simon43

Yes, WRLife asked about any previous insurance and I provided details and a copy of the insurance certificate for April, and an explanation of the events. No questions were asked and my policy with WRLife is now in force, including $10,000 payout to my brother on my death by illness or accident, to pay for funeral costs (that's $50 needed to dump me in the Mekong and $9,950 for a party...). While my employment does not pay huge amounts, I should be able to save $20,000 a year for emergency expenses or outpatient treatment (I opted only for inpatient and death cover). Actually, my new employer in Myanmar also provides 'expat' medical insurance (which is one positive reason why I accepted the job!).

Yes, QSL cards. It's a way of cementing a new friendship and also proof of that radio contact because there are many award certificates that the radio ham can apply for, such as making contact with radio hams in 100 different countries.

She blew into a torch?!! One wonders what else she might 'blow' in order to be let off ???? Totally off-topic, but many years ago I found myself held in the dock under Pattaya Courts on some trumped-up charge. A Thai 'lady' was in the dock accused of having 1 yaba pill. The magistrate told her to go into the private room next door to sort it out with the police officer and then she would be released without charge. The police guy was smiling like a cheshire cat as he went with the lady (who BTW was also smiling!). Of course, I have no idea what then occurred in that room ????

I have just signed up with WRLife. having had my medical insurance cover cancelled by April International Insurance (France) when I made a claim. The history of that has been covered in previous threads, but basically April cancelled my insurance because they said I should have informed them that I had slight BPH when I signed up several years earlier. My claim late last year was for prostate cancer investigation (MRI scan/biopsy etc). In fact, when I signed up with April, no doctor had ever diagnosed BPH in writing - it was an off-the-cuff comment after a DRE many years previously and never recorded. This being the case, I was shaken and very annoyed when April used BPH as a reason for cancelling my cover for cancer investigation. The 2 ailments are not related, so it was IMHO simply a way to avoid payment. My thousands of $ in premiums over the past 2+ years were not reimbursed.... Happily, no cancer was found after a detailed biopsy. I can add that my financial claim against April has been accepted for consideration by the insurance ombudsman in France and I'm busy submitting further documents to them. So these events really unsettled me about getting further medical insurance cover. I decided to sign up with WRLife because although a new company, they do have a history of paying out on valid claims. Also, their premiums are very reasonable. This means that I will also be able to save funds for 'self-insurance', just in case a future claim is rejected. BTW, to ensure that WRLife couldn't pull the same 'trick' as April, I listed every conceivable ailment/treatment on the application forms, included the bunion on my right foot, a vasectomy some 15 years ago and a benign mole removal 10 years ago!! WRLife accepted me with the (agreed between us) exclusion of BPH/prostatitis/UTIs, but including cover for prostate cancer.

Not in Thailand!

[quote] The other day a diabetic member posted a misleading pic of a rich desert w/ nary a mention of his condition. In fairness, he should have put his meds in the pic as well. So, let's have your list. [/quote] 1 tablet a day of Tamsulosin for my slightly-enlarged prostate. TBH, I would probably be fine without it. No other meds, a multivitamin tablet whenever I remember to take it, purely because I don't eat much meat (only chicken occasionally), and so might be missing out on a balanced mineral intake. Blood pressure fine, heart rate slow (big heart thanks to exercise) etc. For years I've mentioned my lung illness that was the primary reason for moving out to Thailand 21 years ago (the UK cold weather was giving me bronchitus and pneumonia). While back in the UK for prostate cancer investigations (none found!), I asked my GP to finally diagnose my lung medical condition. Well, after x-rays, blow test, sputum test etc, they declared that there was nothing wrong with my lungs! (They told me this in person as I was coughing like an old man in the cold UK climate....). Anyway, their diagnosis is good to know because I don't need to declare it as a pre-existing condition on my medical insurance application!

Regardless of how small the risk of contracting rabies from a rabid rat, I would have thought that the almost 100% certainty of dying if one contracts rabies, and dying in a rather gruesome manner would encourage anyone to get rabies shots.

Nothing to do with the food side, but I'm a licenced shortwave radio amateur in Thailand (for the past 20 years). My station operates from a battery, recharged by solar panels and so if 'off-grid' from my little house in the coconut plantations on Koh Phangan. It's no problem to communicate worldwide with my station and I often send out TV pictures on the shortwave bands (see photo). I also have various DIY antennas that can receive weather satellite images. If the internet goes down I can still send emails using the Winlink shortwave email system.

Yes, it was offered free after I registered with a GP. So not a colonoscopy. Also a free Covid booster, free flu and free pneumonia vaccinations. @khunLA " I always get a full abdominal ultrasound." - Is that to check if you are pregnant?! ????

A good helmet can help to save your life in an accident. But how about trying to reduce the number of accidents? Sort out the cause so you don't have to deal with the effect....

After my recent 'scare' concerning prostate cancer, I want to make sure that my regular health check-ups identify any cancers or serious diseases at the earliest outset. I'm on top of my PSA and I had a colon cancer test (negative) while in the UK. But what about other cancers? Are there cancer indicators to look for in a blood or urine test that I should request? Diabetes? Neurological diseases etc? Thanks.

Stolen again!! I ordered a new Wise debit card about 2 weeks ago. This time, I 'froze' the card on my Wise account dashboard. Today I checked from my dashboard about this card. It stated that the card was delivered to me on April 11th (it was not!). Additionally, on 12th April there were 2 attempts to purchase food from Deliveroo....... These both failed because the card is frozen. This really is a security loophole with Wise. Firstly, they send the card out 'unfrozen'. I manually set it to frozen 5 minutes after I ordered it on my Wise account dashboard. Secondly, the fact that anyone with the card number can order food deliveries without any security PIN or OTP check is ridiculous! I have told Wise about these latest events and have invited them to comment about the security of their debit cards. I also told them that I will not request a 3rd debit card because clearly there is a security loophole with their system. I also invited them to contact the local police with details of these 2 thefts. I don't want to get involved but it's clearly the low-life hotel manager where I'm staying! I know this because about 1 month ago as I was leaving the hotel to go shopping I saw a letter addressed to me by the front door. I recognised it as a receipt of no importance and intended to retrieve it when I returned. Well, when I returned, the letter had disappeared and I never saw it again! Just a few days ago, the low-life left a new letter/envelope outaide my room door. It was already opened(!) and was an important medical report from the local hospital. I guess this is why he decided to leave the letter for me, even though the envelope had been torn open. No excuse/explanation was offered by the thief... I like Wise for transferring funds to Thailand. But I never leave any funds in my Wise balance because I simply no longer trust the security of their systems.

[quote] As a 'rule of thumb' if you are living abroad and NOT working, you have to pay Class 1 contributions at the higher rate. This happened to me. [/quote] I paid top-ups for 14 years (from 2016) at class 2 rate. I stated that I worked overseas as a teacher in Myanmar and provided copies of my employment contracts. I was never required to pay class 1 ????

[quote] ... In his statement to the police, Worapol claimed that the passengers attempted to lower his fare to 40 baht per person, half of the originally agreed upon fare of 80 baht per person. ... [/quote] 2 passengers? The bike rider probably tried the old trick of saying '80 baht' when they asked the cost to the destination, but upon arriving at said destination the bike rider then says "that's 80 baht PER person".

And now, how confident are you that the company will pay out if your wife/son make a claim?

One of my bridges dropped out after 20 years. The dentist in the UK charged me 80 pounds to simply glue it back in.... Next time I'll do it myself!

I had the same problem some time ago. I tried messaging but no luck. The only way was to telephone the international section. If you don't have 2 valid proofs of ID (my DL was lost/no photo ID), then you can still get registered by answering their probing questions. I can't recall what additional questions they asked me (name of my pet cat, bust size of my ex-wife etc). Whatever it was, I passed the test and managed to register. As others have said, you will retire at 66. If your missed years are more than a few years ago, then I think you have just missed the deadline to top these up (or you might have just a week or so to do it!). You need to check asap.

[quote] ... The record for the hundred-meter dash for women ages one hundred and up is about forty-one seconds. ... [/quote] Perhaps a better description would be 'stagger' rather than 'dash'! But all kudos to them at that age ????

Update 12th April: Well, I've had my final post-biopsy meeting with my doctor. They confirm that no biopsy samples detected any cancer cells, including the samples that were targeted at the shadows found on my MRI scan. I have a letter to this effect which I can provide to any medical insurance company who will take me on. As with all my other consultations since last October, my pee sample indicated the presence of a UTI. This is in spite of numerous and different antibiotic medications over the past 6 months! My doctor feels that my raised PSA is certainly not due to the presence of cancer cells, but down to this UTI and prostatitis, the latter creating a semi-hard nodule inside my prostate. So it's back on yet more antibiotics of 2 types to try to clear up the UTI and prostatitis, then onto Finasteride to slowly reduce my prostate size, and then regular PSA checks commencing in about 4 months from now. Since my UTI/prostatitis causes me no outward symptoms, I'm happy to live with this, and my doctor mentioned that many older men have asymptomatic UTI/prostatitis without any need for further treatment. So I'm a happy chap! Despite the numerous complaints about the NHS, the time from registering with a UK GP through to 'sign-off' from cancer investigations was 8 weeks - this included 4 meetings with my new GP and 4 meetings/diagnosis at the urology department of the local hospital.

Yes.... there is a civil war going on in the country. I doubt anyone would even dare to rent an apartment to you if you only have a tourist visa. Even in more peaceful times I would never dare to rent an apartment on a tourist visa - the punishment will be much worse for the apartment owner than you....

Absolutely you should assume that it was a rabid rat and get yourself to hospital asap!

I've joined this discussion rather late. In a few weeks I will need to go from Koh Phangan on a one-way trip to Pattaya in my car. I normally take the ferry over to Don Sak and then drive all the way, stopping overnight near Chumpon, paying for 500 baht hotel, petrol and motorway tolls through Bangkok. What would be the approximate price for a one-way ticket from Samui to Satthip on this ferry for a standard car and driver (no passengers, with a VIP seat on the ferry? Yes, I will download the app/LINE messaging if I want to book, but an approximate total price for the above is appreciated!

Wow, excessive use of adjectives (chic, ubercool, sensational, celebrated etc) in that promo! I'll use this as an example (How to overdo descriptions) for my English language students! ????

[quote] ... it is related to overheating and lack of airflow which occurs between rear end cheeks and my nose ... [/quote] Your nose is stuck up your bum?!! ????

The tsunami buoy operated by Thailand in that region seems to be operational: https://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/obs.shtml?lat=13&lon=-173&zoom=2&pgm=tsunami Click on the yellow diamond for station 23461 east of the Andaman Islands for the data. Also, here is the link to the live earthquake map: https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/map/?extent=-48.12064,-315.52734&extent=56.45156,-101.77734