paddyfield7

I once was driving as number 3 car behind a very slow leading car, driving about 35 km/h. When we had free visibility after a curve, with 4 km straight road with no opposite traffic in sight, I expected car nr. 2 to take over, and after that, I would take over too. I gave the nr. 2 car about 20 seconds to overtake, but as he didn't make any such attempt, I started blinking, gave light signals and hooted shortly. I started overtaking nr. 2, but as we were astride, he came out without blinking or looking over his shoulder, or into his side mirror (if he had one at all). His old Toyota Soluna looked very bad, whilst my much heavier Toyota Hilux hat minor damages at both doors. I asked my (Thai) wife to call the police, but she said they wouldn't come, and it would be a matter between the insurance companies. By coincidence, we both had the same insurance company, and we called their representative. After listening to what happened, the insurance man said that his company would pay for our damage, but not for the other driver's much heavier damage, as it was clearly his fault. His witch-style wife got furious and insisted we meet at the local police station - it turned out that her father was the former but retired chief police officer at that station, and she knew he was just doing some garden work there. We sat there for 3 hours until a subordinated officer had written 5 pages about this minor incident in his diary, and we got both fined THB 300. I asked the young officer why I had to pay, because the accident was clearly caused by the other driver, but the answer was that the fine was risen because our two cars touched each other. TiT at it's best.....

I had cataract surgery at Bangkok Chiang Mai Hospital in 2021,, left eye on Monday, right eye on following Wednesday, released for discharge each time after half an hour of rest, driven by my wife. No need of glasses any more.

The market leader in Europa is certainly Rimowa, although they are very expensive. But their appearance and quality is very high, no matter whether you chose an Aluminium- or Polycarbonate model. Their disadvantage is their own weight (tare) which can be up to 5 or 7 kilos. That's why I replaced them with Samsonite C-Lite models which weigh 2.8 kilos only. They have the same volume and are as durable as Rimowa, but also have similar prices.

The same happened to me after my doctor at the Bangkok Chiang Mai Hospital decided I should replace my usual medication against hypertension with Zanidip. It just took a few days until I got heavily swollen ankles. After just a few weeks we decided to stop taking Zanidip and return to the previous mediation. My ankles got back to normal almost immediately.

I would go and see an ophthalmologist at a private hospital and have him or her writing down a recipe which corrections your new glasses will need. Make sure they are not telling you that you need katarakt surgery at both eyes, except it is indeed needed. A katarakt surgery can be done as an outpatient, but the costs at a good private hospital are THB 90k for both eyes.

All Thai Police Members are colour blind, as they cannot see black smoke. They can also not smell it.

I had the best and the worst experience in Boston, MA. Once my wife and I arrived and presented our Swiss passports. The Immigration Officer said: "Oh, two Swiss Citizens; have you been here before?". We answered with "yes", and the I/O replied: "In this case - welcome back!". 30 seconds, and we were in. You can imagine how the other experience was.....

For me, Boots and Watson are more cosmetic shops than pharmacies. Real pharmacies, at least in Chiang Mai, are Pharma Choice and Fascino. Atorvastatin is available there without prescription, whereby 80 mg seems extremly hight to me - I'm using it myself in the strength of 10 or max. 20 mg. The other two products are unknown to me.

Indonesia is a Muslim nation, but Bali is an exception as they are Hindus. This of course does not exclude the possibility of Muslim attacks. It is more dirty and much more expensive than any place in Thailand, and I doubty it's a good location for long stayers. I have been there several times, but for holiday purposes only, as the beaches and the sunsets are beautyful.