market trader

My brother in law works for a company hat imports stainless steel nuts and bolts used from construction to Harley Davidson parts and i asked him does stainless steel rust, and he replied sure it does ? yes i was puzzled so i asked him to please explain,, he told me there are many grades of stainless not just one grade,, the Chinese produce the lowest grade of stainless, when new looks shiny but after time it will tarnish and rust away,,, as with plastic, my sister who has 3 children aged 6yrs, 8 yrs and now a 13 year old all at school, has received a letter recommending that lunch boxes made of plastic only be used for storage and never to be used for microwave heating and not to re-fill plastic water bottles, now the children use metal water bottles that are about $8 usd each, i think in times to come more information about the bad health effects of plastic will be posted and announced in the media but i think it's early times at the moment. In our house we use a lot of glass products for drinking and storing food, also some cooking pots we use are made of toughened glass, could it be the future maybe i wonder?

The Chinese produce the lowest grade of just about anything you can buy and that includes food.. You know things like watering down honey with sugar. Putting melamine in babies formula.

I think your first mistake was to even mention working in this country even if it is on computer. Your IP address can be traced without to much difficulty. I remember a few years ago hackers into government computers were caught because IP address took authorities to within a few houses of the culprit.

Seems to me that you are leaving something out in what you said..

Look in the mirror. It's a lot easier than you think... :-)

Agree, these small household filtration systems are very easy to install by yourself with very basic tools.

No matter where you live in Thailand loose dogs are the norm. Most are not dangerous but once in awhile you run into one that is. The only thing I can suggest is that you carry a sturdy walking stick with you.

Inflation in Thailand is apparently 5 %, wages are up. Did any of these exporters try to increase their prices to their buyers.

Or are the products so crap they have no pricing power at all?

No the products are not crap. But they have no pricing power. Viet Nam population 84 million and a factory wage less than Thailand will happily supply foreign companies if Thailand cannot compete.

The Baht isn't appreciating it is still about the same against currencies that are not dropping like the OZ and NZ dollar.

It is only the drop in US, Jap and Euro currencies that make it look like it is going up..

That of course doesn't help those who are exporting to countries whose currencies have dropped or tourists and expats on fixed incomes from those countries.

Have some respect. The 2nd world war ended 70 years ago. Its Japanese currency.. Do you still call Germans krauts?

well we can sure use some rain. where I live in Bo Sang I think it has rained only twice since the beginning of January and even then only for 10 or 15 minutes each time.

Yes Dolly will post on anything and everything. Yes his spelling can be abysmal. But on average I find that his posts are the ones that seem to make the most sense. He appears to post from his heart and does not give smart assed responses.

I have used Red Ride twice in the last 6 months..1500 bahts for the car and driver. Driver never goes over 100km's per hour. Will stop whenever and wherever you want so you can stretch your legs have a coffee or lunch etc. gets my recommendation.

How long have you guys being staying in chiangmai and still on the 90 days routine stuff....Until the day we die or leave the country.

I guess if you have an enemy, and you want that enemy to spend a long time in jail, you just post them some drugs and make it obvious so that customs will be waiting when it's delivered.

In any country you would be arrested and charged with handling drugs, in most countries it would be a solid defense that you d

idn't know about the drugs.. in Thailand I guess he needs more than a solid defense

A million bahts placed in the right hands would be pretty solid.

In my experience (and this is not about the RAM hospital) delays in scheduled appointment times are often caused by the Dr taking the time that the patient needed to examine, explain and reassure the patient. This will vary dependant on the seriousness of the diagnosis, the communication level with the patient and the explanation of proposed future treatment. This can, and often will have a knock on effect on later appointments.

Following major surgery I have to attend a local Mission hospital. I never get to see the Dr at the scheduled time but he has all the time in the world to address my questions, my current state and what we are going to do about it.

The emphasis is on the 'what we are going to do about it'...... he's doing his bit by prescribing me medicines but he expects me to 'contribute' by taking them as prescribed.

If I have to wait because he is taking that same time to talk with another patient then I am happy.

The best part is I don't pay a satang. Covered by Social Insurance which is deducted from my salary each month.

Well spoken

You or apparently none of the other repliers are from Canada.

There you make an appointment show up on time only to find out it is first come first served.

If the doctor is taking extra time to do the job properly that is OK with me as I would appreciate it if I was the one needing the extra time.

I wonder if I can call the Ram and make an appointment as getting around is difficult at the present time.

A very well known Dermatologist from the area of Canada I come from makes all morning appointments for 9AM and all afternoon appointments for 1.00 PM. Almost without exception it is 2 or 3 PM before she is finished with the morning appointments.

I live in the boonies of Bo Sang. Exactly 12 km's from the airport. Takes me all of 20 minutes on a bad day to get to the airport. I like the small town feel of the village we live in. I guess if there is to be a new airport in SanKampang all that will change unfortunately.

Now you have mentioned the area where you can expect to have a real problem. Internet. Here you can expect high speed one hour and the next hour extremely slow. Also the area and building you live in can have an effect on internet. Whatever you do make sure you have a back up for internet something like AIS air card.

The OP mentioned the Ram which is Chiang Mai. Therefore I am presuming he would like to have his problem attended to in Chiang Mai. I know there is at least one surgeon at the Ram who does laproscopic surgery his name was mentioned to me late last year when a hernia I have was acting up. However it has not been giving me any problems lately and I have kind of forgotten about it.

Just a thought , but if you looking for this, are you thinking about opening an internet cafe and offer free wifi???

If he is its a foolish thought. There are more coffee shops and internet cafes in Chiang Mai than you can shake a stick at.

You want a cheap frother to make café latte. Go to central plaza I think top floor where they sell small kitchen appliances. Buy a one cup glass coffee bodum. Then buy 0% fat milk. Put about 1/2" - 3/4" cold milk in the bodum and start pumping. Before you know it you have whipped milk as thick as whipped cream. Add to your favourite coffee and you have homemade Starbucks latte.

Dolly and others. IMO CPAP machines are now like other electronics not worth repairing, I have a 5 year old ResMed auto back in Canada that started to malfunction. When I took it in to be repaired the quote was 70% the cost of a new improved version.

I had a sleep study done a few months ago here. I understand they do them at RAM but it was recommended I go to Siraphat Hospital.

Meet with the doctor who arranged for someone to come to my house and hook me up for the sleep study. Cost 3K baht. Meet with the doctor to interpret the results, she recommended a machine which came from the same guy who came to my house. Machine was 65K baht adn I paid an extra 5K for a mask that I felt comfortable with. They let me try it out for a week. Their machine was at least 2x what it would cost elsewhere and they wouldn't budge on price. I researched my options and while I could have saved ordering it online I didn't know what the import tax would be and I worried how difficult it would be to get service. The guy that sold me the machine will give me replacement while fixing mine. Wasn't happy with the cost but seemed like my best option.

Surely that had to be the 18ct gold one with diamonds and rubies. These machines have actually decreased in price somewhat over that past 5 years. I have 2 machines with me here in Chiang Mai. Both purchased new one year ago.. One is a devilbliss automatic Which cost $425.00 U.S. (12,325 bahts) The other is a ZZ pap which is very light and I use for travelling. It cost $199.00 U.S. (5770 bahts)) As I have mentioned before a U.S. company www.cpapsupply.com ships worldwide.

I should have added to my post that no one knows if the Thai baht will continue to appreciate or not. However if you have a fairly reasonable amount in a U.S.D. currency account you might consider putting 50% of it into a Thai baht account. Hedge you bets.

Its not just the U.S. dollar that is dropping against the Thai Baht. Its also Canada, Britain, Australia , Euro etc. I just read last week in a U.S. financial paper about how strong the economy in Thailand is. Strong economy translates into strong baht. If you are living in Thailand on retirement pension and are getting closeto being below water then I think there is some cause for concern.

I didn't say I was legal for those 11 months, just OK to renew. I was unlicenced for 11 months, so illegal. But the renewal was fine.

Good. Thanks for clearing that up.