dgarmaise

Thank you lopburi3 and Sheryl! This is very helpful.

Hi. Does anyone know if and where I can find a urologist who performs implants with the artificial urinary sphincter? I am a 70-year-old male from Canada, living in Pattaya. Thanks.

The last post on this tread that talks about whether the new macbook and macbook pro is in the retail stores here was about two weeks ago. Does anyone know if they have arrived? I would like to compare the new macbook with the macbook pro with retina display side-by-side to see whether the 13.3" screen on the pro makes a big difference compared to the 12" screen on the macbook. I think this is what it will come down to for me. Though I must add that I think Apple went a bit far in reducing the number of ports on the new macbook.

I had my sleep test at Bumrungrad a few days ago. Severe obstructive sleep apea: that was the diagnosis. I am busy researching the topic on the internet. I am just about ready to order a machine (much cheaper online) but I am hoping there is some place in Pattaya or Bangkok where I can try on different masks. I hope I don't have to order the masks online, sight unseen (so to speak). I breathe through my mouth when I sleep, so I fear I may need the fuill face mask (ugh) or at least a nasal device plus a chin strap. Any advice would be appreciated.

I can buy the 64gb iPhone 5 on the apple store for 29900 baht. Unlocked Why are all the stores in Pattaya selling them for three to four thousand baht more? Because they are not authorized resellers?

So, the upshot is (I gather) that imovane is not available anywhere in Pattaya. I notice that some online pharmacies are advertising imovane without requiring a prescription. The prices are not cheap, ranging from just under $2 a pill to $3 a pill, depending on quantity. Has anyone had a good experience with one of these online pharmacies?

I wouldn't try to import any drugs into Thailand if I were you. It's just asking for trouble.

Why do you say that? Is it illegal to import prescription drugs into Thailand? I come from a country where it is perfectly legal to import medicines for one's personal use.

So, the upshot is (I gather) that imovane is not available anywhere in Pattaya. I notice that some online pharmacies are advertising imovane without requiring a prescription. The prices are not cheap, ranging from just under $2 a pill to $3 a pill, depending on quantity. Has anyone had a good experience with one of these online pharmacies?

Is anyone besides TAN reporting this "news"???

In BKK, there is perfectly good hummus at a couple of different places, including the Lebanon House Restaurant on Suk Road at Soi 11, the branches of Beirut Restaurant in the Ploenchit and Silom areas, and various other places, including many around the area of Bumrungrad Hospital.

Food processors are easy to find here, in the Central Department Stores, HomePro and various other outlets. People have differing opinions as to what is good or not...

Thanks, JF. I was recently at Bumrungrad and noticed some streets with Lebanese and Arabic food... But I don't get to BKK often these days. Today, I discovered a Lebanese Restaurant, the Palace, on the 4th floor of the Central Festival Mall in Pattaya. Good hummus and tabouleh! The owner said that he gets his tahini in Bangkok in bulk from a private dealer.

And I found food processors at Central Department Store in the same mall!

The answer is the residents' association or, more accurately, the village, which was registered as a juristic entity at the land office.

OK - so effectively you are a freeholder through your company.

Does the freehold title for the common areas now belong to your 'resident's association' or do the owners of the properties within the development each own a share of the freehold in their own right? The question is whose name is on the land title for the common areas?

Thanks, Bemused. My personal situation is that I purchased an existing company from another farang; the company owns a house in a village (housing development). I am on the Residents' Committee that was formed when the developer transferred ownership of the village common areas to the owners of the houses in the village. We "borrowed" a set of regulations from another village in order to complete the process of registering our village at the land office. Now, we would like to simplify the regulations. Hence, my request for a short and simple set of regulations, in use by a village somewhere, if that is possible. My other question related to whether there are certain provisions that have to be in the regulations according to law. I think this is what you addressed in your post, and I understand your comments to say that there is not much laid down in the law for villages (as opposed to condos).

The housing development (or village) that I live in took over ownership of, and responsibility for, the village common areas about four months ago. We adopted a set of regulations (bylaws), one of the requirements for registering our village at the land office. The regulations are about 30 pages long. We'd like to simplify them. If anyone has a short set of regulations for a village (village would be better than condo), I would like to hear about them. Another question: Does anyone know whether there is a list of regulations that must, by law, be included in the village regulations? Thanks.

>On my recent trip back to the U.S., I brought back my own large and small sized electric food processors, now suitably installed here at home.

>In the week since I've been back to BKK, I've already been using them to make my own homemade hummus dip, which is healthy and tastes great, instead of buying it from a local restaurant.

>Substitute peanuts for garbanzo beans, and voila... peanut butter.

JF: Do you use tahini to make the hummus? Where can one find tahini? Or do you start with sesame seeds? Do you have a recipe for the hummus? So far I have not found any decent humus in Thailand. Another question: Can one purchase a decent food processor here?

Another poster said that there is a health food store in Chiang Mai. Anyone know of such a store in Pattaya? In Bangkok?

Oops: I wrote the post above before I read pages 2, 3 and 4 of the thread. Silly me. Most of my questions were answered, buyt not the one about health food stores in OPattaya or Bangkok....

>On my recent trip back to the U.S., I brought back my own large and small sized electric food processors, now suitably installed here at home.

>In the week since I've been back to BKK, I've already been using them to make my own homemade hummus dip, which is healthy and tastes great, instead of buying it from a local restaurant.

>Substitute peanuts for garbanzo beans, and voila... peanut butter.

JF: Do you use tahini to make the hummus? Where can one find tahini? Or do you start with sesame seeds? Do you have a recipe for the hummus? So far I have not found any decent humus in Thailand. Another question: Can one purchase a decent food processor here?

Another poster said that there is a health food store in Chiang Mai. Anyone know of such a store in Pattaya? In Bangkok?

Does either DNS advantage or Open DNS improve upload speeds? My main problem is uploading. I can live with the current download speeds.

Is anyone getting upload speeds greater than 400 or 500 kbps with TT&T? I'm not even getting that. I am paying for 2MB download an 1MB upload. I have never gotten anywhere near 1MB upload; currently, I am getting 200-300 kpbs, if that. I am sure the service has deteriorated in the last few months because now I have trouble backing up my files (which I do over the internet) whereas I never had these problems before. The stories of incompetence at TT&T are legion. Two "engineers" spent two fruitless hours at my house yesterday. They did not know what they were doing. In the end, they said that my problems were due to the fact that I have two computers running off the same router! Other people have been told that there is something wrong with their router (when in fact it was perfectly fine). I now that TIT, but this is getting ridiculous.

Is anyone getting upload speeds greater than 400 or 500 kbps with TT&T? I'm not even getting that. I am paying for 2MB download an 1MB upload. I have never gotten anywhere near 1MB upload; currently, I am getting 200-300 kpbs, if that. I am sure the service has deteriorated in the last few months because now I have trouble backing up my files (which I do over the internet) whereas I never had these problems before. The stories of incompetence at TT&T are legion. Two "engineers" spent two fruitless hours at my house yesterday. They did not know what they were doing. In the end, they said that my problems were due to the fact that I have two computers running off the same router! Other people have been told that there is something wrong with their router (when in fact it was perfectly fine). I now that TIT, but this is getting ridiculous.

Basically, I know only what you already know. Two doctors I talked to thought it would be avaiable at some future date, but were not willing to predict when. I did not ask why it was not available. I am used to things disappearing from grocery shelves for weeks, so I thought this was in the same vein.

NOTE to forum moderators: This is not a thread requesting controlled substances OTC - so please do not delete.

Despite some of the reported side effects of Stilnox (aka Ambien, Zolpidem) I've used it successfully on and off for insomnia for a few years now. No hangover and no memory effects.

However during a recent visit to my GP - I was told there were problems with the current supplier and health ministry license here in Thailand, and that the drug is currently unavailable. Sure enough having called a couple of the better known hospitals here in Bangkok - Stilnox (Zolpidem) is currently unavailable in Thailand.

Does anyone else know anything more about this?

Surely the spirit of the law is that if you are doing work that a Thai person could be doing instead, you need a work permit. So, if you buying and selling second-hand toasters, you need a work permit. If you are volunteering three times a week at the local orphanage, this one is a little tougher, but I can see someone making the argument that if you weren't doing that, the orphanage might hire a Thai person to do that work (even if the reality is that the orphanage does not have the money to do so). Or, I suppose the authorities could even argue that you are depriving a Thai person from getting experience that might eventually lead to him or her landing a job in that field, though that is obviously a bit of a stretch.

If you are painting your own house, I can't see the argument for needing a work permit (though you might need a buildiing permit!).

If you own a condo and rent it out, I doubt you need a work permit, but that one affects a lot of farang and should definitely be clarified.

I realise that I am just taking about what I think the spirit of the law is, and that selective enforcement is a whole other matter.

(What about trying to raise some money among other farang to give o a Thai charity? Do you need a work permit for that?!)

I read that the iPhone True is selling has no Thai keyboard. I find it difficult to understand how a Thai company can sell the iPhone in Thailand with no Thai keyboard, and how Apple would sign a contract with such a company.

True Move is offering four packages: Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum. Only the Bronze package has an upfront payment. All four packages require you to pay a monthly service fee (i.e. sign a service contract) for 24 months. (What you have to pay each month after 24 months, I have no idea.) If you stay within the limits set for each package, the following is what you will end up paying after 24 months for the 16GB phone:

Bronze: B 39,275

Silver: B 38,376

Gold: B 43,176

Platinum: B 50,376

According to the website: http://www.truemove.com/iphone/eng/price_plan.htm :

the monthly limits seem to be quite low. For the Bronze and Silver plans, your use of wi-fi is limited to 20 hours a month: anything in excess is 1B per minute. That's probably fine. But for voice calls, for bronze and Silver, the limit is "100." Can that be 100 minutes a month? It must be. That's like three minutes a day! Excess charge: 1.5B/minute. Use of Edge/GPRS/3G is limited to 10 hours for the Bronze plan and 1 GB for the Silver plan. I am not sure how to interpret that. I assume this means downloads from the Internet. Excess: 1B/minute.

Does anyone on this forum regularly buy foreign lottery tickets? Which ones? Do you buy online? On a subscription basis? Does one have to provide an address in the country in question? Are any winnings taxed in the country in question? I have tried to find the answers on the Internet but can find very little information on the residency and tax questions.

This thread has been inactive for a while, but I have a related question. I purchased a Sierra Wireless Compass 885 Braadband USB Modem. I opened an account with DTAC. I installed the modem successfully on my iMac and my MacBookPro, and I am able to browse the Internet, though the speeds are not the greatest. I have an email account with gmail. I usually use Apple Mail to download and upload my email. When I am connected with Sierra, I cannot send or receive email with Apple Mail. I am sure it is just a matter of changing some settings, but which ones? So far, DTAC has not been able to help. I installed the Sierra on my old PC and it works fine, including for sending email from my email program. Can anyone help? (I realize that I can manage my email on the gmail website, if I have to, but I'd rather be able to use Apple Mail.)

Hutch uses a different cellular technology than AIS and DTAC. AIS and DTAC are GSM systems and Hutch is CDMA. I have no info on speeds or coverage of Hutch's network. If you find out anything interesting, let us know.

also, i dont know your area, but we've been in about 7 different locations around pattaya and it really depends on where you are with your connection. 100m down the road from our office, our old office had useless internet, very low signal line, but now we have a high signal and its great. same with all our old offices around town. one connection would be great (CAT) other would be useless (MAXNET), then we'd move office and the opposite would be true.

thankfully here now we have both CAT and MAXNET at 100%. we're on sukumvit, so the main lines must run along here and we're not getting lost in the noise in town more.

WARNING!! Where I live on Soi Wat Boonsampan, there is no regular phone service. The area code is 037 (the rest of Pattaya is 038). You can get a phone installed from TT&T, but it is an internet phone, and you have buy the phone line and the Internet together. You get a special phone, without the usual phone jack. You run a phone wire from the wall outlet to your MODEM, and then a LAN cable to your phone! All of which means that if you are looking to get an internet service that relies on having a regular phone line, better check first what is available. TOT told us they had no lines available (hate them anyway). CAT has no service in this area. I am not very happy with the TT&T internet connection I have. I have no back up, since I can't dial out from my computer (and I can't get the bluetooth feature on my iMac to work with my cell phone). I am on my way now to IT City to buy an edge Internet phone. I hear they are not that great, but I need back up. There is a cable-based Internet service in this area, but when I checked it out it seemed rather strange (as in you don't get your own IP address); but maybe someone has more information.

Two questions: (1) Is there much price difference between Thailand and the U.S or Canada for DSLR cameras? (2) If I buy a camera in the U.S. or Canada will I be able to get a manual in Thai? Are these manuals available online? Can one order one? Thanks.