suzannegoh

Is Google Maps reliable enough and 4G widespread enough in Laos that it can reliably be used for navigation during a car trip around the country?

In a social setting, I was told by a Thai doctor who works at a private hospital that the so-called “30 Baht” medical plan for Thais doesn’t cover MRIs for patients with known or suspected cases of cancer and that the plan only covers old generation chemo drugs because they are cheaper.  He gave specific examples of limitations of the plan as being that since the only chemo drug available in Thailand that is applicable to brain cancer is Temozolomide, which is wildly expensive, that the only treatment offered under the 30 baht plan for patients with a brain tumor would be surgery and radiation.  And in the case of a woman having breast cancer, he claims that the plan would pay for a mastectomy but not for reconstructive surgery.

Overall he was painting a picture of the Standard Of Cancer Care under the 30 Baht plan being about on par Standard of Care in the West 50 years ago.  That doctor clearly has a vested interest in discouraging people from going to a government hospital but he isn’t our doctor, we were just speaking in generalists about the healthcare systems of different countries.  Is what he’s saying at all accurate?

The underlying visa is not necessarily different, both an non-Imm O and an an non-Imm OA need to be renewed annually and can be renewed on either the basis of retirement or marriage.  The difference is that when you renew on the basis on marriage you only need to have 400K Baht in a Thai bank instead of 800K, you can get work legally, and you don't have to buy medical insurance from a Thai insurance company.  However there's a bit more red tape when renewing the marriage visa.

Who are the foremost experts in Thailand at diagnosing and treating breast implant-associated Anaplastic large cell lymphoma (ALCL)?

9 minutes ago, HungDonger said:

Laos Kip cannot be changed to another currency outside of Laos

OK, but what I was wondering if it's difficult to exchange Kip back to Baht or USD as you are leaving Laos, while still in-country.

On 12/7/2022 at 11:46 AM, HungDonger said:

I think it's free for Thai's entering Laos.

 

Visa on arrival (for you) is easy and cheaper than e-visa.

 

Change some Baht to Kip at a Money Changer but make sure you don't end up with an excess when you leave.

What's the concern with having excess Kip when you are ready to leave, is it difficult to exchange Kip for dollars or baht as one is leaving Laos?

8 hours ago, John Drake said:

Hmmm. I asked a simple factual question: How many people has Liz Cheney's father shot?

 

And not only did it refuse to answer, it gave back a lecture.  

 

I gave me a different answer:

"Dick Cheney, the former Vice President of the United States and Liz Cheney's father, is known to have accidentally shot one person. This incident took place in February 2006, when he was hunting quail on a ranch in Texas. Cheney accidentally shot Harry Whittington, a 78-year-old attorney, while aiming for a bird. Whittington was injured but ultimately recovered from the incident."

9 hours ago, sscc said:

This incident with video replay is now on various social media globally. 

Most just watched the video and laughed, nothing more,  period.  

CNN showed the video too.

8 minutes ago, Sheryl said:

Path mistakes regarding skin lesions - in both directions - are very common here.  The Thai pathologists in most cases simply do not have enough experience with skin cancers.

Do you think that the pathology in Thailand is more reliable for the big cancers - lung, brain, etc?

1 hour ago, Sheryl said:

Even the doctors trained in Mohs here do not seem to do it. The hospitals aren't set up for it. It requires immediate turn around from pathologist and close coordination between path lab and the doctor. And would only be as reliable as the pathologist, Few pathologists in Thailand are really skilled in detecting skin cancers and errors abound. I believe Dr. Anna sends her samples elsewhere, might even be out of country.

That's a good point about Moh's outcomes being dependent upon the quality of the pathology.  I had errant pathology here in which they were apparently unable to distinguish between Basal Cell Carcinoma (BCC) and Squamous Cell Carcinoma (SCC).  And then I had a recurrence after having that cancerous skin removed by Wide Excision, despite the pathology saying that the the margins were clear.

31 minutes ago, hellohello said:

hi again Sheryl,!   do you know if she does moh's surgery ?    having a hard time finding that treatment here.  thank you in advance.

Dr. Rungsima at Siraraj Hospital in Bangkok does Moh's surgery but I don't know anyone who has been treated by her. 

10 minutes ago, lopburi3 said:

Drugs must be imported by a firm with an import lisence.  Prescription means nothing.  That said many drugs do arrive in normal low value post office packages.

However if you're only talking about bringing in small quantities for personal use, handcarrying medicines into Thailand usually goes unchallenged.

Are Thai rice farming methods better than Western ones?

Waste of money, half of the tests in those packages have no diagnostic value. 

15 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

No American (USA) that I know of, would put ketchup on a pizza.

Me either, but I've seen European tourists do that in Italian restaurants in Thailand, and wash it down with Chang beer mixed with Sprite. 

On 12/8/2022 at 6:21 AM, bbas3008 said:

I enquired with the discount pharmacy in Babgkok; Lipitor 80MG x 30 pack $AUD106, full price same in Aust is $AUD16 without pensioner discount. So discount pharmacy ?

In these forums everyone says that pharmaceuticals are cheap in Thailand but yet in every case in which I've had prescriptions filled both in the US and in Thailand it's been much more expensive in Thailand.  Some say that that's because I've been going to private pharmacies in Thailand and that "everyone knows" that you should go to a government hospital to get cheap drugs but I haven't investigated that yet.

20 years ago there were people griping that Chiang Mai wasn't what it used to be.  And 20 years from now there will be people reminiscing about the 2020s as if it was Chiang Mai's golden era.

1 hour ago, khaepmu said:

Why do the banks/financial institutions assume you are living overseas just because you make some transactions or emails from Thailand. I call my mutual fund/brokerage company from Thailand and during the conversations I always point out that I am vacationing in Thailand and SE Asia and staying at my Thai wife's house for a few months. (I have been using  my brother's American mailing address since the company informed me that I must have a US mailing address.) I also send emails from Thailand, not often, but they have yet to give me a warning. More recently, when I call from Thailand I use SKYPE. Don't know if they can tell if the call is made from Thailand using SKYPE. I transfer money to Thailand from my American bank using TransferWise. Once I make a transfer request using Wise I don't know if the bank knows where the money is going.

 

Depending upon what type of account it is, there could be other explanations for there being only transactions initiated from abroad, but it's understandable that it might trigger a letter being sent asking for verification of your address.  If I was creating an algorithm to detect customers that might have moved abroad, accessing the account only for foreign IP addresses is one thing that I’d include in it.

1 minute ago, Jingthing said:

Logins from Thailand.

With or wiithout a VPN?

17 hours ago, Jingthing said:

He could.

It would be a challenge to open from Thailand and I wouldn't assume continuation of any policies you may have heard about Fidelity in the past.

I'm with Fidelity. They were aggressively investigating me for years because of Thailand logins, but they dropped bugging me after I started only logging in from the US directly with TeamViewer (not a VPN).

It might be a case of out of the frying pan into the fire. 

 

I'm hanging on with Fidelity because they are good and I've been with them since I was 20. I was disgusted when they starting hassling me. It seemed unethical to treat such long term customers that way.

 

But I would have the most confidence in Interactive Brokers long term to be actually expat friendly.

Before you started using TeanViewer, what was it that tipped them off that you were outside of the United States?