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On 9/30/2018 at 10:34 AM, Dick Crank said:

 

Yep, never got the attraction of a taxi to pattaya. Bus is comfortable, cheap and don't have to deal with the driver much which is a plus ime.

Agreed, for a single traveler without a lot of luggage.  Add additional passenger(s) and the economy of scale tips more toward a taxi.  Also, taxis are available 24 hours/day whereas buses aren't, and even if you use Bell Travel with mini-van shuttles within Pattaya/Jomtien, the convenience of a non-stop taxi ride has a value component.

On 9/28/2018 at 12:34 PM, janclaes47 said:

 

 

As if anyone on this forum really would know how much the taxi driver get paid.

Several years ago I used a local guy whose number I received from a friend to book an B800 taxi to Suvarnabhumi.  The driver was a fellow from Bangkok and he paid the booking agent right in front of me:  B600!

I see a doctor at Bangkok Hospital-Pattaya on a regular basis to monitor and treat my chronic gout.  She requires a blood test before each consultation to monitor not only the gout, but liver and kidney functions. 

On a recent visit, I decided to ask the nurse at the intake desk to throw in an STI panel and HIV test since it has been several years since I've been tested, and I've had asymptomatic syphilis before.  You would have thought I was the first person in the history of civilization to request such tests.  I was asked by several nurses, both individually and as a group, why on earth I would want such tests.  They just couldn't seem to wrap their mind around it.  The nurse who finally agreed to the addition of the tests scowled and sneered that "Farang t'ink too mutt" (!).

I had to specify which tests I wanted, and all I could think of off the top of my head was syphilis, gonorrhea and HIV.  She declined to test for gonorrhea since I showed no outward symptoms.  

For a revenue-motivated institution, I was quite taken aback at their attitude.  I mean, don't they make money on those tests?

On 9/28/2018 at 6:45 AM, ThaiPauly said:

Sorry, I don't recall.

 

I am now taking Ambien every other night for sleep, but again it is a very powerful drug which leaves me like a zombie for the following day.  Awful, I am going to discontinue it.

 

I think my body just cannot take the hard stuff.

Did you inquire about taking a lesser dose?  I have a friend who is on medications for a psychological disorder and he required a bit of tweaking of the meds to find what worked best.

I remember using the equivalent to Chloraseptic (which I used to buy in the USA) here a few years ago.  It's a pump spray which is pretty quick to deaden the throat lining.  Is that no longer available here, or did it require a doctor's prescription?

For a few years now, I've had on-again and off-again headaches that seem to be centered behind my right eye.  In June I was diagnosed with an epiretinal membrane (basically a piece of tissue that grows in front of the focal point of the retina) in my right eye by Dr. Roy at Rutnin Hospital.  I asked him if that could be the cause of my headaches and he said it was unlikely and advised me to see a neurologist.  He recommended waiting on surgery for a few months to monitor it.

I quietly persisted with the notion that my headaches were linked to the epiretinal membrane, wondering if the headaches were caused by eyestrain from the eyes trying to focus together.  (A symptom of an epiretinal membrane is a "bulge" in your eyesight, in my case in the right eye only. If I look at a straight line with just my right eye, it bulges but with my left eye it is straight.)  I spend way too much time on the computer and thought that that could be the headache cause.  I've recently been editing family photos in Photoshop (removing scratches, balancing color and contrast, etc) to digitize them and trying to focus on tiny items has occasionally been a struggle.

The past couple of day or two the headache has been pretty constant, even though I have been using the computer (and reading in general) much less, and taking the usual aspirin/acetominaphen/caffeine pills. If they persist I want to consult a neurologist as Dr. Roy recommended.  The headaches are not debilitating: more like "annoying."  I live in Jomtien so would prefer a doctor in Pattaya, but if the recommendation is somebody in Bangkok, that's definitely do-able.

Sorry for the long post, but in past posts asking for neurologist recommendations, Sheryl indicated they are rather specialized and the type of neurologist depended on the problem.

One other possibly related symptom:  Yesterday for an hour or so, I had vivid/brightly-lit "floaters" in my eyes.  Usually they are clear/grey and merely distractions but these were like a brightly lit fractal screen saver.  Initially it was a single bright floater centered in my field of vision, so I gave up trying to read.  That floater was akin to some cluster of letters like a product logo, and was bright. Then it expanded to several bright (when I closed my eyes they were like multi-colored LEDs) floaters in fairly geometric shapes.  After an hour or so, they disappeared.  Related to my headaches?  Not sure, but thought I'd mention it.

12 hours ago, Jeremy50 said:

I'm convinced that these people just make it up as they go along.  Have they ever looked a map to see how far Hong Kong,  [where Mangut made landfall, heading determinably and resolutely West]  is from The Gulf of Thailand? Really quite laughable, but I suppose they are like everyone else here, just sit around totally mesmerised by their phone all day.

In one of the other threads there was a weather map showing the flow of the winds in SE Asia and it clearly showed how Mangkhut was drawing the monsoonal flow across the southern parts of Thailand.  Kind of like a huge vacuum cleaner or black hole sucking the air over the area toward the eye of Mangkhut.

This morning, the 17th, is the first blue skies & sunshine I've seen in Jomtien in what seems like weeks. ?

Do taxi drivers no longer need to wear a shirt with a collar?  I had a roommate years ago who drove a taxi for a while and he said it was law then.

Using anon370's coordinates in Google Earth, and then moving back in time using the "historical imagery" tool, the plane doesn't appear to be there on the 12/2014 and 12/2015 images.

I don't know what the JJ "Green Market" is.  Is everything at Chatuchak closing?  i.e. Will the massive "weekend market" still be there?

On 8/20/2018 at 9:55 PM, luk AJ said:

It is possible to get rid of these floaters using laser or as in my case they suck out the fluid from the eye ball, filter it and inject again. No fun but very effective.

Oh, that's interesting.  I need to check into that since as I've aged, the floaters seem to be more plentiful.  The surgery I'm eventually going to have does require the temporary removal of the vitreous fluid in the eye.  I need to see if they can "filter it" before they put it back in.

I hear you about the "no fun" part.  I'm squeamish about my eyes.  I hope to be heavily sedated when they do this!

Thanks, Sheryl.  That's good to know.

I'm going to stretch the bounds a bit a see if they cover corrective surgery to remove an epiretinal membrane.  The doctor said we should discuss doing a cataract (lens replacement) surgery at the same time, since my cornea might be weakened from RK surgery and we could avoid disturbing (stressing?) the cornea twice, (or something like that.)  Since these are both outpatient procedures it never occurred to me that BUPA would cover either/both of them.

On 8/16/2018 at 10:04 PM, Tocher said:

Both procedures were for repair of detached retina and lens replacement.

 

One was done at Rutnin (under local anesthetic) the other  a year later at Bangkok Hospital, Pattaya (under general anesthetic) BUPA paid the bill both times and they are not in the business of allowing overcharge.

 

Correct number of zeros.

 

That caught my eye.  Does BUPA cover traditional cataract surgery as well?  (I'm overseas now on an extended visit, and my BUPA policy is back in a drawer in Thailand, so thought I'd ask now while I remembered.)

I don't know.  That sounds like a reasonable idea, but maybe someone else here knows?

18 hours ago, bobbin said:

That's not a negative if you don't like walking on tiles in bare feet..like me.

I dunno.  When I reno'd  a house (in the US) and put down wood laminate flooring it still didn't feel "firm" when walking on it.  Different strokes, I guess.

(I'm assuming you are saying you don' t mind walking on laminate in bare feet?)

My experiences with laminate flooring (in two places) was meh.  It "floats" and it sounds like walking on a high school dance floor in the gymnasium.

On 8/6/2018 at 10:47 PM, NanLaew said:

It says up to 18 dedicated lines at Suvarnabhumi... sometimes they have less IO's on duty than that!

That's the key:  how many IO's will actually staff those 18 dedicated lines.  

I got so annoyed by the timing of the sub-titles that I aborted watching after several minutes.  Flashing a two-line subtitle for less than a second really isn't workable.  </rant off>

3 hours ago, CMBob said:

I'd also note that a person born in an airport "transit area" within the US are not citizens as technically they are not within the US.

I'm not sure if that's relevant anymore since the US eliminated the TWOV (Transit WithOut Visa) program quite a while ago.  Now, anybody changing planes in the USA from one international flight to another needs to clear Immigrations and enter the country.

On 8/2/2018 at 8:00 AM, greenchair said:

His bottom would hurt scottie 

As the boys bottoms probably hurt when that university lecturer stuck his paid for member in the back door. 

This is no laughing matter. I'm just hoping they name and shame this guy .

Let me be clear, I am NOT condoning sex with underage minors, but @greenchair why do you assume the boy would be the anal "bottom"?  Why not just oral sex, or the adult being the bottom?  Maybe you're much more informed about those transactions, but I could imagine alternate roles.

On 7/19/2018 at 3:58 PM, Jingthing said:

Mae Sri Ruen

 

I'm not overly excited because the Central Pattaya Beach mall location already works for me. How about opening in Jomtien, eh?

Not sure this is technically in Jomtien, but on Thepprasit Road, there's one just before the Sukhumvit traffic lights, on the south side (right-hand side if you're heading toward Sukhumvit).  The Thepprasit baht buses usually terminate right at the location.