Somjot

You have to understand that the problem is not you or the product you ordered, it is the customs. They are well known for that. About 10 years ago, when I was arranging my dental lab, which produces all the dentures like crowns, bridges, dentures for my dental clinic in Pattaya, I ordered a milling device from Germany. The price was something around 8000,- €. I had done my homework and knew that any medical device used on humans needs a special import license, but this was a milling unit which clearly was not used on the human body. It fabricated telescopic crowns which would later be glued to human teeth, but no direct contact between the milling unit and the patients. I don't know the actual regulations but at that time all you needed was a certificate of free sale from the manufacturer but no import license for medical devices. So I got the certificate and the manual and an additional letter from the manufacturer, had all that translated in Thai, notarized and certified by the Thai embassy. And I did not choose one of those big shipping companies but a smaller and much more reliable one called SCHENKER. And my contract with Schenker said “door to door service”. Guess what? Customs kept it anyway. Reason: that was a machine used on the human body and needed an import license. No matter how many times I showed them my certified and notarized documents, they said we do not believe it. I told them to unpack it and show me how it could be used on a human head or teeth. They refused. Of course, they knew I was right. They just didn't care. I told them to send it back. They refused again. They told me, if I could not get that licence, they would keep it for some time and then sell it on some auction. I said, then why don't you sell it to me directly, just name your price. Guess what? They refused again, laughing and telling me that whatever happens to the device I would have to pay for the storage, as long as it stays with customs starting from day one since they keep it. I was devastated and had nightmares of me paying for that storage until my very last day. Well sometimes God really works in mysterious ways and the whole problem was solved by coincidence, although my late mother used to say there is no such thing like coincidence. Trust me, more than once things happened to me in Thailand that made me think, maybe she was right. However, being a German dentist in Pattaya I know a few businesspeople and one of them used to invite friends for dinner in his villa every Friday. It was 2014, the military had just taken over the country and most big companies had sent all their managers and CEO's back home, leaving only the less important employees behind. And one of those guys left behind by his company was that handsome young man sitting next to me with a pale face scared for his life as he was sure it will come to a violent end in the next days. “Aww” I said “is that your first coup? Yes, that's bad. In these third world countries you never know when this happens but as soon as those revolutionaries have won, first thing they do is execute all their opponents and after that they will torture and execute all foreigners from countries which were good friends with their opponents”. He stopped eating as he had lost his appetite and stared at me. I continued: “Well, you might be lucky though, maybe some warlord thinks you are pretty and keeps you as his personal mistress”. Everybody else burst out in laughter while the poor guy looked more and more miserable with his jaws dropped. I said “buddy, you're in Thailand, things work differently here, there will be some mobs, a few fights maybe even a few people get shot, but not intentionally more likely because of collateral damage and that's it. That's how they do it here and they do it all the time. So don't worry, no need to write down your last will or say goodbye to your family just relax and enjoy the show. And besides, you're lucky, as you will have a story to tell. You're not the one with problems.” He looked at the others, everybody was nodding, and he relaxed instantly. “What bothers you?” He asked me and I told him the whole story about that very important lab device and my problems with the customs. “Which shipping company did you use?” “Bloody Schenker” “Well” he answered “then maybe both of us are lucky today because as fate would have it I am the last manager from Schenker, who is still in Thailand and I have a good friend at customs, or better a friend with a taste for good wine. You will have your device by next week.” I had to pay for a few bottles of expensive wine plus 30,000 baht storage fee for three months But finally got my milling machine. So my advice, thank you for reading my long story by the way, to you is: either you know somebody, who knows somebody at customs or if your wife has a certain level of education and is not afraid of authorities, she could talk to them, show them how much you paid for that device, convince them that was a single deal and you won't do it again and somehow agree on a reasonable price. Do not go by yourself. They don't negotiate with Farangs. I live here for some years, I speak, read and write Thai on university level, they still would never negotiate with me in such situations. If that doesn't help, consult a lawyer who again could talk them into some deal or at least tell them to destroy (aka keep) the device so that no further storage fees will have to be paid by you. Doing nothing might result in very expensive fees and never forget they are one of the most powerful authorities in the Kingdom.

Another point left out, which came to my mind after reading a few of the last posts: "would love to live in Pattaya, but just can't because of wife/family/lack of money/ mama does not let me out of the basement so to feel less miserable I belittle others who actually can by accusing them of being whore mongers without even knowing their life circumstances".

I may be able to share some insights: First of all, it might not be the best idea to leave a gap, caused by tooth extraction, untreated. The lack of visibility especially in the molar area is without doubt a point, but keep in mind that teeth are not only there to give us a charming smile, but they also have a function. And while the incisors and canines are there to bite chunks of food off the premolars and molars have the job to chew it and make it swallowable and digestible. Now the loss of one molar might not seem to be very tragic but there might be unpleasant consequences: The adjacent teeth might tilt towards the gap, causing a small space between them and the next tooth which again might lead to food impaction and future periodontal problems and bad breath. They might even tilt so much over the months and years that they have to be extracted. The antagonistic tooth might grow into that extraction gap causing the same problems in the opposite jaw. Not to forget, that we might automatically and without realizing it start chewing mostly on the other side which will sooner or later lead to problems in the TMJ (temporomandibular joint) and before we know it we suffer from head and neck pain and swallow tons of painkillers ruining our stomach or liver, depending on the kind of painkiller, believing that we are suffering from a migraine never realizing the real reason. About implants: implants replace the roots of natural teeth. They are mostly made of titanium or ceramic and the difference between them is the ability to “osseointegrate”, which means to stimulate the bone to grow on them. Implantologists use the terms primary and secondary stability. The primary stability comes from the outer taper of the implant which is designed as a self-tapping screw and which allows the implant to stay in the bone without any mobility. This is extremely important for the growth of bone on the implant as bone only grows when there is no mobility, otherwise you get connective tissue which is useless when it has to withstand chewing forces. Once the bone has grown on the implant surface, which takes about 6 to 12 weeks, the implant stands firmly and strong in the jaw, (= secondary stability) and is ready to withstand chewing forces for many years. Now here is the difference between those many implant manufacturers: the strength of the bond between bone and implant surface dramatically depends on the design of that surface. It took scientists many years until they found out that bone does not grow on precious metals and also does not grow one smooth surfaces, they have to be a bit rough, Now there are many ways to get the surface of a titanium implant rough, like etching, sandblasting, light bow and so on and depending on the concentration of the acid you use, or the granulation when you sandblast or the energy of that light bow and the time you expose the implant to the process, you will get a different kind of roughness. And there is such a thing like the perfect roughness. The big companies with the huge funding did years and decades of research until they found it and they guard that secret same as Coca-Cola does it with their recipe. The smaller and cheaper companies produce only copies of those implants which look exactly like the originals but not if you look at them in the microscope and definitely not when it comes to Osseointegration. Unfortunately, it might take years before you know it. Now let's say, the implant has perfectly grown into the bone, and you want to get your supraconstruction, which can be some kind of denture or a bridge or a single crown. Depending on what kind of supraconstruction you need you will get a different kind of abutment, which is some kind of intermediate piece and will be screwed into the inner taper of the implant. Here comes the next catch: the longevity and durability of your super construction depends on the precision of the connection between abutment and implant. Again, to my experience, cheaper manufacturers use cheaper ways of production and as everybody knows the more precise your product has to be the more difficult it is to manufacture it. Many of those companies will give you statistics saying that after five years 96% of their implants are still in the jawbone of their patients. True. But what they will not tell you is that only 75% of the dentures or crowns are still in their patients’ mouths. Another thing that you must know before getting implants is that every implant manufacturer has its own tools and parts and sizes and there is no US standard or DIN norm, meaning you cannot use the screwdriver of manufacturer A to fix an abutment from manufacturer B which again will not fit into the implant of manufacturer C. Why is that important? Well, imagine you get an implant with a single crown on it, and everything goes well. Years later you lose one or more teeth next to that implant and now you want to use that implant to fix a bridge. All you have to do, actually not you but your dentist, is to exchange the abutment by another one which is made for bridges and fix that bridge on it. But what if your implant manufacturer is just a small local one in your home country and does not distribute worldwide but you live in Thailand by now? That will cost you many phone calls and extra money to get not only the abutment for your implant system but also the right tools, which are normally very expensive. Worst case scenario, and trust me this happens every day now with all those no name cheap implants from China: What are you going to do if your implant manufacturer does not exist anymore? Jackpot! No more spare parts for your body. All you can do then is explanation and insertion of another implant system, which is not only very expensive but a real mess too. I've done a few explanations and every single time my treatment room looked as if they had just filmed another scene of “Vikings”, as you have to cut a lot of bone around the implant in order to get it out. I hope I could have been of some help and I apologize for my horrible English - I am not a native speaker.

Very good advice. You clearly know Thai mentality well. If the guy is no army general or similar calling the police might help.

What if she's real? Polydactilism is well known amongst medics. Imagine the handjob she could give you. Ok, I admit, pervs are quite common amongst medics.

Just a general thought: Many of us are siding with Israel, because we're used to. Because for decades we've been told that Muslims are bad and evil. Because we're used to being lied to by our governments, that a few 1000 terrorists are hiding in one country, or the leader of another country is producing weapons of mass destruction. And this gives us the right to attack these countries, kill hundreds of thousands of their civilians, who don't know who is hiding in their country, what their leaders are up to not to mention, that they could do nothing about it, if they knew. We call them insurgents, kill them by the Thousands and deny the captured opponents any rights, because we declare them as combatants, not soldiers, which again gives us the right to torture them. And we applaud our soldiers, because they are “out there” for all of us, forgetting that “out there” is another person’s home, where he lives, works and raises his children. We condemn Putin for his attack on the Ukraine, where within two years about 500 children have been killed, while at the same time Netanyahu is getting standing ovations in the US Congress for lying in their faces by saying - just to name one example - only 2 dozen civilians have been killed in Gaza, despite everybody in the room knew that his army has murdered more than 14,000 children in less than one year. What is wrong with us? There is one fundamental truth: There can't be any double standard in justice Whenever you apply double standards, it will lead to aggression and sooner or later to catastrophe - on both sides. This is inevitable. It is understandable that some people feel comfortable and safe with double standards, as long as they are on the side of the oppressing group. But this is a very dangerous Mindset. Because once the oppressed group has been eliminated, the oppressing group will look for new victims and sooner or later will do so within its own ranks. And before you know it, you end up being some kind of “Palestinian” yourself. Happened in Nazi Germany all the time. There can be only the same justice for everybody.

This is simply not true. The reason they're dying is because the IDF is flattening their country and killing everyone living there, 2/3 of them being women and children, while at the same time the Palestinians have no place to go. Would he make the same choice if his parents or his children would be held hostage in Gaza? Would you? This was never about freeing the hostages. I don't know if you've heard about the Hannibal directive: if a IDF soldier sees an Israeli being taken hostage by a Hamas member, he has to shoot them both. According to your “legal logic”: If a huge guy grabs a girl by the pussy and she slaps him and in return the guy rapes her and breaks all her bones, the girl is to blame for her broken bones? If she wouldn't have slapped him, she would never have ended up in coma. Right? I mean sure, it wasn't a good idea to slap that big guy. But I guess we both know, who belongs into jail. 7th October was a horrible act of terrorism. No question. But the response of Israel … sorry but I just don't see the proportionality.

She was arrested because she was protesting against the war in Gaza and against the occupation. And she did that at the university of Copenhagen because they were continuing their cooperation with academic institutes Israel. Please stop these false conclusions, which are repeated again and again to brainwash people. Being against war, against the slaughter of civilians, against the burning alive of children, against the intentional targeting of children, journalists, doctors and members of health organizations does not mean you are HAMMAS. It just shows you are HUMAN. Being against occupation of land and killing its owners, does not prove, that you are HAMMAS It just proves, that you have a HEART.

A little Side Story about cockroaches and trust: and to start with: I just hate them. I mean, they are not dangerous, they are not poisonous, they don't bite and still only seeing one almost makes me puke and I can't eat anything for at least a few hours. My Thai girlfriend, together for more than 17 years now, does not particularly like them but they don't bother her either. However, a few years ago we bought a house, luckily renovated by now, which is quite huge with a big garden but unfortunately very old so a cockroach or two crawling around in our bedroom once in a while was normal. I have one of those bug killer sprays in every single room and should I spot one, I will spray it. Normally if you hit it once or twice the poison will do its job, the beast will slow down and die within few minutes. Too long for me, I literally drown them with that spray. The worst case scenario is, if I could hear one of them in the middle of the night crawling around in our bedroom. Then I wake up my girlfriend and ask her to find and kill it, which she always does, as she knows very well, there is no way I will let her sleep, before that monster is terminated. I have to admit, at first it always took her quite some while to hunt the cockroach down, as once those beasts know, someone is after them, they tend to hide in some inaccessible places. But by the time my girlfriend got better and better and finally it took her just a minute or two to kill the beast and throw it out of the window - so I thought. I don't know why, but my girlfriend always showed them to me before she got rid of them. Maybe hunter`s pride - so I thought. And interestingly, those cockroaches always made their last stand in our wardrobe - so I thought. Until I found out the bitter truth. One day I was checking the wardrobe and to my surprise I found a little matchbox. Neither me nor my girlfriend smoke so it made me curious. When I opened it a cold hand grabbed for my heart - there was a huge cockroach inside. But before I could scream, I realized that it was dead. I went downstairs, put the matchbox on the table and asked my girlfriend: “Is there anything you want to confess?” „Oh dear, you found Peter.” Long story short, as she always was too tired to hunt for a cockroach in the middle of the night but also knew, that there was no way I would let her sleep before the threat was contained, she had deposited that one in our wardrobe and every time I woke her up, demanding to kill the monster as I might have heard some scratching noises in our bedroom, she pretended to be looking for it and finally took out the dead cockroach, showed it to me knowing that I would never really look at it and act as if she would throw it out the window. The following day I buried Peter in our garden, even said a little prayer thanking him for all those nights I have had a good sleep. Didn't change my disgust towards cockroaches. So I got myself 2 cats - problem solved.

The civilians in Gaza were murdered by Israeli bullets and bombs, not by Hammas.

Get yourself a healthy cat. I did. No more bugs.

@Excogitator, @ChicagoExpat Guys, please stop arguing, except one or two other posters in this thread like @RuamRudy, you are the only ones delivering interesting and informative posts. Most members post only a few words, which have been clearly brainwashed into their minds, when it comes to the Middle East topic. You guys don't and I can clearly see that both of you are well educated and have informed yourselves about the topic. Yet you have different opinions, which makes your discussion interesting and valuable. You could learn a thing or two from each other and the rest of us could learn a lot from you. Back in the day, if we would hear a person with a completely opposing opinion sitting at another table, we would invite him to our table, buy him a beer and say, “Let's talk”. Sure, discussions could get heated, yet we never insulted each other, as we had a so-called “culture of debate”. Unfortunately, this has been by cancel culture. If you side with Palestine, you are automatically a Hamas supporter and anti-Semitic, if you side with Israel, you are automatically a friend of apartheid, a white supremacist and a child slayer. I personally side with none of them but I do understand that both (talking about Palestine and Israel now) are somehow fighting for their existence. I only side with those innocent people, especially the children, no matter if Palestinian or Israeli, who have been maimed and killed by the orders of completely incompetent leaders, who should be displaced ASAP and pay for their crimes as they are not willing to find a peaceful solution. And I find it absolutely shocking when people in our western world with our western values still condone and actively support the actions of an army, which deliberately targets doctors, aid workers and journalists and burns children alive. The most famous of them was Hind, a 5-year-old girl hiding in a car and surrounded by the bodies of her family members, who just had been shot by the IDF. Hind called her mother, begging for her life and after the IDF finally issued a clearance to the Palestinian authorities for an ambulance to go and rescue the girl, they murdered both, the two aid workers in the ambulance and 5 year old Hind. I won't even try to understand how an adult man, a trained soldier, is able to aim at an innocent girl and fire bullets into her little body. But in my opinion every person, who condones such an action and supports the army, who issued those orders, has completely lost his humanity. By the way, what are actually our western values and how do other cultures perceive them? Don't get me wrong. I think those values, like freedom, equality, freedom of speech, justice and same rights for every person, human rights and so on are among our most valuable achievements. Yet somehow, we do not apply them to everyone. When we hear radical Muslim, we imagine a guy with black hair and a black beard wearing an explosive belt trying to kill hundreds. When they hear Christian, they imagine a plane dropping bombs and soldiers invading their country. Al Qaeda committed a horrible crime on September 11. At that time, they had 70,000 insurgents spread over 60 nations, so maybe only a few thousand of them in Afghanistan, which has a population of 41 million. Yet we started a war and invaded the country leading to a death toll of almost 7000 US military or contractors, 70,000 Afghan military, more than 100,000 Afghan civilians until we finally found out, oops, the bad guy is in the neighboring country. Or the second Iraq war, we started because of Saddam’s “weapons of mass destruction”, from which we definitely knew, they don't exist and which led to hundreds of thousands being killed. Not only a few on our side. Interestingly all those Hollywood war movies with all those heroes somehow forget that actually we are the invaders sending troops to and throwing bombs on foreign countries, killing thousands of innocent civilians, yet we keep being the good guys and the other ones, who are actually protecting their country, and their families are the bad guys. Brainwash accomplished. The media coverage has never been so widespread like in the actual conflict in the Middle East and the message it sends to the rest of the world is clear: The western values are only applied for western people. The human rights which should protect every human being on this planet are only applied to western people. Which means, the rest of the world is not seen as human by the west, who created those rights. This message, the exposure of our double standards has reached the rest of the world, and it will have a deep impact on our future. More and more countries will turn away from us. It is no coincidence that Thailand has applied to be a member of the BRICS states. Most of our economies are stagnating or on their way down; the actual incidents will only worsen that. However, please keep the discussion civilized and your personal emotions out of it. Apologies, if anyone feels patronized by me. Never was my intention. And being a non-native speaker, I may have expressed myself in a wrong way.

Please always keep in mind, in most cases, you get what you pay for. The materials, starting with the impression material, the special gypsum for the casts, the resin, the artificial teeth and so on, differ regarding price and quality. Cheap artificial teeth are used up after a few years; good ones may last for decades. Cheap pink coloured resin may cause allergic reactions or gum swelling with burning sensations and in the long term even cancer. On top of that, the procedures how the denture is produced may also differ. Did they just put your models from lower and upper jaw into a hinge articulator, which disregards all functional movements of the jaw or did they use a fully adjustable one, which simulates all the movements of the human jaw. Your joints will tell you in a few years when it is too late. How many years of experience does the dentist have? I would recommend studying the websites of those clinics and choose a dentist, who takes his time to answer all your questions and explain everything.

Do you really think, I would pretend my experiences with the other airlines and lie about their food? What would I possibly gain from that? During Covid Thai did not offer any flights for some time so I tried Qatar and Emirates and Lufthansa too. I even wrote reports about it in another forum but same Nickname. But yes, I love Thailand. There is a good chance I am biased. But you allege that I lied, just because I do not share your opinion. Not cool.

You are most likely right, as we all know, who else was living not far away from Munich.