Lorry

Just arrived at BKK, the new terminal (that they don't call terminal 2), seemingly reserved for Chinese. But then, the whole airport seems to be reserved for Chinese. And they behave like Chinese. The IO might have been Thai, hard to say - his new booth is fresh from China. Only when I went to 7/11 and 5 staff were completely overwhelmed by the 2 customers patiently waiting in line, unable to handle this onslaught of people who wanted to pay - only then I knew I am back in Thailand. Different folks for different folks. Who am I to judge.

It was grab (or maybe bolt), often lauded as so safe by farang, as opposed to normal taxis.

Mailbox Etc usually has a fax machine, and some of their staff know how to use it Also some internet/printer/copy shops I know one but its very far from Rangsit

Yes. If you are bitten and never had pre exposure vaccination, expensive immunoglobulin is recommended. It's not only expensive (19,000 for human rabies immunoglobuline would be cheap), it's also very hard to get. Most places in rural Thailand don't have it, that's why you will hear from many people that they didn't get it. It just wasn't avalable, but, of course, nobody told them. In Indonesia it is almost impossible to get outside Bali and Jakarta, I have known people airlifted (by their travel insurance) from rural Indonesia just to get rabies immunoglobuline. (Others I knew flew in panic from Mexico to Miami to get it, thousands of dollars and some very exciting days) In Laos and Cambodia outside the capitals, no way you will get it (and I don't think you would find it in Vientiane, either)

This is all very obvious. Otherwise I would pay my rent, electricity, water, phone and internet from my bank account abroad. Also girls, hotels, whatever. Even 10B for the motorcycle to the BTS I would pay by WISE within seconds. Tax-free living in Thailand?! I have really never understood why this should be different with gift tax. But then, I have never understood Thai gift tax anyway. For a start, I never got clarity who is the one who owes gift tax? The receiver or the gifter? Or both?? Is the gift tax somehow "owed by the gift"? This is how this is always phrased, and in that case I could imagine a gift sent directly from abroad to the receiver in Thailand to be tax-free for everybody, sender and receiver. No idea.

Yes. Amlodipine works fast, correct. But it often has side effects quite early in the treatment, eg leg edema, very common. Valsartan works not so fast. See how it goes.

Unfortunately, I agree. If ww feels like it, I have someone better than us mere mortals with whom he can discuss this issue: HMRC. If Ms X sends some of her billions from her Indian bank account directly to her beloved husband's bank account in London, HMRC considers this a taxable remittance of Ms X's money. What TRD thinks, nobody knows.

Thx, didn't know this.

I agree. But there are many farang here who give genuine gifts to in-laws, ex-girlfriends, village orphans, (step) children at university, you name it. Not the wife or live-in gf whith whom they share living expenses. Not buying a car "for the wife" that you will drive. The TRD official from one of the embassy videos did say these were tax free (if they fulfill the other conditions, like "customary", "moral obligation " etc)

Not much better. There are so few cases exactly because people and animals got vaccinated. It wasn't always like this: I got my training with videos of rabies patients from Thailand. Nowadays, they make these videos in India.

I have returned something that wasn't defective (but useless for me). But whereas BigC and Lotuss' give back money, MrD only let me find something else (could be a completely unrelated thing) for the same price

How?

Candidate for poster of the year. If it weren't such a deadly subject. You cannot see that a dog has rabies - they don't turn purple. Of course, they carry a big sign "I have rabies", sure. But it's in Thai, a language I am sure you cannot read. And of course you don't know anybody who has or had rabies. Nobody in Thailand or South East Asia has ever survived rabies, and you probably don't frequent ICUs and cemeteries. UK and Australia don't have rabies, btw, don't know where you are from. There are rabies patients in Thailand, not many, fortunately. All die.

Too high. You won't feel much, or maybe nothing, but you are destroying your arteries. Imagine a water hose designed for a pressure of 110 or 120, overloaded by 50% every day, every week, every month, 24/7, for years and years. It might not last forever - the result being a stroke or a heart attack. If it doesn't go down a lot more on valsartan talk to a doctor. BTW you really should sit down for 5 minutes without moving a lot before measuring BP. Do something boring during these 5 minutes, like reading the Bangkok News on AN.

The maximum effect of valsartan develops slowly, over a couple of weeks. How much was your BP before? Did you measure it after 5 minutes sitting still?

Without tests...sure, in countries like Thailand, India, Colombia. Only with tests in countries like Taiwan, Austria, the US. Can you spot the difference? Of course, rarely. If it weren't rarely that people die from itraconazole it wouldn't be on the market. But it has happened, apparently healthy, young people died from treatment of a toenail fungus. 555 I don't think so Anyway, OP asked for a topical treatment. Even if this often doesn't work, he can give it a try, why not? For OP: the diagnosis of toenail fungus is not that easy. Many doctors just look at it and say "it's fungus", but they are sometimes wrong. OTOH, the microscopic confirmation of fungus - which should be tried in any case - is not easy, results may be false negative. In a case where a dermatologist thinks it's fungus but fungus wasn't found, I would not hesitate to try a topical antifungal treatment - but not an oral treatment.

Don't forget what @conndasaid: Young, healthy people have died from buying itraconazole OTC. This is not candy.

You are playing semantics games, as so often. The point is that Thais as well as foreigners need to identify themselves with their (ATM or ID) card. BTW you wrote foreigners could do that (depositing money without ATM card like Thais can still do today) in the past, too. No, foreigners never had a Thai ID card. Sometimes you trip over your own hair-splitting.

Question to the many Brits here: What seems to be the legal age in your country? 40? 50? Never?

Please, take a course in Reading and Comprehension.

Yes, they can - with their ID card. Not the smartest of your posts

Aren't they hanged in Britain? Or has that practice recently changed?

That was the case in the stone age, when digital surveillance still didn't work very well. It changed in Thailand in 2024. Now, you have to identify yourself first, by ID card or ATM card. Next step planned is biometric identification

Slot will only open for the next customer after he has identified himself - by inserting his Thai ID or his ATM card. In this case, it seems the slot opened when Ter didn't confirm the transaction, so that Ter could take out his money again. And then the slot seems to have stayed open long enough that it was still open when the next customer arrived. So Ter and the next customer probably acted in lightning speed (unusual for Thais) or the ATM acted in Thai speed, which would be a malfunction. It is not unusual for bank staff not to know how their ATMs work, in Western countries, too. Actually, Thai bank staff know their ATMs usually quite well.

Maybe you misunderstood. Every doctor will tell you what @LosLobo said: Actually, his summary above is the best and clearest summary I think I have ever seen: