Khyron

Hi All, I recently went to the Heart Center at Bangkok Hospital in KK. I had wanted to know how my arteries were doing and such, since in the states, they don't really do a detailed look until you have a cardiac episode. I purchased the Healthy heart screening for 8400 baht, there are two other lesser priced screening, but it wasn't a whole lot more to get this one with a few more tests. Their website explains all the different testing they do. I made an appointment at 8am, but it can be done as a walk in as well, the only caveat is that you have to fast, no liquids or food for 12 hours. I am up by Phu Wiang, so it was an early morning for us, they took me in at 7:30 for a bit of paperwork and a blood draw. At 8, they took me back to get gowned up, then height, weight, BP. EKG was next, then it was off to Ankle Brachial index, never had that before. What that is, they put 4 BP cuffs on both arms and ankles, then the machine alternates readings to see if there are any obstructions. Next was the Carotid artery doppler sonography. This looks at the arteries in your neck to see how thick the walls are, any plaque in the arteries as well. They also take sound recordings of the blood flowing through there. From what they told me, the condition of the arteries in your neck are indicative of the rest of the arteries elsewhere, just easier to see. Then there was a chest xray looking at your heart size and lung condition, relatively high contrast xray. Last, there was an Echo cardiogram looking at the inside of the heart. We could see the valves opening and closing, the blood as it pools in the different chambers, and if the blood is stagnant, or is getting out. Also, how the whole heart is moving. At the end the Dr has a consult with you to discuss everything. My results were way better than I had though, no cholesterol plaque at all, arteries look great, heart is like a younger person. The hospital is very professional, the staff most if not all speak good english. I would recommend this place for diagnostic testing, but they look very expensive for any type of emergency treatment. The people in the drop off area were very nice as well, my BIL dropped us off as he had another appt. elsewhere, we were done by 10, had lunch in the basement, then tried to catch a taxi. The staff saw us wandering around and asked if they could help. They called a taxi for us and made sure we were going to the right place. Great experience in all.

It is interesting that all of a sudden, it seems that the Chinese are under the microscope. Is it the CCP wanting its citizens back in China under its control, and asking The Thai gov't for help? Or is Big Joke really doing something worthwhile?

I looked at this flight back in September for a February trip. The price was $906 from Sacramento. That is an unbelievable price from our medium size airport with only one stop. Unfortunately work scheduling made it impractical. I am flying with EVA, been with them since 1994, and they have only gotten better. I have a friend from work who booked it in January for $980 from Sacramento, if he likes it, then I will do this next time.

If you have an address in the states, I found Schwab bank is really easy to do trading with. There are no foreign ATM fees, and all forex transactions are comped back to you. It is mostly an online only bank, I applied without being near a branch. Others here have worked with them as well.

We just shelled out to raise land about 6ft, it is approx. 7/10 of a rai. Land was very low, not rice paddy, just family vegetable farm that had not been used for 15 years. 10 wheel trucks, 4 days, 644 loads. Trucks were full, we made sure of that. The dirt was from a former tree farm, so it was decent stuff, no rocks. SIL made the deal at 210B per truck, it was a guy she knew for a while who told her to say we paid 200B, just to get the deal from someone else. The final bill was just over 135k, including the tractor guy. We are happy with it.

This is a great discussion. What I will probably end up doing when we move is to keep my existing cell phone number which is already used as the primary for everything. Figure out a way to keep it as a wifi number (I have Mint now; they have an international roaming and/or wifi phone plan) and keep doing what I do now. The other phone plans that are being thrown out there are something to look into. I really remember only calling the bank in the last 20 years for something I can't recall. Everything I can do online via data, not voice. I have two banks/brokerages and will consolidate them to one. That way it will be easier to access everything. This is how I hope it should work, YMMV.

Seems like Xi and his cohorts are twisting Cha Cha's arm to try to get one so they can "inspect " it. F-16 would be a much better plane for sure.

Thanks for the detailed reply. The land for our house is being filled as I type, but it will be a few years to go before we build. I forgot to mention, I would have a bevy of batteries to keep everything going but keeping them topped up on the grid is an idea I didn't think of. Crossy's drawing makes it all clear. Appreciate the welcome.

I really liked the comment about how the work up north was seasonal, so the workers are as well. That kind of made sense, then I thought about the people in the village over the years. My wife would be considered a workaholic, her brother is very driven as well, having two farms, one is almost 200k away from his home. that is the way they were brought up. A significant amount of the neighbors are hardworking as well, but the kids I see, holy <deleted>, no motivation at all. Most of our nieces and nephews have this hard-working gene, but most of the other kids........

One way I have thought about an off-grid system, is to have the A/C connected to the solar, and everything else using PEA. This allows the most energy consuming device to be off the grid. When you have a brownout or blackout, have the whole house set up to be switched over to solar until such time the PEA is running again. When the mains drop out, you would have sensitive devices on a small individual UPS's, they would protect them from brownouts as well, which are much more damaging. Switching everything over to solar, would of course, allow life to go on. Switching could be automatic, or manually, using a large amperage industrial disconnect, relatively inexpensive and would last decades. I believe the above described system would allow solar to be used without interfering with the PEA, as it is totally independent. Getting deep into it, possibly programming a good PLC to detect a phase loss and energize a large contact, doing the switching automatically. I am open to suggestions, as I am a lowly Industrial mechanic and not an engineer. ????

We would also hope that this is one of many changes coming up, doing away with the physical paper and using computer records for multiple things. There is going to be a day (maybe already here) that the old "sticks in the mud" at the government agencies that are against modernization are getting retired and the younger, more worldly people are being put in charge. Also, the person who's relative had the monopoly on printing the TM6 may have moved on or something...????

Hello, Long time lurker, (5+ years) but will retire sometime in the future, hopefully to LOS. Been with my wife for almost 30 years, she is from the Phu Wiang area. Currently in California, we go back for a month every couple of years. Hopefully it doesn't get Farang unfriendly in the future.

I had to comment on this. Long time lurker, first time poster. Anyway, I was looking at a website called flightradar24.com last week, it is a real time view of all aircraft in the air around the world. Poking around LOS, i noticed a RTA VIP jet take off from Phitsanulok airport, I think it was a Beechcraft Kingair. It went straight into Myanmar and when it turned north reducing altitude, it turned off its transponder. The airport it landed at was Heho, it was reported on the ground for a few hours at least before I lost interest. They have to keep the transponder on for the commercial aircraft flying in the area. I also saw HIS 737 do touch and goes and land at Phitsanulok. My wife thought they exchanged cash to pay for the future incursion. flightradar24.com is an interesting site for aviation geeks. I will do a proper introduction later.