DrDave

Thanks. This one has a stated battery life of 14 days, whereas I'll need several months, or a unit that has a very low drain on the car's battery. This one also has a proprietary SIM card and subscription service. I'm hoping to find something that can use a local SIM without an add-on tracking subscription.

There's a product called Walabot that was heavily promoted in the US a couple of years ago that attaches to your phone and claims to see just about anything up to 4" deep into the wall. Not sure how well it works on block walls, but you might want to have a look to see if it would be of any use for your situation.

I'm looking for recommendations for a car GPS tracker. This is for a new car (so there's an OBD2 port), but I'm concerned about the battery being drained since the car will probably not be used for several months at a time. What I'm hoping to get from a tracker is a notification (or some way to easily determine on my cellphone or PC) that the car has been moved, and where it went. I know that there are scores of inexpensive trackers (both OBD2 connected and hardwired) on Lazada, but I have no idea how they affect the battery on an inactive car. Has anyone had a similar requirement that can recommend a device?

A lot of this mass of cable pre-dates fiber internet - it's been like this for a couple of decades. I believe a considerable amount is twisted pair copper, but as previously mentioned it's probably too difficult to determine which wires are in use and which aren't, so they're just left hanging there.

No worries. Those Russian flights returning from Thailand and India will probably be carrying lots of Boeing and Airbus spare parts.

The US based carriers have all modified their frequent flyer programs so that points/miles awarded are directly proportional to the fare you pay.They're no longer interested in attracting the loyalty of casual travelers, instead focusing on retaining frequent business customers who typically pay higher fares. At the same time, they've raised the number of points required for free flights and upgrades. The typical casual passenger will book using lower economy fares, and as a result will be lucky to be awarded 20% of the actual miles flown. At that rate, it's very difficult to amass the number of points required to redeem a free flight or upgrade. Years ago when I was flying for business with a roundtrip every week, I had attained elite status on multiple airlines, and was able to routinely get business class upgrades for my trips to Thailand. I even recall paying $258 on a special promotion to fly SFO to Singapore and back for a long weekend, and receiving the number of miles actually flown. Those days are long gone, and even though we fly Florida to BKK 2-3 times a year, we just go with the cheapest and quickest flights, since the frequent flyer programs offer little incentive for loyalty. With that said, my wife flew roundtrip to BKK on Aisiana last month on the lowest available economy fare and was awarded 100% of the miles flown (about 18,000). The fare, however, was about 2-1/2 times what we normally pay, and no miles were awarded for the codeshare Delta feeder flights.

These are very common. They're usually not attached to the motorbike, so they can also be used as a pushcart. To use with a motorbike, you take an empty rice sack, fold it in half and put the handle inside the fold, then sit on the rice bag - sounds dodgy, but it really works.

You might want to check the total fees for sending a bank wire versus wise. While a bank wire probably has a slightly lower exchange rate (e.g. the rate offered by your Thai bank for converting your foreign funds to Thai baht), there are usually no other fees other than a flat amount wire fee. Wise, on the other hand generally offers a better exchange rate compared to your Thai bank, but adds a fee which is a percentage of the amount sent. For large amounts, sending a bank wire is almost always cheaper. I recently sent the equivalent of 3 million baht in USD via a bank wire, and upon comparison I saved a couple of hundred USD as opposed to Wise.

That doesn't sound right. Normally, you go to the land office with the seller, make the payment to the seller then and there, and get issued the chanote in your name very quickly. *EDIT* I missed the first line of the quote. Absolutely correct that the name on the chanote doesn't change until fully paid up, or all liens are satisfied. I was thinking of an all cash sale.

We had a similar situation. Wife's brother took a loan from the bank using family land as collateral. Brother fell behind in payments, and the bank threatened to repo the land. Wife worked out a deal to clear the bank debt and have brother sign over the chanote to her. Very quick and easy. Maybe the OP could do something similar?

Ignoring the fact that the average bar in Patong has a capacity of 10 or less patrons.

Nah, they'll make more. You can't extort money from a closed business, and a closed bar isn't paying bribes to stay open late.

No, the subject of the OP is that treatment in a Thai hospital is not always cheaper than treatment in foreign hospitals - specifically US hospitals. The example in the OP was treatment plan and cost at Thai hospitals versus a particular US hospital. The OP has US health insurance, which covered some or all of the cost for his treatment, which backs up his opinion. My point, as a follow-up to the OP's US hospital experience was that if uninsured, the price quoted and/or billed by a US hospital may be far higher than what you actually pay. Uninsured American expats may want to take this into consideration when deciding between treatment in a Thai hospital versus a foreign (US) hospital. Additionally, there are government-sponsored programs that can lower the out of pocket costs for the uninsured, which should also be taken into consideration when making a choice.

Yes. About 8 years ago, my wife went to the ER in Florida with acute abdominal pain. After running some tests, it was determined that she needed to have her gall bladder removed sometime in the near future. After 90 minutes in the ER, she was released. We were never presented with a bill - they just took her name and address (and maybe SSN) when admitted. Well, it turns out that for uninsured patients, the hospital makes up a bill and turns it over to a third party agency for payment. We got the bill a few weeks later from the agency - over $5,000 baht for 90 minutes in the ER which consisted of a quick doctor's exam, an IV, a vastly overpriced blood panel and potassium pills. I just sat on the bill for a few weeks, and surprise, surprise a new bill arrived with a total amount due of about $1,700 noting "discount for uninsured patient". I didn't even have to negotiate.

@bluejets My wife has been doing what you proposed for years with no problems. This last trip, she entered on an expired Thai passport, got a new one a few weeks later, and will be leaving on that new one in a couple of days. Entering on the old passport and leaving on the new one is fairly common, and won't be a problem. I think most Thais with dual citizenship enter and leave Thailand on their Thai passport, and enter and leave their home country on the other country's passport. Worst case when leaving Australia, she can show her Thai passport if the airline raises any concern about a visa being required (if her return flight is more than 30 days past her arrival in Thailand).

The hospital we use, which is a member of the BDMS group routinely adds a couple of "service charges". For example, my wife wanted to have a consultation with a dermatologist, and of course they require you to have blood pressure and temperature recorded (300 baht) before you talk to the doctor. They also add some sort of other generic "nursing services" charge to the bill for another 300 baht. All this just to have a 5 minute conversation with a doctor at 1,000+ baht. No exam, procedure, or services.

The providers. Insurance companies (and Medicare) negotiate fees with providers in their network. Kind of like "list price" versus "negotiated price". The providers bill the "list price" to the insurance companies, who will in turn make payment at the negotiated rate. Interestingly enough, the surgeon's fee was $3,617 for which the insurance company paid only $632, which I thought was kind of lowball. If you don't have insurance, you'll be billed the "list price" which you most likely will be able to negotiate significantly down.

@wasabi I had the exact same procedure (septoplasty and turbinate reductions) done in the US about 6 months ago. This was the same procedure that you had in Austin, no splints and minimal dissolving packing. The procedure was done in a modern outpatient "surgery center" that was very much like a hospital. Pre and Post-op nurse, Anesthesiologist, a couple of OR nurses and my ENT specialist to do the surgery, which took all of about 30 minutes. I was planning on having the surgery in Thailand, but with Covid, and being in the US, I wasn't sure when I'd be able to return so I decided to have it done in Florida. The requisite CT was billed to my insurance company (medicare advantage plan) for $700, of which the plan paid $70 and I paid $10. The fees for the outpatient surgery center, anesthesiologist, and surgeon totaled $19,962. Insurance paid $2,262, I paid $20. and that was the end of it. If I would have had this done in Thailand, I'm guessing it would have cost me somewhere between 150,000 and 200,000 baht.

I've had T-Mobile for several years in the US - the ONE plan, which I think has been re-branded as Magenta. When in Thailand, I put my T-Mobile SIM into a new dedicated phone, and found that receiving SMS messages was hit or miss. Some I'd get, and some not. I'd get messages coming from T-Mobile (such as billing notices), but 2FA messages from both Wise and Bank of America were never received. I think others have gotten their T-Mobile SIMs to work reliably, but I didn't have the patience to troubleshoot my issue.

Reminds me of the throngs of tearful mourners that showed up for a past local official's funeral a few years back. He was well-known to be a ruthless and immensely corrupt individual, and all of the mourners were employed by his various companies.

I know, 4,000 sounds more like an RT-PCR test, but I'm fairly certain this was for a rapid antigen test at BNH. The last time I was there, they said they were doing them in the emergency department.

That's very possible. My wife, however made it clear in a subsequent phone conversation with the owner that she could not pay more than 600k/rai. Pretty much take it or leave it. He left it. I'm hoping he'll reconsider in the next few weeks because although it's currently a rice paddy it's in an excellent location, but I doubt he'll change his mind.

I got mine at Bangkok Christian Hospital. Results with a medical certificate available within 1 hour for 800 baht. No appointment needed, but lots of waiting time prior to being tested, Interestingly enough, the same test and documentation at BNH hospital a few hundred meters away is over 4,000 baht.

It seems to me that land prices in even the most rural of areas are beyond the reach of most Thais. My wife recently tried to buy 4 rai of land in rural Phayao where the owner (a farmer) had previously wanted 1 million baht per rai. Her friend had offered 600K a few months back, and it was accepted however the deal fell through because her friend couldn't come up with the total amount in cash. My wife made the same offer, all cash to be paid immediately, but was rejected with the owner now insisting on 1 million per rai. The land in that area that I see changing hands is mostly for commercial use, and probably heavily financed. I don't think the locals could afford these prices to use as a home or rice paddy. In contrast, in Phuket 15 years ago 1 rai of seaview land in Patong could be had for 4 million/rai. Now, you would be lucky to find a 1/2 rai plot inland behind a petrol station for that same 4 million baht. Is it a bubble? Probably not unless something major happens to the economy causing prices to tumble.

My bad.... 659,000 baht (list price 699,000)