomorrow, but the finger was so bad this morning he decided to go a day early. After collecting his card, he saw a doctor who said he would need to have the top part of his finger amputated as the infection needed to be totally cleaned out.

He was told to wait until a surgeon was free as the operation would only need a local anesthetic. Almost FOUR hours later, by which time his finger joint had swelled to resemble a ping-pong ball with pus oozing out, he was told to come back tomorrow as he would now need a general anesthetic and 24 hours on an antibiotic drip.

I'm from the UK, and know full well that the NHS is quite capable nowadays of appalling mistakes as well, but...no infection????

He was too old to be able to get private health insurance here when we arrived and his existing conditions and hypertension would have excluded him anyway - so this plan did seem useful, but now I wonder. Just hope his operation goes OK...I seem to be the only person who's worried about the infection spreading a lot further in the next 24 hours.

Oddly enough, for those who haven't either experienced or researched into the causes of domestic violence, it's not about equality, the battle of the sexes, stupid women, etc, it's about dominance and control. In America, psychologists and counselors began to research the issue some 20 years ago, and the resulting publications were a light in the darkness for sufferers, most of whom were women.

The focus was on helping victims of physical and verbal abuse to understand that it wasn't their fault, and that their abusive partners were not about or even able to change no matter what. The intended result of both kinds of abuse in the victim is a total loss of self-esteem and confidence and, in many cases, the loss of friends and family as the victim is too ashamed to ask for help.

The result for many victims who've lived for years with abuse is that the development of long-term post traumatic shock disorder. Of course, the issue is far more complicated than just the above and abusers are made, not born, but any ministry anywhere in the world suggesting 'let's eliminate violence against women for 365 days' won't get much of a result, if any.

The abuser's strongest weapon is denial - until denial is no longer an issue, the abuse will not stop.

Spot on, Arcady, hope readers, especially new arrivals, take notice - your advice could save a lot of grief. But, how to prevent your 'worst scenario'? Cause for concern...

Chaindrite - first the liquid, then chaindrite varnish wherever applicable!

They invaded my outside kitchen some three years ago as well as a large wardrobe in my bedroom, snacking on towels, a swimsuit, cosmetic bags etc in my vanitory unit's cupboard along the way. The kitchen rebuild included removing the seriously-chewed up sections, replacing and smothering the rest with chaindrite. The wardrobe was replaced, and the bathroom smelt of chaindrite for months! Eeeuuch.

Since then, not one single termite has dared enter - the supposedly hardwood sala, of course, was another story - now mostly replaced with stained woodgrain shira board - let them try and break their teeth on that!

If you're at all sensitive to chemicals, wear a mask - chaindrite's nasty for some, me included. Chipboard furniture's at risk, hardwood usually isn't. Last tip - watch out for termite trails along your floor, they resemble tiny, lines of hard sand grains. Scrape off and apply more chaindrite on and around.

They swarm during the first rains of the season, around April, and this forum some while ago provided a sensible solution to prevent an invasion in the house - place a large pan of water under a bright light and watch them fighting to drown. Clear out the mess the next morning and repeat for around two weeks every time it rains. Me, I just switch the swimming pool light on, close all my doors and windows and watch the thousands die with a big smile on my face...

Best of luck!

A pinned article on how to spot financial scams in the investment and QROPs sectors and how to check out the qualifications and registration of financial advisors in Thai expat destinations - most of the international expat finance sites have had this for a while now . There would be no need to infringe forum rules by naming names, etc, just sensible general advice.

This may seem basic, but many otherwise intelligent people have lost out, especially recently.