Old Curmudgeon

Thank you @pgrahmm ... exactly what I was looking for. https://freight.railway.co.th/Landing#TFC/tfcs008/Search

Not just the schedule -- that's easy to find. Looking for live, real-time arrival time of trains that are enroute now in Thailand. Anything? Meeting arrival at the train station. Schedule time is 04:00 in the dark night! But could be delays, maybe long delays (on this New Year's Eve night).

How long? A Christian starts to pray to God. He says, "God, how long is a million years to you?" God replies, "It's as a second my son." Then the man says, "God, how much is a million dollars to you?" God says, "It's as a penny, my son." The man says, "God, can I have one of those pennies?" God says, "Just wait a second, my son."

Thank you, @mickmac for posting those helpful details. "another year or two" ?? But you have some indications of problems now, is that right? Or else you wouldn't be going for a consult. Your approximate age? I would have thought better, easier, to get it done before the situation gets too advanced. Wondering if doctor discussed that with you, or not? This is a brilliant plan. Good thinking. Question: How did you know Lamphun is the eye hospital for the area? From talking with Thai friends? From talking with a local doctor? Is there a web "directory" of such hospitals and their specialities? Or some other way of knowing? A method for finding the area "center" for any specialized care such as this, could lead to better care for all sorts of medical procedure.

Did you do it yet or not? Brilliant! Really brilliant. @inlandchris if you have any more creative ideas like that, I will listen carefully.

Thank you, @mickmac. I appreciate your thoughtful comments and suggestions here. Good to know about L'OPERA for bread and pastries. That is new to me, but also far away. Agree with you about good quality bread at Saint Etoile. It is Japanese style dough -- very soft, airy, and slightly sweet. But for for "franchise" bakery, the quality is quite good. Interesting about French stick, MAKRO. I never would have imagined. You mentioned Nana Bakery. I ordered some pastries today (blueberry muffins, chicken pie, apple pie). Taste okay, but I don't find any reason to get excited. I wanted to order Nana bread, but bread not offered for delivery on LineMan. Not today anyway. Maybe just because of holiday this week ... I don't know. You also mentioned something lacking about Sausage King's bread. I agree with you ... does need a bit more salt. And I'm wondering if S.K. gets that bread from an outside bakery. If you have any other good ideas, I hope you'll post.

The title of this thread is in quotes because it is the name of a Substack blog, "Surviving Healthcare". The author/publisher, Dr. Robert Yoho, MD, is a retired, American physician. I'm offering his latest post here -- copy/paste with no editing -- because he addresses many topics with benefit to expats in Thailand. Medical care on all levels here seems to me to be mainstream of mainstream, with no alternative thinking allowed. Dr. Yoho offers many alternatives ... and as far as I can see, all of them are readily available to expats here, just not from conventional doctors and hospitals. Certainly not from government hospitals. The post is very long and Dr. Yoho writes in a very "wordy" style. But I decided to NOT try to abridge anything, thinking I might unintentionally cut something important to someone reading here. Personally I am doing the best I can to follow Dr. Yoho's advice ... and have been doing so for over 10 years ... successfully in Thailand. That's one of the things I value most about living here ... any individual can decide for himself how to handle his health care without being forced into some mandated regimen. Yes, avoiding / evading the vaccine was difficult, but it was possible here. And the items one may use for self-care described below are readily available here or easily ordered from abroad. The first part of the essay is rather hum-drum "conventional wisdom". The real self-care health-care material begins about 1/4 of the way down the page: "How to preserve yourself physically". I welcome thoughtful comments either here or (preferably) in private messages. -- Old Curmudgeon Chiang Mai --------------------------------------------------- Source:https://tinyurl.com/2f9wsm33 How to preserve yourself mentally in our dystopian world CJ Hopkins writes: The keys to coping with it all are KISS (keeping it simple, stupid) and aggressively jettisoning the extraneous. I ranked the following by importance. 1. Avoid stress If your psychological state is compromised, so is your ability to learn and survive. Your priority must be cultivating relationships and moving through the world peacefully by avoiding media and practicing spirituality. Psyops designed to threaten and dishearten us are everywhere. To cultivate calm and perspective, I memorize passages from Marcus Aurelius (Meditations, 170 AD): These passages and many others echo through my head as I face stress and inevitable setbacks. They tell me to stay focused, remember my life is short, and be patient with the people around me. I like Long’s translation, but there are others. 2. Ignore a lot Though we try to ignore politics and the lies about world events, enough of it gets through to disturb us. Once I understand the outlines of a story—for example, that the FDA, CDC, NIH, DOD, DARPA, and other government criminals are conspiring to kill us—I avoid reading more details about their history or latest crimes. I must stay focused. 3. How to judge people A legal maxim describes the first principle of this: “Fraud vitiates everything.” This means that if someone lies about something or uses false information they pass off as true, then the presumption is that any information derived from that is untrue (US v Throckmorton). Judges do this, and you must do it as you judge behavior. I think of this as flipping a switch on people—if someone lies to you, ghost them. Many (most?) influential people have sold out. For example, Sasha Latypova describes recent events surrounding Robert Malone here, and my description of Todd Callender is here. Ben Goldacre seems to have also joined the legions on the dark side. Cicero wrote, “Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken with money.” Psychopaths and narcissistic jackasses are often charming but have no walls protecting their nonexistent integrity. How to preserve yourself physically “Vaccines” explain over 95 percent of our health problems. The Control Group Study proved beyond any doubt that the key to survival is avoiding them. It showed that the chronic disease rate for the 900,000 US citizens who never had any vax is 2.5 percent. For the rest of us, it is 60 percent. This explains why doctors are seeing their patients drop dead, get turbo cancer, have early Alzheimer’s, or meet some other awful fate. The Study determined that the likelihood of all this happening by chance alone was infinitesimally small—a virtually invisible statistical “p” value. These numbers are “significant” at .05, which says there was only a one-in-twenty chance that the result could have been produced by chance. The Control Group Study’s far smaller p-value proves its conclusions are indisputable. Those who understand this do not need to listen to more mechanistic idiocy explaining vaccines to understand their evil. Lying or fabricating a vaxxed certificate is a risk, but nothing compared to getting injected with God knows what by some <deleted> in a white coat. Never allow yourself to be jabbed with anything again unless it is life or death. All vaccines are poison; read Turtles All the Way Down and Dissolving Illusions for more. Moreover, the provenance and, therefore, safety of every single pharma medicine is in doubt. Psychopaths run these companies. People are resilient unless they are stabbed with poisons. All other health variables in this post—taken together—are dwarfed by vaccine risks, which are ten to 100 times more consequential. This puts lesser issues like EMF or even nutrition into perspective. Things like the obesity epidemic or rising rates of cancer or other diseases are symptoms and not primary causes of the disaster. I decided to worry less about them and focus on vaccines. Before I describe other risks, Mark Kennard explains toxic thresholds in this two-minute video. It is why people tolerate something for a while and then suddenly get sick. It is why some people are affected by shedding: they are already ill but have not reached the symptomatic threshold until they get another exposure to the spike protein. It is why my mercury amalgams never made me sick until my late sixties. This is why some people tolerate root canals' inflammatory and infectious effects with few symptoms for decades. Youth makes up for a lot, but we are more vulnerable as we age. The corollary is that it is better never to have exposures than treat them later. We are in such a toxic environment that avoidance is nearly impossible. Chlorine dioxide allows us to remove toxins such as glyphosate, pesticides, pollutants, and heavy metals early or late. More risks My post, Almost Everything Scares Me These Days (November 2023), lays out other issues. Purposeful iodine deficiency, encouragement of terrible diets consisting of seed oils and unsaturated fats, and sedentary lifestyles are a few. Medical abuses include but are hardly limited to all statins, psych drugs (Butchered by “Healthcare”), root canals, and mercury amalgams (Judas Dentistry). Other risks are opioids, aluminum exposure, fluoride water poisoning, other prescriptions, all radiation oncology treatments but one, and nearly all chemotherapies (Butchered by “Healthcare”). Dental amalgams are destructive because of their mercury. Root canals are because they continually seed the body with bacteria. When people are exposed to mercury and other toxins from vaccines, it often pushes the victims over their toxic threshold, so they get sick. Despite these dental risks damaging over half the Western population, no increase in mortality or decline in live births was seen until the Covid vax rollout. For perspective, see Craig Pardekooper’s work describing Pfizer’s dose-fatality studies used to test the jab poisons. To inactivate mercury, see THIS or THIS post about Boyd Haley’s heavy metal chelator. For aluminum, use silica water as described HERE and HERE. Still other health problems include vegan diets (see Hormone Secrets), Lyme disease (a manufactured bioweapon), sunscreen promotion and sun exposure suppression, sugar and poisonous artificial sweeteners such as aspartame (Nutrasweet), and glyphosate herbicide exposure through wheat consumption. Finally, heedless industrial pollution with everything from DDT to the promiscuous use of unimaginably filthy jet fuel rife with metals and God knows what else. This last could be cleaned up, but psychopaths are in charge. Treatments Affordable cures that work in order of importance I have learned enough about chlorine dioxide and DMSO to realize that these treatments alone could replace most conventional healthcare. Physicians cannot use or discuss them for fear that their medical boards will revoke their licenses, but this makes little difference, for we do not need doctors now. The medical specialties of ENT, oncology, internal medicine, ophthalmology, dermatology, and others should go the way of the dodo bird to be replaced by lay practitioners who know the protocols. They can be trained in a week. CD requires no degree, license, or ridiculous pretense of doctoring or physician superiority. Just buy the dropper bottles, mix the contents, dilute them in a liter, and drink them over six to eight hours. You can cure your metastatic pancreatic cancer, spike protein illness, glyphosate “intoxication,” and a lot else that ails you. If you Herx, cut your drop number by half or less. Trust how you feel. Minor problems like Covid or malaria are cured in a few days, and major health issues often resolve in a month or less. Chlorine dioxide requires some study, but your life is worth it. I linked CD and DMSO writeups in the first paragraph of this post. I now take 12 drops per bottle of chlorine dioxide (MMS) over eight hours every other day. I do not try it on an empty stomach. I am contemplating reducing my dose further or going back to CDS for a period to see if I tolerate it better. Diet Avoid chicken, pork, wheat, and sugar, particularly the ubiquitous and addictive high fructose corn syrup. This causes fatty liver, cardiovascular disease, and weight gain. Never use seed and synthetic oils such as canola (same link), which eliminates eating out. Instead, focus on getting enough healthy saturated fat. Butter from grass-fed sources or beef drippings is best. This last is often discarded and can be obtained cheaply. Beef is the best protein source because commercially grown chickens and pigs are fed toxic soy and seed oil. Eggs, however, seem to be protected and have healthy fats and protein. Feedlot cattle have problematic diets but have multiple stomachs that detoxify a lot. Fears are developing about the mRNA that the psychopaths are injecting into cows, but how much is absorbed into our guts is unclear. Untouched cows are still available. Wyoming ranchers are fighting to continue their production, and sources like my friend Frank in California still supply free-range, unvaccinated beef. It tastes fantastic. A pure carnivore diet has merit but may adversely affect the gut microbiome. I tolerated this poorly, and after a three-month trial, I quit. Bioidentical hormone replacement This is vital for seniors but is subject to the same negative psyops we see for everything else. Estrogen and progesterone help women, and testosterone, DHEA, and melatonin improve the lives of both sexes. Testosterone is often used as a sole treatment for either sex. It works for women because it metabolizes to estrogen. Oral or injectable is the only way hormones work effectively. The exception is testosterone, which works using creams and is ineffective orally. Subcutaneous pellets give consistent blood levels but require an annoying minor surgery every few months. Hormone blood testing is the gold standard; salivary or hair analysis is unhelpful for the reasons I reported in Hormone Secrets. The American College of Gynecology endorses prescribing hormones for menopausal women without testing. This is better than avoiding hormones because of your fears or the laboratory expense. Dosing should be adjusted based on symptom optimization rather than strictly on levels, and the most common problem is underdosing. With few caveats, hormones are so harmless that they should be over-the-counter. Read Hormone Secrets or Unbekoming’s excellent summary if you have not gotten the memo. Supplements in order of importance Vitamin D is more critical than all else on the list together. It prevents many diseases and decreases all-cause mortality. Use the 50,000 IU capsules, and do not fear taking too much; levels somewhat above 100 mg/dl are good for you. Henry Lahore’s VitaminDWiki.com is the best information source. Sun exposure helps, but most do not live in the tropics and cannot get enough. Measure your levels. Magnesium deficiency is nearly universal. Doses of several grams daily are reasonable. Consider taking it until you get diarrhea. Magnesium will not hurt you, and you will learn what you tolerate. Costco magnesium oxalate makes your bowels work but only about five percent is absorbed. Magnesium glycinate or bis-glycinate is far better utilized. Vitamin C has similar gut reactions as magnesium, and the dose is similar. If you do not get diarrhea, you may need more. It is second only to the first two in importance. Stay away from it during the hours you take chlorine dioxide, for they inactivate each other. K2 is critical. Iodine can cure glandular cancers such as breast and prostate if you take several hundred milligrams a day. The only risk is that it potentially agitates you. The rest of us should take at least 50 mg daily. It is available as Iodoral pills or liquid. Deficiency is nearly universal, especially in the Midwest, except for heavy fish eaters who live on the coasts. They have to worry about mercury toxicity. Many people immediately feel better when they start taking iodine. Selenium deficiency is also widespread; the dose is 100 micrograms daily. There are pills, but eating two Costco Brazil nuts daily is the perfect dose, and you will enjoy it. I pig out on it some days and other times forget to take it. Boron has many merits, including improved sexuality. Deficiency is widespread. It is the cheapest supplement, and a daily dose of ¼ teaspoons of Borax detergent in a liter of water for men and 1/8 teaspoon for women supplies all your needs. It is safer than table salt. Read the post to become comfortable taking it. Zinc aids vital processes. The maintenance dose is 25 mg daily, but if you are sick or have never taken it, 50 mg daily for a couple of weeks may help. CoQ is worth an honorable mention. I use the Costco 300 mg capsule. Some recommend taking many times that dose, particularly for those with Parkinson’s. How do you handle all those damn pills? Many, such as DHEA, melatonin, pregnenolone, magnesium, vitamin C, CoQ, and others, are available as pure, inexpensive powders from PureBulk.com, BulkSupplements.com, and other sources. Iodine can be liquid, such as Lugos’s or nascent. This is taken from a dropper bottle. All these can be used in smoothies. If you still tolerate them poorly, take them every other or every third day. I have a sensitive stomach, so I take half the above list every other day and after my largest meal. I also take chlorine dioxide every other day but am considering reducing my dose further. This is not an exact science, so you should see what works. Raw milk, raw kefir, and fermented yogurt supplement the gut microbiome and can improve an upset stomach. What helps sleep? I struggle with this and wake up early every morning, writing in my head. Magnesium glycinate or bis-glycinate in multi-gram doses helps. Be careful, or you could s*** the bed! Oxylate does not improve sleep. Some people love CBD oil, which contains a little THC. The dose varies from one drop to a dropper. I will post about this soon. DMSO is reputed to help. I notice it if I take a tablespoon at bedtime in a glass of water. Melatonin helps sleep a little. Among many other virtues, it also prevents cancer metastases. I use 200 mg or more, but it does not keep me asleep. After six weeks, I am getting used to the funky feeling I get if I try to get up and use the bathroom. My tolerance is improving, and 95 percent of people can take it chronically without issues. Parkinson’s patients know constipation. Treat it with magnesium oxalate or sulfate. Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) also helps. These are available as cheap, pure powders from PureBulk.com and other sources. Do not be afraid to take several grams daily, and adjust your dose as needed. I also drink a quart or two of water every morning and more throughout the day. I eat prunes and fiber-rich vegetables after soaking them in chlorine dioxide to remove herbicides and pesticides. The formula for this is linked in the paragraph at the top. Epic constipation ended my trial of the carnivore diet. You might do better if you drink enough water and eat enough fat. What decreases inflammation the most? Real medicine is based on terrain theory, which says that if you improve your body, your diseases will be curtailed. Cutting inflammation can eliminate many cancers, infectious diseases, neurological diseases, “autoimmune” disorders, and more. First, ask yourself the paramount health question, “What is in my mouth?” If you have loose teeth, dental amalgams, root canals, or other oral problems, prioritize these. Use only IAOMT dentists (Judas Dentistry). Then consider the following: Although I tried or am currently using everything on the list below, until I took DMSO orally, I noticed nothing. When a supplement saves people from traumatic paralysis by decreasing spinal cord swelling, look no further for an arthritis cure. Chlorine dioxide (CD) is second best but also important. Other strategies besides CD and DMSO include fasting or time-restricted eating, the carnivore diet, DHEA, melatonin, boron, and magnesium. Low-dose naltrexone also helps. Boron seems to have saved most Israelis from arthritis. It is ubiquitous in their soil, particularly in the Dead Sea area. NSAIDS and cortisone-type steroids help inflammation but damage the healing process and occasionally cause death. If you are taking Pharma immunosuppressants such as methotrexate or azathioprine, you should reevaluate your approach. These drugs reduce the body's immune response, making fighting infections and diseases harder. They cause cancer and a whole host of other mortal dangers. Aspirin has many virtues besides relieving pain and inflammation. Multiple grams can be safely taken every 24 hours. It is a fantastic drug that increases one's time on earth, prevents cancer, and a lot more, but big Pharma destroyed its credibility. Since their goal is to injure us and profit despite any damage to us, they instead promote killer Tylenol and its toxic relatives. Here is an example of how you can benefit from knowing inflammation. If an orthopedist says you have “bone on bone” on your X-ray or MRI and need a joint replacement, think twice. It is a sales pitch for lucrative surgery. They have a hammer, and people are nails to them. Symptomatology is barely related to anatomy, and many people who have imaging studies showing horrible degenerative joint disease are asymptomatic. Master your inflammation, and you will be, too. Aurelius always gets the last word for me: Editor: Jim Arnold Parting shot #1: those who influenced me most in 2024 They all tutored me and were generous with their time. In rough order: Polymath Paul Sansonetti. He is my feed to the outside world and has supplied many ideas and references. He is even brighter and better informed than the others on this list. He forced me to change my mind about many issues. Curious Outlier: the author of TheUniversalAntidote.com and a tremendous contributor. Unbecoming. He is one of the best substack authors I have followed this year. He donated hours to help me, and I learned more from him than from any other source except the above two. Jim Arnold of Liar’s World Substack has been archiving information for 15 years against the day when today’s Library of Alexandria burns. He has definitive references and, better yet, can find them. Thanks for telling me when my ideas stink! Elizabeth Cronin is the sharpest editor I have ever worked with. She makes me do intellectual pushups every time she corrects my posts. I expect to see more of her margin comments in red next year. Michelle Herman is an absolute samurai about chlorine dioxide. Kerri Rivera: the foremost world authority on autism treatment. Boyd Haley: the foremost world authority on mercury toxicity. Engineer George: my friend who brings his superior analytical skills to our party. A few others who I likely forgot or who must remain anonymous. Some fell off our speedboat and drowned: CH, my climbing mentor, took the vax against my advice and had a massive stroke, rendering him permanently mute. His friends still take him climbing on a top rope. DJ, my Zion climbing buddy. His closest friends believe he was murdered by his wife for his money. She cremated him immediately and litigated with other heirs. He ignored our earlier advice to ghost her. I guess he later did. George Allen died slowly of colon cancer at 45, years before I learned how to save him with chlorine dioxide. I spoke to him several days a week during his illness, including on his last day. Robert Morgan, co-author of Hormone Secrets, refused Western medical care for his cardiac disease and died of a sudden heart attack. I went to Houston and spent a week with him shortly before this happened. Even if he had gotten angioplasties and bypass surgeries, he knew his chances of doing well were slim. He was a cardiac care nurse who understood what a hoax conventional care was. RIP dudes. I love you still. Parting shot #2: Why did the psychopaths turn off the Google search algorithm, which can swing vote counts by ten to twenty percent, and let Trump win? Robert Epstein is the world authority on this. HERE and HERE are two podcasts about how the algorithms are manipulated. Jim Arnold told me: “THEY know that they have a tiger by the tail, and some are intimidated. WE know that the situation is unpredictable and that our enemies, while sophisticated, are not unbeatable. The parasites seem to have realized they were about to kill or seriously injure the host. If this happened, they would have nothing left to feed on.” This is optimistic. Parting shot #3: More chlorine dioxide testimonials From TheUniversalAntidote.com Telegram channel FENTANYL ADDICTION IS BROKEN, AND WITHDRAWALS ARE MINIMIZED WITH CHLORINE DIOXIDE "Testimony about opioid withdrawal using CDS: My son was addicted to opioids for over twenty years, first heroin and then fentanyl. Attempts to help him withdraw always failed because my son has a history of severe psychosis and withdrawal would cause seizures and psychosis, among other things. When the fentanyl became terribly harmful to him, I tried using suboxone, but it backfired and caused him to wake up screaming in the middle of the night, waking up all the neighbors. We were threatened with eviction if it happened again. But when my son overdosed and I barely was able to save him, we knew he had to quit no matter what. I had no one to advise me, but I was super desperate and started him on a course of withdrawal using potent doses of CDS (100ppm) every hour all day long and into the night. I was just winging it, "flying by the seat of my pants" as they say. Right away I could see that it was working. For one thing he was far more clear minded. It was remarkable. Psychotic tendencies would start to manifest and then they would just dissolve. This pulse went on for about a week and then he pretty much stabilized, and we knew we had won. Thank God! I now have him on doses only about five or six times a day, for maintenance. Of course, I'm not recommending that anyone use such strong doses, but I can tell you from direct experience that it causes no harm, and in my son's case was hugely beneficial. It saved his sanity and his life. With gratitude and blessings from my heart, Susanne." -------- REDUCE OR ELIMINATE WITHDRAWAL SYMPTOMS FROM DRUGS LIKE OPIOIDS AND HEROIN WITH CHLORINE DIOXIDE "...My partner is doing a taper from opioid painkillers using CDS. Drops one pill each day. 5 days ago it was 12 pills, today it was 7. 6 more days til my partner breaks free of this addiction. So far there has been no diarrhea, no nausea, no restless legs, no fatigue, no irritability, no anxiety, no insomnia. The only small sign of withdrawal I noticed was a slight watery eye and runny nose for about half an hour cuz we fell asleep and missed 2 doses in the 8 hourly protocol. To start I put 1ml CDS in 100ml distilled water for the first 2 days. Then increased the dose by 0.5ml of CDS in 100ml of distilled water each day. Today was 3ml CDS, tomorrow will be 3.5ml CDS. I have to say even though there is still 6 more days to go, and then a few days after to make sure the withdrawal period has subsided, I am absolutely astounded. In the 4 years I have been with my partner, we have been actively trying to get her off this poison. She attended a local Drug and Alcohol Team who put her first on buprenorphine and then after 6 months switched to methadone. I have never seen her make such a rapid drop in her daily intake of opioid painkillers with no withdrawal symptoms ever before... These 6 days have been absolute plain sailing and I am extremely confident that the remaining days will be just the same. So if you or anyone you know suffers from opioid addiction, CDS does really work to almost completely eliminate withdrawal symptoms, to allow that person to get their life back sooner than they thought possible...” # # # LIKE COMMENT RESTACK

This year for pollution season, I'm trying to prepare more thoroughly than in the past. Especially important as one gets older. Here is what I've done already. Is there anything else that would have benefit? Decided can not "secure" the entire house. Just not possible. So concentrating on three rooms where I spend the most time: bed room, home office, hobby room. No attempt to secure large front room or bathrooms. Also no attempt to secure indoor kitchen - cooking creates it's own pollution anyway. All air conditioners cleaned. Professional service did that. Bought another large air cleaner. Had two Hatari units already. Bought one more, similar design, but different brand. Simple filter and fan -- no fancy, high-tech electronics. Considered -- but did not buy -- piezoelectric air cleaner. Would it work much better than basic mechanical filter unit? I don't know, but decided against it. Added layer of filter material to all air conditioners and air cleaners. My air pollution test meter shows reduced particulate matter of level 1,2 or 3 inside, while ambient air outside is 60-90. I'm pleased with that. Brought out two ultrasonic humidifiers: cleaned and tested. Air conditioned air gets very dry -- adding moisture may or may not improve the cleanliness of the air, but it is more comfortable to breath. Sleep better, too. No more dry mouth. These humidifiers require mineral water, rather than plain tap water. So there's a little extra effort to buy large, packs of Purra Mineral Water every week, but not serious. Bought a water mist sprayer for the front yard. Not yet installed. Will water mist help against pollution, or is that just "urban legend"? Wish I knew. Bought some large, live plants for the front room. Will the plants help clean the air? I don't know, but they look nice. Remaining to do: Weather stripping around the doors of the three "clean" rooms. And a bottom strip on each door. Check window "seals" and add or replace if necessary. Anything else? What else could be done to mitigate pollution season in Chiang Mai? The alternative to all this, of course, is pick up and move to Hua Hin for three months. But from reading this forum, looks like they already have plenty of curmudgeons there.

Yes, yes, and yes again. Thank you @AndreasHG for that reminder about Cafe Paul depuis 1889. Indeed, their bakery products are superb. Cafe Paul sets a very high standard. I never thought about it that way, but I'll bet you are right about the chemical side of things at Starbucks. Hmmm ... I'll think carefully about eating their food products again. Now, thanks to Andreas' post here, I just had a look at Cafe Paul's web site. Wonder of wonders! Paul delivers nationwide in Thailand. Not just the pastries, but also breads. https://www.paulthailand.com/next-day-delivery

I don't want to start a "food fight" on this topic, but I concur with @Patong2021's observations about the quality of baked goods at Starbucks. Always the taste of good quality ingredients. And always fresh, in my experience. @AndreasHG may not like Starbucks -- and there are many reasons to NOT like Starbucks, but the chain does maintain high standards for quality. That's one of the reasons it is so popular. But local restaurants of all kinds -- not just coffee shops -- don't have the oversight of a larger organization to enforce any quality standards. And so, in the face of inflation, locals find ways to cut corners. I certainly don't like Starbucks' corporate politics, not at all, but if I want a tasty snack, and there's a Starbuck's nearby, I'll head there for the good quality products.

Old timers in Chiang Mail will certainly know about this, but I didn't when I first arrived. So this is for newcomers. Amorn electronics shop also does repairs. Any electric / electronic equipment; not limited to what they sell at their shop. (But not mobile phones.) Service is dependable & careful, but likely not the cheapest in town. Recently I had an Hatari air filter repaired at Amorn. The main control board and display had died. I had expected long delay to get a spare part. But Amorn technician suggested a repair that completely bypassed the control circuit. Just installed two simple switches for "on-off" and "speed 1-2-3-4". Works very well. I've had other small repairs like that done at Amorn. Always pleased with the results. And pleased with the ingenuity and helpful attitude of the technicians. PS - For those who aren't familiar with Thai alphabet, it looks like the name is "O.H.S." or something like that. But asking where is "OHS shop" will get total confusion from Thais. The logo image above is a highly stylized rendering of the Thai letters, อมร = "A.M.R." Which in itself is confusing because in Thai language, the vowel "oh" is often not written, just assumed. So to save newcomers some grief, just show the red logo above to your Grab driver and you'll get to the right place.

Noticed the same. Worthwhile topic, @Patong2021. Thank you for posting about it. Increasing discussions of exactly this topic on web sites I follow which focus on food and nutrition. They use terms like "food inflation" and "fiat food". As a result of inflation in fiat currency, restaurants and manufacturers of food products switching to cheaper ingredients and cheaper processing methods than before. What to do?? 1. I've hired a private cook three years ago. She buys ingredients that I specify and follows recipes I specify. That has worked well, IFF I stick to eating food she prepares for me. 2. Buy ingredients from the best sources I can find in Thailand. We're very fortunate here to have some excellent vendors of quality foods. Three examples are: The Accidental Butcher for beef and lamb. Paleo Robbie for beef plus many kinds of fresh produce and prepared meals. Sloane's for meat and a few prepared foods like savory pies & frozen pizza. Those are in Bangkok, but they all deliver around Thailand by refrigerated truck. I'm in Chiang Mai and frozen meat reliably arrives frozen. 3. More beef: grass fed, hormone-free beef. Eat that, always feel good after eating. Eat something else, never know what to expect. So now eating a lot of quality beef. When I stick to that I feel good. But when I want a change of pace and eat restaurant food, problems, sure. As I am typing this, right now, the time is just after 5 AM. Restless, couldn't sleep -- one symptom. Needed to visit the toilet -- another symptom. Because last night for supper I ordered from a restaurant. A nice restaurant, but still, no joy in the food. Very sad to realize this, because I've enjoyed eating at restaurants most of my life. In younger days, even worked in restaurants. Now, no. Much better to avoid restaurant food and "ordinary" retail food such as that from TOPS, BigC, Lotus, etc. And it's going to get worse.

You are headed in the right direction. Apostile is a consulate matter, not an embassy matter. I can't be sure, but likely honorary in CM can handle it, so no need to go to Bangkok.

@scorecard - That "stamp" you are asking for is formally called an "apostile". It verifies documents for use in foreign countries. Normally done at citizen services department of your consulate, not at some local Thai government office. If the document is intended to be accepted in Australia, you would go to the Australian consulate here in Thailand.

I want to nominate this for Best Post of the Month award. No! Wait! I just looked at it again: Make that Best Post of the Year award!

I'm pleasantly surprised at very good experience recently ordering from Big-C online. If you haven't tried it, I recommend it. Big-C would normally not be my first choice to shop. But their web site was convenient, so I ordered. The web site is much easier to use, much cleaner user interface than TOPS or HomePro, by far. That was a nice start Delivery service was reliable and free, so ordered again. And again. And again. Today, I placed an order for delivery tomorrow, but I made a mistake in one item. I expected call center "hell on hold" for hours. Not at all. Pressed 1 for English, and a live person answered within seconds. Seconds! Her English was very, very good. Her attitude was helpful. She was thorough and careful to understand exactly what I needed removed from the order. I haven't had such good customer service in many years ... from anywhere. In addition, I've noticed that Big-C seems to be moving toward some better quality products. Not the typical bottom level quality in everything, as in past years. For example: My favorite apple juice is this natural style: Expensive compared to Malee brand, or Tipco, or Smile. I was surprised that Big-C carries such an up-scale product. But they do. Noticed plenty of other good-quality imported products on Big-C web site, too. Overall, I'm impressed, and want to recommend Big-C online ordering. https://www.bigc.co.th/en

Thank you, @BangkokReady for that reply. I appreciate having a better understanding of your approach to these matters. See ya'. - Old Curmudgeon

@BangkokReady - Excellent observation. And thank you for having the courage to speak clearly about this topic. I am going to respectfully disagree with you here. I started reading this forum (Thai Visa) in 2003 ... soon after it began. There were a few trolls back then, but very few. Every year since, worse and worse, until now, most threads are mostly trolls. Why? I respectfully suggest that the trolls are NOT pointless. Troll posts are actually wanted by forum management. And therefore, not removed or banned by our dedicated moderators. Why #2? Because quantity of posts translates into advertising revenue. No way to measure quality of posts, but easy to count quantity. More posts mean more money from advertising. A lot more posts means a lot more money. Without all those troll posts, the advertisers not would have the quantity they want to see. Those advertisers pay the bills. And without those advertisers there wouldn't be a forum here. So I say thank you to the trolls for keeping this forum alive. Those trolls put in hours, days, months and years posting their monkey chatter. But without them: no forum! So, what can you do to make your reading of this forum a better experience; not "pointless"?? "Ignore User" of course. Works beautifully So my response is to quietly -- without complaining -- ignore users. For example, here's what I see on this thread. Other threads are similar. What remains is usually worth reading.

Just for fun, I copied @JoseThailand's opening post and input the text into an AI bot. Then said to re-write it, as AI generated text. In other words, AI in reverse ! ! Here's the result:

@JoseThailand - Good observation, and, yes, certainly true: here and elsewhere. Here it is mostly opening posts on generic topics like shopping, sightseeing, or medical care. Most AI posts here are put up by managers of the forum in order to generate more and more posts as replies. However, in their defense, this forum is a profit-making business (I assume). In order to attract advertisers they need to show lots and lots of posts. Fair enough, I say. And, further in their defense, AI "content" is flooding social media everywhere. And not just social media. Even my email program offers AI generated writing service. Just tell it a topic with a few requirements and it will generate an email at any level you specify: family, co-worker, manager, senior executive, public announcement. If not AI generated, then human-written content is increasingly copy-edited by AI. As a result human-written content can end up "sounding like" it was written by an AI bot. A new "skill" for survival on the Internet is how to discern what is AI and what is real. And ... and ... AI will help you with that skill. You can input text into an AI bot and ask if that text was likely written by an AI bot or by a human being. So a good defense against AI is more AI ! ! Disclosure: Not one word of this post was generated by AI. Nor did I use AI to copy edit. So all misteakes in spellling and grammer are 100% mine.

@rodney960 - There are several possibilities to consider. Battery problem is only one of those. Another (but not the only one), could be faulty charging cable/connector. Cable connector may be dirty/corroded. So before spending money on new/rebuilt battery, check those first. If it is the battery, possibly you could replace the cells yourself. Since battery is dead anyway, nothing to lose. I did that recently. Repaired 3 Li-Ion battery devices with new cells bought on-line. 2 UPS power units and 1 mobile phone power-bank. I had no previous experience and no electronics training at all. The 2 UPS power units are likely near the size and power of your E-bike battery. So I'm posting encouragement to the OP to do it yourself.

Thank you for correcting my wrong assumption.

CANCEL this request / this topic. I found instructions to remove most of Google from my new Android phone without changing operating system. So no need to search for a technician in Chiang Mai.

I noticed "for sale" ad at Baht & Sold web site. 12-15 years ago, MOW4U was, by far, the best food delivery in Chiang Mai. Better restaurants and better delivery service than FoodPanda or Grab. Then, some years ago, MOW4U was sold. Seemed to me service and quality of restaurants declined, so I stopped ordering. Now looks like trying to sell it again. Restaurant delivery must be a very difficult market. I hope a sale will mean a "new life" for that service. But 3 million baht asking price! How many years to earn a return on that investment? https://assets.aseannow.com/forum/uploads/monthly_2024_12/image.thumb.png.39d9a7df23cf6f74726a426a2d74bbf3.png

Any one have any thoughts about Nana Bakery's bread -- compared to the three winners in the opening post. Nana bakery has six locations around the city. Friends who appreciate good bread say they make a decent loaf. I've never bought any, but maybe tasted it at some restaurant and didn't know. Would appreciate opinions from anyone who can compare Nana's bread to any of the three in the opening post. Here's the link: lhttps://www.nana-bakery-chiang-mai.com/