peridot

if you have been living in bangkok for at least a year or less, you should know by then that you can get a metered taxi on the 'Departure Area.'

There are lots of taxis in there who sent their passengers to leave thailand or to pick-up friends/relatives and those drivers are very much happy to get another passenger wherever you go on a meter.

Pattaya is another story I guess.

Yeah, we always go up to the 4th floor to get a return taxi into town. NEVER had a problem. Drivers are happy to get the return fare. these 2 trips pay for his car rent for the shift.

The last time I went up to the 4th floor (December 2014), there were one-way gates that prevented access to the taxis. No taxis there waiting, either. The only way to get to an arriving taxi would be to climb over the gate with your luggage. Are those gates gone now?

Wasn't there was a big todo for their civil partnership in 2005?

www.baidu.co.th

Full article at http://www.pcworld.com/article/2091520/chinas-baidu-testing-search-engines-for-brazil-egypt-thailand.html#tk.nl_today

I have had good success with purple eggplants, lemongrass, bai thoey, Thai basil and Chinese long beans. Bad luck with pumpkins, zucchini, papaya and tomatoes. I use big clay pots about 50 cm wide, and a built-in cement planter box about 60 cm deep and 40 cm wide. I got plants of lemongrass and bai thoey from Isaan. The others were from seed. I could not get the tomato seeds to germinate, neither American seeds nor Thai seeds. The pumpkins and zucchini grew and flowered, but no fruit, and then white mold. The Chinese long beans are growing like mad, each bean growing 6-8 cm per day.

HIV has deliberately been spread using vaccines, not theory, fact.

Can you back this claim up with some actual information? Which vaccine?

There was some indication that the smallpox vaccine stimulated dormant HIV into full blown AIDS, but it did not actually spread HIV. The people already had HIV. There is also some evidence that the smallpox vaccine protected people from getting HIV. Now that the vaccine is not used much, because smallpox has been largely eradicated, HIV is spreading more in some populations.

There was also some speculation that the oral polio vaccine spread HIV, but that has been proven wrong.

Does this figure include the very rich Thais who can afford to fly to, say, Germany, for their treatment?

They will get nothing more in Germany than they can get here. Thailand now uses very good HIV medicines, those that are standard in the USA. Cheap generics, as long as they are made by reputable laboratories, work exactly the same as the outrageously expensive brand names. Now that there are generics for many standard HIV meds, they are affordable here.

The sad part about the lack of public information in Thailand is that people are not getting tested. If people got tested, went on antiretrovirals, and eliminated their viral load, they would not pass on the virus. This is slowly becoming realized in Western countries. The biggest advance in HIV treatment in 2011 was that "treatment is prevention". A person taking their HIV medicines regularly for six months, with no viral load, cannot pass on the virus. It is those who have not been tested, so don't know they have HIV, who are spreading the virus today.

on a related note the hiv/aids link is flawed and therefore is not the demon it is proposed to be. google peter duesberg.

Peter Duesberg has been debunked over and over again. There was a recent incident where authors used his "research" in a medical journal, and now people have been fired for publishing that nonsense. Duesberg's methods have been proven inadequate and intentionally misleading. He is a quack.

I have been in Thailand for six years, and have had my prescription drugs sent to me every two or three months from the USA. I have insurance there, and many of my prescriptions are very low cost to me. Last month, the Thai FDA held my shipment. They called and requested a Medical Certificate from a Thai government hospital. I got that easily at Chulalongkorn, and the doctor there was surprised the FDA had given me any trouble. After I delivered the Medical Certificate, which listed every prescription, to the FDA, they called and said they would allow this shipment, but no further shipments of prescription drugs. I should go to a Thai doctor and get my prescriptions filled here. Unfortunately, some of my prescriptions are not available in Thailand, and those that are are imported, so are very expensive.

I just called the FDA again to ask if it was the particular drugs I was importing that was the problem, or importation of prescriptions in general. The officer told me that "importation of drugs to Thailand was illegal without an import license". Import licenses are not available to individuals. The law only allows a person to carry a 30 day supply with them in their luggage when they arrive. Shipments of drugs are not allowed. Since I do not travel to the USA every month, only about every six months, this is not a practical solution. When I asked what a retiree like me was expected to do, I got the same answer - importation of drugs by shipment is not legal in Thailand. Carry a one month supply in my luggage. This seemed like a very black and white answer, with no wiggle room.

I am puzzled, because I have had not trouble in six years. Once I was charged duty on the value of the prescriptions, but they still arrived.

Has anyone else found a workable long term solution to having prescriptions shipped into Thailand?

In 1998, 54% of abortions in Thailand were performed on women under 25 years old, 17% on women under age 20, according to the Family Planning and Population Division, Department of Health, MOPH.

Index Mundi lists the Thailand infant mortality rate at 1.6% for 2011, down from 3.1% in 2000.

Thailand does not report abortion statistics to any worldwide organization I could find.

You can get a kombucha starter SCOBY at Ban Suan Pak Store, 419/27 Vitchayanan Road, Chiang Mai, just outside of the old city. Telephone 053-4331357. They gave me a starter for free when I asked. They also have a good quality pro-biotic for a low price.

According to the Rubber Board of India, the international price in Bangkok today, January 11th, is 107 baht per kilo.

The animal and antique sections which are open all week are outside of Jatujak Market. On Wednesday and Thursday the plant sellers bring their plants in and sell them on the streets inside the market. There are only three or four plant sellers that are in the same place on Wed-Thu and on the weekends.

If you don't want to read a post about transgendered or transvestite people, just skip it and go to the next one. People of alternative sexualities are grouped together all over the world, because even together they are still a minority compared to the mainstream. If we support each other we are all stronger. Many of the struggles of trans people deal with are very similar to the struggles of gay people. Mostly, the judgement of others. It is sad to me that even in this forum some people want to pick at others because they are a different sub-sub-group. Every post in this forum does not reflect on every member. Take what you want and leave the rest. Open your heart and support everyone's right to be who they are.

4:00 pm Still Dry:

Ratchadapisek, at least as far north as Ratchayothin intersection

Lad Prao

Jatujak

Saphan Kwai

Sutthisan

Flooded:

Phayonhothin Road is dry going north until the Big C at Soi 50 (Soi 69/3), where minor flooding starts. Most of the traffic is turning around here, but some is still continuing north.

It would be more effective for the Public Health Ministry to close down all the tatoo shops on health grounds as they are high risk places for catching HIV. How can customers be sure they don't re-use the needles to save a few baht?

Tattoos pose no risk of getting HIV. No risk, zero. Even the US CDC admits this: "The CDC summary data about tattooing and HIV is as brief as it is dramatic. In its HIV/AIDS Surveillance Reports, CDC has consistently noted that it has documented "no cases of HIV transmission through tattooing" anywhere in the country since it began tracking such data in 1985."

A tattoo needle may pose a slight risk of passing hepatitis, but not HIV or AIDS. Tthe CDC found 12 cases of transmission of hepatitis (out of 13,000) associated with tattoo studios. They found 43 cases of hepatitis associated with dental offices, so going to the dentist is much more of a risk than getting a tattoo.

How can a practicing Chatholic be homosexual?

Ask the pope. There have been strong rumors about him since he was young.

This seems like one more government PR announcement, not related to the facts. I have read from several reliable sources that 33% of people tested in Bangkok test positive for HIV. There is barely any HIV education, safe sex education, or even basic sex education in Thailand. After starting as an example to the world, things have slid to a stop, as usual. I think there is probably not much push for testing anymore, because no one wants to have any evidence of the real numbers.

My personal experience with Thai men is that about half of them don't use condoms unless pushed into it. Denial, or misunderstanding of the risks involved? I am not sure, but if my small sample is any indication of what is happening elsewhere, the number 11,000 cannot be real.

Do you just make up your own facts and statistics? You say 1/3 of people tested in BKK are HIV positive. What are your "reliable sources" for this information? And what makes you an expert on the condom-use habits of Thai men? What is your "personal experience" about? How personal?

See the post before yours for one source of my statistics. I misstated the statistic. It is 30.8% of "gay or bisexual men in Bangkok" that test postitive for HIV.

My personal experience is exactly that, personal. My experience. Between me and Thai men. What is vague about the word "personal"? I never claimed to be an expert, just someone who lives here and has sex with Thai men who don't work in the go go bars. Since I have worked with HIV for decades in America, I am quite interested in how HIV is handled here, and ask a lot of questions of people I interact with and health professionals. I have talked with several men who do work in go go bars about HIV education there, I have worked with a group that teaches English and adds HIV education to men and women in the sex industry, and have a friend who is the SE Asian representative for UNAIDS. Not an expert, but I have a lot of information to base my opinions on.

No, I mean what I wrote -- 30% of those tested. That may itself be a self-selecting group, because most people never get tested.

And you have absolutely no source for that

"Put together by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health (APCPM) and the University of Hong Kong's Center for Comparative and Public Law, the report said HIV prevalence among gay and bisexual men has been rising in many Asian countries.

For example, HIV prevalence among gay and bisexual men in Bangkok was now 30.8 percent compared to 1.4 percent in the adult population in Thailand. "

This number could indeed mean many things. It could mean those who self-identified and went for an HIV test. It could mean those who were identified by hospitals or doctors as gay/bi with HIV. It could mean the percentage of those treated by goverment sources. I cannot verify exactly what the 30.8% means. Several accounts say it means 30.8% of those who went for voluntary testing in Bangkok.

2. The Thai Red Cross' Aids research centre director Dr Praphan Panuphak said the rate of new infections had decreased from20,000 cases in several past years to 10,000 cases this year as most people with HIV have been able to access anti-retroviral drugs at an early stage of disease, which cuts the chances of the disease being spread to others.

I believe that Dr. Praphan Panuphak has been misquoted or taken out of context. The statement can create the incorrect belief that medication will protect the sex partners of infected people. In respect to the general population, the HIV medication available in Thailand does not "cut the chances of the disease being spread to others" . There has been no definitive proof of that.

I think you are incorrect here. Treatment has definitely been shown to decrease the spread of HIV to others. "Treatment as prevention" is catching on more and more in America, and other western countries. Switzerland made it official policy more than two years ago that serodiscordant couples in a monogamous relationship who are on treatment and have had no viral load for a certain period (six months to two years) no longer need to use protection when having sex. Their studies found no passing of the virus in these circumstances. People with other STDs in addition to HIV, or people who don't adhere to their medicine schedules, may possibly infect others. But the incidence of passing the virus is greatly decreased by treatment.

I have read from several reliable sources that 33% of people tested in Bangkok test positive for HIV.

If you mean "1/3rd of homosexual prostitutes in Silom" then maybe

Other wise your post is completely off the rails

No, I mean what I wrote -- 30% of those tested. That may itself be a self-selecting group, because most people never get tested.

This seems like one more government PR announcement, not related to the facts. I have read from several reliable sources that 33% of people tested in Bangkok test positive for HIV. There is barely any HIV education, safe sex education, or even basic sex education in Thailand. After starting as an example to the world, things have slid to a stop, as usual. I think there is probably not much push for testing anymore, because no one wants to have any evidence of the real numbers.

My personal experience with Thai men is that about half of them don't use condoms unless pushed into it. Denial, or misunderstanding of the risks involved? I am not sure, but if my small sample is any indication of what is happening elsewhere, the number 11,000 cannot be real.

BigC, I agree with you. This woman did what she could to help people, no matter what difficult situation it put her in. I think she is a hero.