Bill Miller

8 hours ago, colinneil said:

The man was warned to stay away from the daughter, but no mention of whether the daughter was encouraging him.

What part of "Muang district police chief Pol Col Phaitoon Phitaktham said that the victim had tried to flirt with the suspect's daughter for two years. She rejected U-Then's advances." did you not understand, then?

On 9/24/2018 at 10:33 PM, Tanoshi said:

Mixed bag of reports for Jomtien re filing the TM30.

 

If your concerned about fines why don't you file the TM30 on your return trips from abroad.

It's not entirely the responsibility of your landlady.

Yes, by law it IS the responsibility of your landlord.

Just renewed my "O" visa in Savannakhet on the basis of retirement. They did ask for my bank book, which I did not have with me, though I was doing the monthly income bit, and had an affidavit from the US embassy averring that I have more than enough income.. I did have a copy of my SS statement, and they asked for a copy of my old (last years) visa.
Good enough. Crisp new visa in my passport next day.
One note of caution, the passport was returned minus the Laotian entry card. Same thing happened with the US embassy and my Thai exit card.when I picked up my new passport a few months ago. The Laotian thing was no biggy, just pay your 100 baht exit fee, "have a nice day".
The exit control on the Thai side was a bit more complicated. I was waved in a general direction, and happily my GF was along to get more specific instructions. A little delay because I speak only nit noi Thai, and had to wait for the Inspector on duty. A little three way back and forth, and hey, presto. A replacement exit card was stapled in. Then normal exit process. Had to wait for the next bus, but again no big deal. Made it to the Consulate in plenty of time to get the photos, copies, etc taken care of, and submit the application. I did use the folks across the street, who were quite accommodating, and charged what I thought was a nominal sum.
Might have helped that the boss man was the same guy from last year, who had lived in Oklahoma, and I remembered him. Also I am a little bunged up and need a cane to walk, and my GF is really cute and attentive to her "old man", beyond, I think, the usual "papa" relationship. Seems to make a difference, amd I do make an effort to be polite and use my limited Thai language skills.
It all seems to help, my friends.

My partner has problems with it and cramping. Try to get her to take a magnesium/potassium supplement, but she is very anti pill of any kind. Hard to get her to drink more water, too.
Massage helps some, and I am delighted to assist, though sometimes "I no pain there! Lower leg!" ? Yeah, I can be a pig.
I recently have read some articles about sleeping with an unwrapped bar of soap under the sheet as a home remedy. Up to 45% of people who try it have reported success. Sounds goofy, but worth a try.
Speculation that the soap may provide magnesium. Maybe lavender scented would be a good idea, too. I got some in for the next time she stays over. 
Good luck with it!

7 minutes ago, Happy enough said:

exactly. try getting currency before you go? for what. use baht or dollars. trying to get rid of that crappy kip is the problem. no one wants it. monopoly money

20 odd years ago you needed a bag to carry lao money for a reasonable night out. no way it would fit in your pockets 

Another one is Vietnamese dong. The strange name aside, it is only worth like 0.0041 baht each.
I was in the airport looking to change my remaining currency for baht when my waan jai came bustling up from the duty free shops, asking for Viet money to buy chocolate for her daughter. "Sure darling, how much would you like?" "Oh. About one million."
I still joke with her about the time I reached into my wallet and handed her a million. ?

2 hours ago, Borpender said:

Try getting local currency for Laos before you go. It's not available anywhere. To be fair though dollars talk here ?

Just returned from Laos and indeed,  Thai baht is also universally accepted. Shopkeepers even asked first if they could give change in kip. That is the only way I got any, and made sure to donate it all in tips, at temples, etc. before leaving as I recalled having trouble reconverting on previous occasions.

Not just in neighboring Asian countries. Tried to help get a visitor's visa to the US for a Thai lady friend. She is almost picture perfect for one, ten years in a responsible job, elderly parent, just purchased a new car, new house, etc. Everything that says she is going to come back.
Learned after she was turned down that there had recently been a scandal involving a Thai "sex ring" in the US, and was told that embassy, Homeland, etc. personnel  had been instructed to assume....

2 hours ago, chippendale said:

Infantile handwriting on that note. How old is she? Five?

Infantile reasoning. She is a Thai, not the product of a western school system.
How many Thai people know any of the Roman alphabet at all? 

8 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Never seen any 'forest mammals' there or anywhere else in the Thai jungle.

Never seen a monkey, nor an elephant?
There are 264 mammal species in Thailand, all of which are to be found in the forest, unless you are going to try and quibble about whether "jungle" is considered "forest".
The only way to avoid seeing any is A) To be blind, or B)  To never go into anyplace that has trees.?

No more than what is seen with a bathing suit. So what is the "wrong message"?

11 hours ago, Pete1980 said:

i doubt that the majority of tourists that are renting from these shops have motorbike licences. that is the issue.

I never did when coming here on holidays in my 20's and 30's. And i ended up in hospital and still have the scars. Only have myself to blame.

You completely changed the meaning by leaving out part of my post. Why do that? 
"The statement was about "bike hires" particularly, and I see that as the greater problem area, both for inexperienced foreigners and untrained Thai people.
Most foreigners I am fairly confident have an auto driver's license."
What I said. Simple enough for a fifth grader to read and understand. It was in response to somebody going on about auto rentals, when the OP was, indeed about bike rentals.
Do you have scars still on your head?
Why try to correct things that do not need correcting?

On 5/10/2018 at 1:01 PM, Thaidream said:

Then you'll love the cops pulling over every foreigner driving their own personal car to look at the registration to determine if it was rented or not. The target should be the rental companies but instead the cops will be glad to inconvenience every foreigner driving a vehicle.

The statement was about "bike hires" particularly, and I see that as the greater problem area, both for inexperienced foreigners and untrained Thai people.
Most foreigners I am fairly confident have an auto driver's license. We see daily, direct evidence that many Thais do not have a motorbike licence. Many operators are simply too young to qualify for one, and I am fairly certain that four on a 125 CC bike and no helmets  is not legal. 

On 9/6/2018 at 7:09 AM, Valentine said:

That kind of thing happens in the bakery section too, not only at Big C

Yes, and not just Chinese people. I have watched as Thai women pick up and squeeze every loaf of bread on a shelf, fortunately bagged loaves. I am sure thy do not limit themselves that way.
It struck me as strange, because my GF is "overly nice" about many things. She will cause a fuss if I pick up a bit of food I have dropped, a not infrequent occurrence after my stroke, from the table top. ALways carefully wipe your cutlery and dishe, too.?
Normal precautions, such as washing your meat selection before proper cooking, will prevent food borne illness. I have also adopted the habit of "koshering"  meat before cooking. The blanket of salt draws moisture out of the meat, and thus any surface bacteria.
That is not the intent under Judaic dietary laws, but rather to remove blood from the meat. As a non Jew I have adopted it as a hygienic measure after seeing the above behaviours.

On 8/31/2018 at 1:04 PM, tropo said:

They already have 4 successful hotels in the group, so they do know what they are doing. Being able to byo your own booze will be a big plus for many guests.

Yes, that would seem to answer that. BYOB is probably much more economical too, with no corkage charge.

23 hours ago, flyingtlger said:

Looks like a pick up truck with a oversized camper shell.....

That's what baht busses are. The improved ones are just fully enclosed with AC.

9 hours ago, Antonymous said:

Four members of my family are nurses, including my Thai wife. I would most definitely agree that nurses are unqualified to prescribe medications (beyond the most basic painkillers perhaps) and that it would be a dangerous development to allow them to do so. What trained nurses can do very well is to administer medications that have been previously prescribed by a doctor and of course to give support and nursing care to their patients.

 

Doctors are trained to prescribe medications that treat the symptoms of a patient's condition and they are kept up to date on the drug du jour by the pharamaceutical companies who very actively promote their latest concoctions. These drugs don't necessarily 'cure' their patients, some have to be taken for life, and very often the use of one drug that masks one condition leads to the prescription of more drugs to mask the side effects of the original drug. Nurses are only up to date on drugs insofar as they have worked alongside a specialist for a time and learned what he/she prescribes for various evident conditions. They are not trained to understand the underlying cause of a condition, still less to be able to recommend alternatives to drugs that are known outside the mainstream medical profession to effectively cure the problem.

 

I have found that some nurses, especially in Thailand, are more than willing to act as if they are professional health care specialists, or doctors, and to dispense advice to the gullible public. They are NOT. At the BEST all they can do is parrot the latest symptom/treatment protocol used at their place of work. There are also member-only websites related to nursing care that they can look up, but again these relate to nursing care (their actual job) and not to drug prescriptions.

 

Nursing is a wonderful profession and I love them all ... but please beware of any advice given by a nurse which is outside their realm of training and knowledge. Nurses working in the mainstream will always promote allopathic medicine and mainstream theories and will not tolerate alternatives because they have not been trained in alternatives and more importantly to go up against their bosses (doctors) would cost them their job - ESPECIALLY here in Thailand.

 

 

Especially as most "alternatives" have been proven over and over again to be complete hokum.
The "vaccines cause autism" BS was not started by a nurse. That was one of your "professional health care specialists". None of the "alternatives" you apparently espouse have the efficacy of vaccination in preventing a large number of deadly diseases. Your entire platform is suspect if you are advocating such "alternatives" in the place of proven, in hundreds of millions of cases, "allopathic" treatment.
You at one and the same time maintain that nurses are not "professional health care specialists", and at the same time that "they have worked alongside a specialist for a time and learned what he/she prescribes for various evident conditions." Logically inconsistent. How do doctors become doctors?  "They have worked alongside a specialist for a time and learned what he/she prescribes for various evident conditions", i.e.  at university, where the bulk of nurses acquire their training.
Oh, yes. Six members of my family are, or have been, nurses. An additional number of my fiancee's family are or have been nurses HERE IN THAILAND. All of them have had stories of MDs who made errors in ordering certain drugs because they are unfamiliar with a patient's current medical situation, which it is a nurse's job to be familiar with as the first echelon of patient care, and with no difficulty in 99% of cases resolve by consulting with the doctor in question, who I believe are aways grateful for the intervention. The other one percent can be found filling the dockets of malpractice suits.
As someone who literally owes their life to these "alllopractical" professionals, doctors and nurses both, I categorically reject your apparent conspiratorial leanings, which to date includes 100% of people who speak with disdain of "allopathic"  medicine,  and entire classes of heath care professional. You do not, ipso facto, "love them all", or at least only as long as they stay in YOUR narrowly defined niche.

Kind of old post now. 
Androgel was my prescribed treatment for low T. Worked well, easy to use, not horribly expensive at the pharmacy next to Bully'S Pub, Sukhumvit Road. between Soi 2 and Soi 4. next to the J. W. Marriott. Khlong Toey, Bangkok. Now, however, "No have". some research revealed it is world wide. The manufacturer has suspended shipment, presumably pending a more favourable result on appeal of a large jury compensation award, despite no fault attributed to the manufacturer. Strange legal situation!
Next door at the smaller store front I purchased a carton of the Andriol Testocaps with a reasonable discount. 
I have been told the Androgel sachets may be still available at a couple of the larger hospitals, but at a price premium as any existing inventory is irreplaceable in the forseeable future.
I do not know about other transdermal products. If the Testocaps remain available I will be satisfied.

Last trip to Savanakhet for an "O" visa I had several pages of financial evidence, as I read that was required. The nice gentleman at the desk handed them back to me, asking "What is this?" 
I explained it was evidence of my income that I brought in case it was needed. He sort of harrumphed and carried on without it.

I am somewhat disconcerted by the posts from people saying "Don't take any medicine". I really think that is profoundly stupid and irresponsible advice, and should all be removed from the thread.
The record shows that many people are living active fulfilling lives today because of those dreaded medicines, and not because of some woo woo BS.
If you want to avoid the medicine and freaking DIE, then that is your choice. Do NOT try to take others with you because of some paranoid delusion about "big pharma" conspiracies, etc. I assure you that you do not have the appeal of dumb ass Jenny McCarthy.
Big thumbs up to healthy diet advocates. Something many doctors still do not seem to fully appreciate the value of.