Kaoboi Bebobp

I'm Canadian and got the KBank email last mid-evening. Bit of a Saturday night shocker. Anyway, will be off to KBank on Monday to see what this is all about, though it is clearly very focused on American tax laws. My account goes back to about 2008, I think.

Regarding your No. 3, Bangkok Hospital. This was 10 years ago but I see Dr. Sakpisid Nawasiri is still listed at the cancer department. He treated me for prostate cancer via Image Modulated Radiotherapy. 35 treatments, 5 days a week for 7 weeks. Well, needless to say, I was impressed with all the staff and doctor during treatment and I am still here and healthy. At least worth consulting him.

If you want perspective on the thorough devastation of Sihanoukville, watch this fresh video by an Aussie couple, who have lived in Cambodia for years and live in Siem Reap currently but visited S'ville recently. Roads and streets are full of potholes and broken asphalt. Blocks of Chinese-only businesses and eateries only have signs in Chinese, none in Khmer or English. Dozens of building skeletons are festooned with horrible shacks for the poor Khmer and marginal businesses. Polluted water flows down hilly streets. It is pretty disgusting what has happened to this former chill, quiet but yet enjoyable seaside small city. This is not one of their better presentations but the visuals are soul wrenching: First impressions of SIHANOUKVILLE, Cambodia! Shocking? Dangerous?

Just heard a similar story from a small bar owner behind Big C Extra on Pattaya Klang. Known her for years. Her non-hostess bar was empty most nights for the week I visited while Russians, Koreans and Chinese walked past with Big C and 7-11 bags in hand. She said she is waiting for her Scandinavian customers' return in September. She does get the odd Euro/Aussie/Yank customers who have lived in the neighbourhood a long time, as I used to do. But westerner business on average is way down.

Good thread. Anyway, back to the visa question . . . Back in late February, VN talked about waiving visas for up to 6- and 12-month stays. Too good to be true, I know. I scan the Viet English press every day and not a peep since. However, there may be an update soon. The National Assembly will be addressing tourism issues June 4-6, as reported a week ago at Vietnam Plus news site. This below is all that was said: Vietnam is getting crushed by other tourist hotspots in SEA. I hope they will have something concrete to offer this year. I also find this issue of residency with Thai taxation consequences somewhat worrisome. And frankly, as noted above, I find living in increasingly busy Bangkok (4.5 years straight) or anywhere in Thailand is getting on my nerves. I have lived in Cambodia many years ago and Vietnam up until 2019. The best VN visa right now is the 90-day MULTI-entry useful but not satisfactory for longer stays. However, there have been some fresh expat reports of the e-visa portal being unable to process payments and no amount of emails via the specific trouble report link were being answered for days on end.

Tomorrow's March 12. You mean April. The National Songkran Festival runs April 1 to 21, with events here and there in Thailand. The official Songkran water festival runs April 11-15, at least in Bangkok.

A decently dressed Indian guy came down the escalator at Phrom Phong BTS Station in front of Em Quartier Mall, Bangkok. Asked if I speak English. He pressed his internal start button and went straight into his pitch, showing me his -- not sure if it's called a colostomy bag if it's used to collect urine. Yeah, yuck. Drama button 2 gets pressed and the tears started to flow. Then and there I knew the game was on. "No. Bye." The nerve these bums have. I have also gotten the "you have a lucky face" pitch in years past.

Sorry, haven't been to Lao in many years.

Nope. Whether you entered on a 30-day single entry or 90-day multi-entry visa, you must leave. During the previous 30-day-only visa period, agents were offering one-day border runs to Cambodia for about 1 million VND or more. As for an agent-obtained visa within the country, do so at your own risk.

Posted in the last 24 hours on Voice of Vietnam and on VN Express. Is Vietnam waking up to the nearby tourism competition? These are good looking proposals. Now, if VN would only get going and stop talking. The remainders of the articles at the links are largely background stuff. From Voice of Vietnam: Vietnam to offer long-stay visas to attract visitors from high-end markets From VN Express: Vietnam considers visa exemption for nationals of wealthy countries

I will only reply to this once because it is way off topic. Campbell has presented hundreds of studies all these years, with all the sources and links. Read the medical study summarized and linked by Campbell, which is my only reason for posting this so that it might help folks.

This might be helpful. I was treated for prostate cancer (Gleason of 7) back in 2014 (age 60) by Dr. Sakpisid Nawasiri at Bangkok Hospital. They used Image Modulated Radio Therapy (IMRT). The machine was a Swedish Electa, which circled my body through 7 different positions. There were a total of 35 fractions (treatments): 25 aimed at surrounding tissue such as lymph nodes and 10 at the prostate. In other words, 7 weeks. For the next 2 years, I had quarterly physical checks and blood tests. My lowest PSA was 0.6, and averaged in the 1.xx for years. During that period I utterly changed my lifestyle so to give my immune system a better chance. I still do so to this very day, getting good sleep and some light exercise and keep my metabolic health up-to-date. FYI: Last year, Dr. John Campbell, PhD, posted this study on his channel (3 million subscribers): "Circulating vitamin D level and mortality in prostate cancer patients: a dose–response meta-analysis." In summary, higher dosages of Vit D seem to have a very positive protective effect on those who already had prostate cancer. You can read his entire script below his YouTube video and/or watch the 16 min vid. Vitamin D and prostate cancer

Not quite sure what you mean by "after" immigration. After airline check-in, you go upstairs to Security, then downstairs to Passport Control. Here you do not get in line for the IOs but go straight to the corner desk to buy your Re-entry Permit (single or multi), then get in line to get your departure stamp. This is at Suvarnabhumi.

A good source of info are the forum pages of Cambodia Expats Online. I have read lots of griping about how more expensive Phnom Penh is these days: supermarkets because a fair bit of food imports are directly from Thailand; eateries are now running $5 to $10 a meal; hostess bar girls asking $50 to $100; 50 cent beers are double that now; cigs cheaper though; there's no city transit still so it's all by tuktuk or tiny golf cart-like Passapps (like Grab); streets after midnight are rather dangerous due to bag/phone snatches (even in daytime), drunk driving in extreme ("foreigners" -- guess?); and apartments for residents are rocketing upwards of $400 to $600/month. Long-stay visas are a breeze if you're old enough 55 and up. Tourist e-visa is $35 online, get a letter and show it at airport and then at arrival you get a small stamp. You can also get an Ordinary visa on arrival and extend for 3, 6 or 12 months. Latter is about $290. And last, I like the friendly Khmer people who also seem to pick up English reasonably well. Anyway, check out CEO.

It is a real thing. I just got a new passport (Canada). Also got my old one back. Inside the old one is a fresh stamp certifying the new passport and new passport number is for one and the same person. My embassy did it for me automatically because they know Immigration will ask for certification of the new one.