Tapster

@Patong2

I don't have travel insurance, I live here, in Rawai.

I was hoping that 'old hands' on TV might know a legit jet ski operator.

Hopefully some others will read this thread later today.

Thanks for the opinions, though. I know the jet ski thing is a minefield.

My wife has always wanted to try a jet ski.

However, Phuket is renowned for scams.

Can any TV members recommend an honest jet ski operator, or am I on a fool's errand?

Also (unrelated to the above), is it possible to hire a 'real' jet ski anywhere: a stand-up one?

No. 

From Nikita, head west for approx 100m and it's on the right (obviously, cos you get wet if you turn left!). 

The entrance is set back from the road a little, up some steps. It looks a bit like a greenhouse....lots of glass on the front. 

Enjoy! 

So , is Cambodia experiencing social unrest?

Seriously, I don't know.

Opinions, please , from informed members.

Me so glad I don't live anywhere near Patong!

It's not a subject that Western people seem to like thinking about, but to choose your time, at 82, when one's life has become too much of a struggle, is an adult choice which should be available to everyone, in an ideal world.

I wouldn't choose a gun, though. What an image to leave for your family. But then again, the poor guy could hardly walk so maybe didn't have many options.

RIP

There's a new pizza/Italian place on Rawai beach, just west of Nikita. 

It's called Roma and almost all the main dishes are 100THB.

It's worth a look if you're hungry. The 100-Baht pizza is surprisingly good. 

During 24 years of dentistry, I had my fair share of back problems due to poor posture and the weird positions one assumes in order to see what you're doing.

A friend recommended that I go to see his chiropractor, who was well respected.

I'm an atheist and a sceptic, with no time for non-scientific woo and treatments that don't work. Also, I know the difference between the placebo effect and an effective treatment which sorts out the problem.

Believe it or not, my back pain was successfully treated every time I saw this chiropractor. That leads me to the conclusion that, empirically at least, the chiropractor's treatment wasn't woo.

He didn't call himself 'Doctor', but I think that's illegal in the UK, isn't it?

Isn't it well known that the pronunciation of 'r' is more difficult for Thais than to say 'el'?

Empirically, that seems to be the case. So, not laziness but cultural language bias.

Anyway, Mars to "Martian", and Croatia to "Croatian" aren't examples of a linguistic rule. If they were, it would definitely be Phuket to "Phuketian"......not your first choice.

One or two examples of pronunciation either way aren't statistically valid, and there are no rules for this (I'm a Liverpudlian, I should know), so I have to resort to the............"drinking my coffee/tea smiley", indicating "number of shits given - zero".

+1

Dr Melcher is a very thorough doctor. I am medical too, so can attest to this. He has treated both my wife and me, but not for back problems.

He's an orthopaedic surgeon, so certainly knows how everything fits together.

I was looking for someone good with back trouble recently. I didn't find anyone living!

Poor old Dr Cracknell is still alive and well on the internet.

That's quite eerie.

Farang/falang is English pronunciation from Thai, so both are acceptable, surely.

Similarly, there are many words from Thai that we pronounce in more than one way, aren't there?

The phuket-ian thing is strange, though.

Both pookeeshun and pooketian are very ugly and awkward constructions. I would never use either.

It may use a few extra syllables but I always say, 'someone from Phuket', or words to that effect.

I mean, who uses these words more than once every month or two anyway?

I did my retirement extension last week. It was a happy and smiley, pain-free process.

I was in such a good mood that I asked the woman in front of me why she wasn't smiling (she was looking very glum, on a lovely day). It turned out her brother had died and she was returning to the UK in a hurry.

*cue profuse expressions of condolence and silent return to the queue*......oops!

The Foreign National Information Form seems not to matter at all any more. I had it brushed aside last week, and last year.

I brought a photo of the happy couple posing in front of the house but I wasn't asked for a map as well. That's good. I didn't know I needed one.

No, of course 79 isn't a healthy, middle-aged person. I didn't mean to imply that he was such a person. I'll phrase my sentence better next time.

@Just1Voice

That's an incredible story. I'm glad you're OK now.

If you just plain can't afford something like that life-enhancing operation, it's amazing how people will support you!  Did you know any of these people personally, or were they strangers?

Whaaaat!!

I think it must be because of his age. That's waay over the top for a healthy middle-aged person.

I used to be "outraged of Stroud", that's near Cheltenham!

4 minutes ago, alfalfa19 said:

a hate-filled , cynical curmudgeon

I don't think I'm a a hate-filled , cynical curmudgeon but the decision to come on a quite expensive holiday and not to spend 50-60 quid on travel insurance, strikes me as irresponsible. Then to rely on internet begging to get them out of trouble shows lack of pride in being able to sort things out for oneself/lack of dignity, shame, or just not giving a ****.

As scouse123 said, many of us slightly older people were taught to have more self respect than to use such methods that would leave us mortified to be known as "the one who used Go Fund Me".

That said, such fund-raising sites certainly have their place in seeking to pay for circumstances that have arisen despite the best efforts of the fundee, such as poor little Timmy who needs a radical treatment only available through private healthcare.

This particular problem could largely be made to go away by the introduction of compulsory travel insurance for travelers to Thailand, or anywhere else. If people forgot, I'm sure Thai immigration would love to sell them a policy before they were allowed into the country. They would definitely have the money at the start of their holiday.

Bigmove - Chalong

http://www.bigmovephuket.com/packing-supplies/

Er, but this is a Heinz 57 Thai dog, isn't it?

Are you saying it's pure bred?

I can see a lot of West Highland Terrier in there.

Interesting! 

@oilinki

OK, I'll sign up for the "Pinned Topic" topic!

I want to see your sources for the 0.0042%, though!!

Dammit!!    edited    ..............I'll never get to know what you will sound like, so that I can tell you when you sound like that!

@oilinki

Good post! I'm glad you're still here. Weren't you moving to Spain?

I just checked and there are only six pinned topics in the Phuket forum. I think it's useful to be able to see them without yet another click to open the "Pinned Topics" thread. They don't seem to take up very much room on the topic list. Why are they annoying?

I'll make an effort to post a few relevant things when I have time. Good suggestion!

I've been on the forum for four years now and am not aware of any decline in that time. The weekly digest of Phuket forum posts varies in number but I'm not seeing a steady decline. When I post, asking for some local information, there are the same number of (mostly very helpful) posts as I received four years ago.

Clearly, I missed the Golden Years of the Phuket buzz and parties every now and then, and I'm sure things do seem slower compared with that.

Are you all missing a more social, community feel to the forum? I have never felt such a vibe in my time here. It's largely a polite, but not especially warm and friendly place. 

As for TV as a whole, I'm afraid it does have that reputation for cynical, Thai-bashing bigotry. It is deserved, unfortunately. There are a lot of unhappy people on TV as a whole. It's sad.

I think some snowflakey newbies would definitely be put off. Some other sites are much more welcoming.

Is Facebook replacing TV? Not as far as I'm concerned. I'm on both sites at least once a day, for a short time. Facebook's format doesn't seem to allow it to become a searchable repository for useful information on anything, rather threads disappear in time, like tears in rain, never to be read again. Thus it's pretty useless and is no real alternative to TV.

TV is very useful. There's nothing close to it for local and general Thai help. Maybe the camaraderie is gone. Was there any camaraderie in the first place?