sandyf

Indeed but quite away behind China. I went for my niece's graduation in 2019 and it was effectively cashless then.I got some weird responses trying to pay with money. Went away for the weekend and ended up in a hotel that was on the other side of a river from the town centre. There was a little ferry taking people back and fore for about 3 baht. Cost me whatever I had, driver had no change as everyone paid by smartphone. Quite a few services couldn't be used by visitors as they could only be paid for by smartphone. Godsend at times having my niece with us.

Glad to hear you have good facilities, that is the main thing. When it comes to admin it would appear that some hospitals are much more advanced than others. That is almost certainly due to funding and it shouldn't be forgotten that the Thai GDP per capita is a fraction of the English speaking countries.

Legal & General sent one to my UK address some years ago, I wasn't there so it was sent back to them and they stopped the pension. I phoned them up and asked if they would be sending another, "no need, we don't take calls from the grave". Got pension the following day.

Different countries - different rules. I recently did an e-visa for Laos but had to use my UK address, wouldn't accept Thai address with UK passport. Wouldn't know about Vietnam on that, got visa exempt. There is a huge difference between the Laos/Vietnam arrangement and Thailand E-visas in the types of visa available and how applications are processed.

The pharmacy is at fault, I think by law the pharmacist must be present at all times medication is sold. A while back I went to the pharmacy counter in Tesco and tills were closed because the pharmacist had gone to the toilet. The staff were there but couldn't sell anything. I only wanted Fishermens Friend and was told to take them to the store checkout. I have used many a back street pharmacy and can't ever remember a pharmacist not being present, invariably they were the only one that could speak English.

I usually see about 1 foreigner on a hospital visit on the odd occasion maybe 2. Those that talk about congestion seem to think it is everywhere when it is not. The Thais are a morning people and they want to go first thing but hospitals that have put in place an effective appointment system have overcome that. The only congestion I get is at the cashiers but we can overcome that by going to a different floor. They didn't think it through for the cashier on the outpatients floor. There is usually about 6-8 doctors working outpatients and only 2 cashiers, at the speed the cashiers work it was inevitable a backlog would develop as the morning progressed. Bit frustrating when after having seen the doctor you have to wait even longer to leave the building.

Height of arrogance and presumption to keep telling people what they need to do.

Satisfaction is never easy, but then complaining is easier than putting yourself out. We live in the country and my wife and her sister go to a hospital in Bangkok, an hour and a half away. I am not quite so far with Bang Saen, would have to be an emergency to use the nearest.

You have now truncated the statement to suit your agenda. As far as the last point is concerned I would have thought it was incorporated to protect certain embassies, in particular the English speaking ones, from being overloaded. Highly likely the UK and US would be flooded with applications from people going to Vietnam and Laos. The other aspect is local embassies probably rely on physical applications for funding.

Find another hospital. When I go i go straight to the outpatients, show my appointment card and told to take a seat in the waiting room. It is an appointment system and only those close to time are allowed into waiting room, as it comes to your queue number you are called forward to sit bt the doctors door. You go in and see the doctor who checks your records on the computer. If medication is required it is entered on the computer for the dispensary. You then go to make next appointment, then the cashier and then collect medication, no paperwork, other than a receipt, or anything to sign. My routine medication from the hospital is about 30% cheaper than any pharmacy in the area. Only one I have a problem with is Apixaban.

Research on what exactly. All the lifestyle changes in the world are not going to reverse conditions that have developed. If I hadn't been on drugs, I wouldn't have had to take stroke prevention drugs for the last 15 years and may well be a cabbage or pushing up daisies. Only one result that means anything to me.

As I said your hospital must be run differently, a bit more than tablets, when I first started the "tablet doctor" carried out an echo. Only a couple of weeks ago I was referred from outpatients to surgery on the floor above. BTW surgery went well, had the stitches out last week.

They can and do, my hospital changed about 4/5 years ago. maybe yours is at the back of the rollout.

Well said Bill. Lifestyle changes are good advice for the more youthful, but at our age a bit more attention can quite literally be the difference between life and death.

Your hospital must be run a bit differently to mine. Where I go the outpatients dept is very much like a GP practice in the UK, and by appointment, if you walk in you have to wait until the appointments are complete. Just like a GP the doctors in outpatients just do prescriptions and assessment. If you need further treatment you are referred to someone further up the food chain. When the pandemic came about the hospital added me into Mor Phrom, at the front of the queue when the vaccine rollout started. Don't knock the benefits.

This is a misleading statement as on the application you must show your right to legal residence. As far as the OP is concerned he would need to show one of the listed Hong Kong ID cards. A VPN would only open the door to an application in your home country, by way of passport, while outside your home country, but not without risk. If you were to make the application during a visit to say Vietnam an observant IO on your return to Thailand may spot the date on the E-visa was during your stay in Vietnam.

Seems fairly clear to me. Confirmation of legal residence, in the context of the Hong Kong SAR, generally refers to (a) Hong Kong Permanent Identity Card (“A” HKID); (b) Hong Kong Identity Card indicating right to land (“R” HKID) or unconditional stay permit (“U” HKID); or (c) valid stay permit issued by Hong Kong Immigration (for “C” HKID holders). https://hongkong.thaiembassy.org/en/page/visa-info?menu=5d84804a15e39c03c800281e

You cannot get an E-visa for Thailand from Vietnam, they are not on the E-visa platform, only Asian countries are China and South Korea. As you say, you can go to the embassy in HCMC and apply in person for visa in line with their requirements.

Not anything new, in the UK the government have been using pharmacies for some time to reduce overcrowding in GPs for repeat precriptions. https://www.rpharms.com/recognition/all-our-campaigns/policy-a-z/future-of-pharmacy

The title says "Overstayers" not "Illegals. By definition, only those with a permission to stay, can overstay.

You can make phone calls with skype but it is a chargeable service and you need to credit your account. It is the cheapest way but the downside is they cannot call back as you make the call on a pooled number, just provide another number for a return call. Only time I use skype these days is a call to a UK entity as they invariably keep you waiting.

This is what was said "I just got on to gmail on my laptop by logging on to Chrome then gmail,"

You need to get your terminology correct to avoid confusion. You are not "logging on" to Chrome. Chrome is a Google browser and in order to use it you must sign in to your google account and the password used is the same password as would be required for any other google service. Once you are in Chrome, up in the top right hand corner is a square made from dots, click on that and you will see all the google services available and also access to your google account. Anyone using google at all ought to have Chrome installed on their device, doesn't stop using the browser of choice, but the most convenient way of accessing the range of google services that are available.

It is very unlikely the fault lies with Google and a bit presumptious to say so when it is fairly obvious there is a lack of understanding on how it works. You are not shut out of your desktop, just not signed in to google. The only password that counts is the latest valid passport and you must have one to be signed in on the phone. I have already indicated how you can find out what that password is.

Quite. I got it from a bite in the ground floor toilets of a Pattaya hotel not far from the beach.