ThaiFelix

No, something is not quite meshing here. There are lots of slim possibilities, such as security forces, Buddhists, Moslems killing Moslems that wont join or even sacrificed to stir up other Moslems etc. But there is also the possibility that some 'hidden hand', possibly even outside the country, who is opposed to the present government, is trying to create instability and discredit to the govt. by paying off a couple of proffessional gunmen. Just my first thoughts.

Of course your first thought wouldn't have been one Mr. Thaksin by any chance.

Oh..theres a thought!

No, something is not quite meshing here. There are lots of slim possibilities, such as security forces, Buddhists, Moslems killing Moslems that wont join or even sacrificed to stir up other Moslems etc. But there is also the possibility that some 'hidden hand', possibly even outside the country, who is opposed to the present government, is trying to create instability and discredit to the govt. by paying off a couple of proffessional gunmen. Just my first thoughts.

I am going throw the cat amongst pigeons here. But this is a genuine. I have read many articles on marrying Thai women and sadly most give a very negative impression. Most of you would have read the articles. I am not putting bar girls down, but could we leave them out of the picture at moment. I am also well aware of cultural differnces. Are there Thai women who are looking for happiness? All women no matter whatever the country they come from are looking for security in a relationship. Gold diggers everywhere as well. I would like to see some input here from those who are in a happy relationship. in Thailand. These are genuine questions I am asking. So come on guys please come forward.

This is my 5th year married and all is fine and dandy. Ps she is my third wife so I know I'm a bastard to live with. Just dont rush into things, take your time to suss each other out, and impress with her that honesty is the best policy by far. Good luck!

I remember a few Years ago on the news, a woman actualy cut it off and sent it up into the sky on a hot air balloon.

Does anyone else remember this? Was it in Thailand?

Yes I remember it well, but I think a helium balloon, they had the Thai scouts and police cadets? looking for it for ages coz initially she wouldnt disclose how she disposed of it. She did all this to make sure it never ever met its master? again. Think they decided eventually it was premeditated lol

Bad money pushing out the good...

Let's look at it this way:

You buy exclusive goods so that you can: 1. show you can afford it 2. Have goods that others can't afford and thus become more exclusive

If counterfeiting allows people to appear to have a real item, this ultimately reduces the "value" of the original item.

If you see aperson with a Rolex now, do you think it's real or that it's a fake ? Personally, I assume it's a fake and this means fewer people will want to buy a real Rolex because they'll have people assume it's a fake and then defend the fact that's it's real.

So, the fake watch is driving out the authentic watch. People now look for other, more exclusive watches that haven't yet been pirated to the extreme.

Another case I can think of is Burberry. It was originally thought to be the domain of the rich and famous until football hooligans started to wear Burberry baseball caps and scarfs.

I bet the Burberry executives didn't rub their hands in glee at the "increase in sales", I bet they sat in shock horror as their market dynamics shifted and they lost the kind of customers they were after; i.e the ones that could afford Burberry outfits and not just baseball caps and scarfs.

No self respecting hi-so would wear something a football hooligan is also wearing.

Bad money drives out good.

Good post tango, I never thought of it like that b4. Thanks

Looks like there was a bit of a fracas with the Patpong street traders and the police last night. Only info I can find online about it on the ASTV site here (translated).

Background I heard is that they're upset with a recent clampdown on selling counterfeit items - 2 days notice.

BKK Post and The Nation have absolutely zilch on it so far.

zilch ???

what is that ?

It means zero, nothing, f... all, ie there are no news reports on the subject.

Thai hotels are offering better deals than before and Khao Lak certainly gives the Thai Resident 2,199 a night rooms as I was only there last week (it came down just after Songkran). However better deals are being given everywhere around the world as hotels are being hurt as people reign in their spending after the rape of the world by the US financial system gleefully and greedily replicated in Europe. SO now no one has much money except black market money, no one is looking to buy cars, overpriced property - especially here where the best you can get is a 30 year lease on poor terms and no real security of tenure especially if you have a lousy lawyer - and there are plenty of them.

So what does Thailand want? Another poster had it right - high end free spending quality tourists who stay in fancy resorts and put next to nothing in the local economies - their money is spent in the high end resorts because they basically trap them in there. Who is going to spend a hand full of cash on taxis to get to an alternative restaurant which are usually some good distance away from these high end resorts. Believe me the prices are astronomical for food.

What does Thailand not want? Single sex interested tourists, backpackers who haven't got a %^& to ^&*# in, long stay tourists, actually if possible just get the spending money from everyone before they leave their home country and don't let them travel would be the optimum solution. However the world is not a Thai utopia!

People get hung up on the Thais hurting themselves, in an apparently stupid show of intellect. The fact is those in a position to generate revenue for the local economy do'nt give a rats ass about their countrymen or much else as long as they have a good income (from various means!!!!) and secure pension. The lack of thought maybe because of sheer stupidity but I think it is more likely because of sheer ambivalence. Introducing extra charges by the banks (I don't care how many times you withdraw at once but carrying loads of cash on your person these days is lunacy and just asking for trouble), double pricing, overcharging by tuk-tuks (yes you guessed I live in Phuket), overcharging at golf courses (120 quid a round is plain stupid if you want some customers), overcharging at just about every place you go if you are a foreigner, a biased police force if any trouble befalls you and the 'Farang is always wrong and fair game to be ripped off' attitude by nearly every Thia you meet, and then make visas and rules about as complicated and open to corrupt interpretation as possible, does not make for the best impression. People are not stupid, they see these things - they notice and go back and tell their friends who end up picking a different destination (about the same as Spain 30 years ago and look where that attitude got THEM - whatever happened to Benidorm?).

Thailand's neighbours are doing a good job of improving their image, making visas more friendly, improving infrastructure and generally trying to be more foreigner friendly because they know otherwise they will lose their business. Thailand is doing the opposite - WHY?

The MOST beneficial person to have here is someone who lives here permanently (yes you need to make sure they are not taking jobs away and so on in a sensible fashion). These are the people who go to the local shops, often help out in the community and generally put money into the Thai economy - they are generally a benefit - they buy cars, support local restaurants and bars and local shops and businesses for day to day living items and building homes. These are BY FAR the most beneficial foreigners to Thailand and they are treated abysmally.

The NEXT most beneficial person to have is the mid range tourist - they stay in mid range hotels, travel around, might be with children and also spend in the local restaurants and so on - again putting money into the economy. I don't see so many offers directed at these tourists.

The NEXT is the backpacker - whilst not having much to spend he is your future tourist probably and travels around putting his small amounts of money into the local economies buying food and cheap accommodation - not chucking his money at the high class and often foreign controlled hotels.

Last on the list is the Sex Tourist - well maybe not last since at least he supplements the north eastern family incomes. The High Spenders come last in my book benefitting primarily the high end hotels and fancy shops with little trickle down benefit to the basic economy.

When Thailand finally gets it's kick up the backside which is rapidly on it's way, perhaps some rationality (yes a strange word here I know) might enlighten the minds of those affected to look at which side of the slice their bread is buttered and start treating their customers with some respect. Perhaps this hardship will bring some measure of pruning to the stupid visa rules (from Thailand's perspective AND that of the visitor or long stayer), some reduction in the racist nature of the society - for their nationalistic ways are racist - some simplification in business & property acquisition, and a fairer taxation regime that taxes foreign and Thai businesses on a similar footing in fact as well as in law.

I somehow don;t think a few hotel discounts are going to be the saviour of the tourist industry here. It is in for a very bleak time despite all the nonsense you here from the industry and it will need a SEA change in attitude from the top down to get things back on track. When Thailand stops being so egocentric and realise their weaknesses of which there are many, maybe some benefits may arrive

On the other hand don't hold your breath!!

Very good post IMHO slipperx, I enjoyed reading it.

Just let the market do the job, the big hotels are underpaying their staff for a very long time, so it is much better for the government to help these poor people instead of the fat cat Indian and Chinese who own most properties anyhow.

Underpaying? Have you run a hotel or business in Thailand? Do you know why the staff ratio in Thailand is 1:4 or 5 compared to western businesses? Before you come with statements like this, look into hard facts of average attendance, loyalty and punctuality of Thai workers. There is a very good reason why salaries are what they are in Thailand..................

Yes, I know. Its called 'foot-dragging'. Came upon the same thing many years ago when I was doing research into the affects of the Green Revolution in Malaysia. Generally speaking, when the workers' conditions or salaries are bad they rebel, quietly, by going slow at their duties, by sabotaging equipment, by feigning sickness, and through tardiness etc. They have no respect for thier 'master' nor his investments. It's international and timeless. They feel their jobs are not really worth keeping even though they have little choice.

On the other hand, those well treated and remunerated don't dare upset the apple-cart. They become a part of the 'company' and it's future determines theirs. 'When you're on a good thing - stick to it'

I just spent 3 days at a large hotel in Jomtien which was a complete nightmare in regard to the hotel's condition and poor service. Any complaints were met with 'please contact the agent you booked through, talk to them.' The staff themselves were very friendly but appeared to have their hands tied. Even from the initial booking stage there were problems choosing a hotel as emails were not answered or took days to reply, questions were never answered properly, nor comments attended to on booking requests.

To cut a long story short I think the hotels need to get their act together before going crying to the government just like the auto companies did. Especially in these trying times. Most people at the moment are either too scared to travel or just cant afford it. Those that do are met with bad service and tatty hotels.

An Unhappy Holidaymaker

take my wife...please!! just get her outa the house...I want my TV back!!!! hahahah

Fine him,jail him for a few weeks and deport him.We don't need anymore Aussies acting like pommies here.

Spot on Tritex !!

I was once told in Indonesia that the cops are paid low because the men are basically lazy. If they got a decent salary they would probably just get drunk with their mates and/or sleep their shift. The low pay means they have to go out and work so they could extract tea money to survive. Theoretically you have to break a law to get busted so the end result is the same... the cop works, laws get upheld, and he gets a decent pay. From what I have seen, this system seems to fit most of south-east Asia

The 90 day reporting is easy to forget and whether your a few days or a few months late it's the same 2k fine. Funny thing is there's no stamp in your passport. So when you go for your yearly extension how do they actually know if did the reporting? I've heard some ppl just don't bother.

This regulation has been on the books for ages, but they only started enforcing it about 10 years ago and they made it retrospective which meant a bit of a windfall.

When you go for your yearly extension,as I just did, they asked for my last 90 day reporting receipt, which I of course had with me. For many years living in Bangkapi i used to mail without aproblemas it saved me half a day missing work or using my day off.This suddenly came to an end. Whethr you mail or go in person to me makes no difference but we must remeber there is no logic in most decisons they make and can someone please tell me "why do they need to know your address ?" Can we expect a visit ?? I dont thinks so ,its a lot of nonsense.

Governments like to know where people, particularly foreigners, are in their country. And its for various reasons...security, even your own, or for your relatives if something happens to you, police investigations, etc etc. Thats why they always want to keep or copy your passport at hotels, resorts etc. Even if you rent an apartment long enough the manager will seek you out for a copy as well. The information is recorded and sent to relevent govt depts periodically. There are few countries in the world where some sort of tracking doesnt go on. I can even remember staying for months in a small camping ground in Spain years ago where I was curious as to why the police used to make midnight calls to the office every night. On an excuse one night I entered the office to find them going through all the residents passports and making notes. Its common.

I do not know how many other people have said this (I know at least one) but I wish to complain about the way Thaivisa gets people to visit the site.

The mass e-mail you sent out said "Breaking News: Samak to resign Thursday, Foreign Minister already resigned"

This was not true, and when you go to your site the "News" item said Rumour. To contact all your members as if it was true was a pure ploy to increase your visitor count. Anyone who has been a member of the forum for some time can see how commercial it has become. I have no problem with money making busineses but I believe you are deliberatly misleading members just to increase your profits. This mass e-mail was just one example.

Please be a bit more ethical in your attempts to make money.

Chris Heaton

I agree. I think its called media sensationalism!! Very disappointed.

Dont you just pity these people who dont have the mental capacity to handle both upper and lower case at the same time. These same people also still believe that 9/11 was an Islamic plot (I think its closer to 7/11 than Moslem myself). And why dont we ever read in the papers, or hear on TV/radio that a Christian or Buddhist kills farmer, soldier, women etc........ always Moslem? Remember the crusades!! It all smacks of dollars and hypocisy to me.

I have stayed in a lot of places in my 35 odd years of travelling and I have settled for Bangkok. I guess it depends on what your here for, or what you do with your time. I, personally, have never been happier. But one thing I do find a real bitch here is the amount of farang who constantly moan about the place. 'I dont like the food, I dont like the Thais, its too hot, it smells, the transport system is crappy, on and on and on'. What the ef are you doing here. I even had a farang who came into my soi a couple of weeks ago, was invited to sit with myself and a group of Thai neighbours (not my wish), was offered food and drink, and then proceeded to bitch about everything to do with Thailand. Who's the idiot? I am often embarrassed to be a farang because of you winging lot. Go home and do us all a favour. Go on, get out.

ThaiFelix

Is the same thing you can catch from drinking out of a can without cleaning the rim first?

I have heard said that rats p1ss can contaminate the top?

Yes, I have heard that most things are palletised and while in storage they are frequented by rodents who, while they can smell the contents, therefore attract, but cannot contact the product.

Excuse the ? but I always do what the Romans do in Rome. Use a straw. Ever noticed how Thais walk up stairways with their hands just above the rails but not actually touching them. They are ready if they need them but only as a last resort. Why? The sois around me used to get flooded every wet season and the locals used to get alarmed if they saw me caught out without my wellies and wading bare. Dont forget in Bangkok we live on a fine crust over a large delta, ie swamp. Being fluid everthing becomes connected, including sewerage. Add to that the heat and copious amount of urine and faeces (human, dog, cat, rat etc) a big city produces and you have a potent brew.

We are not locals and therefore not conditioned/immuned to these bugs IMHO. Back in Oz I considered myself completely allegy free, but here its a different story. I am a bit of a gardener but must wear gloves here as I get an extremely itchy rash in the web/sensitive parts between the fingers everytime I touch the dirt. I get throat infections a lot. But I notice that over time (4 years) the incidence and severity of both declines.

At the same time I agree with the earlier writer who said be more careful about the cars and motorcycles. Back in Oz I was always amused by the people who where scared of shark attacks but thought nothing of the trip to the beach. More people die from car accidents or bee stings than sharks. And cars dont spit you out after the first bite!

Its all statistics

Thaifelx

I'm a teacher and have always paid Thai price of 40 bht by flashing my ID card from school. Dont think they know what theyre looking at but I just say ajarn and they never quibble.

As for the OP and Neeranam's wife killing Rat Snakes, well that is just ignorance and a lack of education about the environment in which they live.

Go to Australia and anyone can tell you which snakes are harmless and which are not.

Have you had much to do with reptiles in Oz.??? I dont think so !

We regard everything as dangerous (which they usually are ) until proven otherwise.

Its very obvious that you have never been chased by a bad-tempered venomous snake , or struck at by a Chappel Island Tiger snake or a King Brown,I have and it is not a pleasant experience..

Its a bit late to reach for your Snakes of Thailand book or go Googling after getting bitten.

Nail the suckers first ,identify it later....

I spent over 3 years living in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, I found that EVERYONE knew about what reptiles were harmfull and what ones were not, they all had respect for the wildelife and environment and never killed harmless snakes out of ignorance and mis-understanding.

Totally agree. I come from West Australia and we were always given up to date info re what snake/spider etc was what and whether they were poisonous or not. The school I went to was alive with venomous Dugites and the gardeners were always chasing them out of or from under the classrooms. In fact the mates and I used to steal corrugated iron sheeting from the school demo yard and lay it out in the bush to attract legless lizards for Science projects and would often ponce on a dugite or tiger snake. I also farmed in the southwest which has more than its share of deadly tigers. The last few years I was in Oz I worked in the Northwest and saw many a snake at the plants I worked/lived on..........to cut the story short its like I said to my wife the other day when she wanted to reaarange the front yard after seeing a snake...How many people do you know who has been bitten by a snake? killed by a snake? none! We were always told in Oz that, generally speaking, people were bitten by snakes while trying to kill them or accidently standing on them..so tread noisily and dont try to kill em.

If you are really worried about the real killers in this world then keep away from bees, dont stand under coconut trees, nor swim with hippos, avoid US military, and most certainly keep your distance from those two and four wheeled machines that whizz down your Soi!! Snakes are too far down the list to worry about.

***But the body needs to be examined in more details to determine if he was murdered or died by hitting the floor.***

If you hit somebody with a stick and they hit the floor and die it is murder. What part of this is unclear?

So by corrolory...you push someone off the balcony is not murder as you did not kill them the fall did...

The medical investigation is used to determine Manner of death, i.e. Blunt Force Trauma and Cause Of Death i.e. Homicide. Not to protect her, but say she hit the man, blunt force trauma, but she did not hit him hard enough or without intent to kill him, yet when he fell THAT action caused him to die it could change how the case is prosecuted. Sure, it is still a homicide which basically means a human killing another human, but it can help or hurt her court case based on her intent. Thats based on the law in the States. I don't know if is the same in Thailand.

If you accidently hit a pedestrian while driving and they die because of their injuries, in essence you killed someone. Would you want it automatically prosecuted as a homicide? In fact it is vehicular homicide, you killed another human or caused their death, yet accidentally. I know it sounds messed up, but thats how they write the laws. So, thats why they have an investigation and collect evidence to prosecute the case.

Yeah that makes sense. Very well written/explained.

So let me get this straight... if I get shooved off the 10th story of a building, and say I die. The cause of death will be ruled, that I hit my head on the concrete and thus died? But the fact that someone caused me to hit my head will not be labeled as murder??

######.. who needs a hit man..

The person who wrote the news article obviously has a good, but limited ability with English. Still it says :"The police suspects that the Dane was murdered by the girl with whom he was fighting. "

The bit that follows was poorly written, but it clearly states that she is suspected of murdering him.

It doesn't matter whether a Thai is suspected of murdering or attacking a farang, or a farang is believed to have murdered or attacked a Thai... On the ThaiVisa message board the Thai will automatically be guilty based on nothing more than a poorly written, second hand news article (and often even less evidence than that) and the farang will always be the victim or else he will have been justified in what he did because of provocation.

Of course On TV, almost all the articles reported involve Thai on farang violence. The daily reports in Pattaya of farang violence seem not to be newsworthy.

Why not more stories like this:

A young Scottish national was drunk and driving a Honda Jazz car around Pattaya on 1st April. At approximately 3.30 am he hit a Thai man who works as a garbage collector leaving the man scarred for life.

The Dongtan police received a report early on Sunday morning from staff from a 7-Eleven stores on Jomtien Beach Soi 13 that an accident between a car and a local garbage truck occurred in front of the store and there was someone seriously injured at the scene.

On arrival the team found that the Honda Jazz car, driven by drunken Mr. Gordon James McCarry, aged 24, from Scotland, smashed into the rear of the garbage truck when the injured was standing behind the truck collecting garbage.

The injured man was crying in pain. He is aged around 50 and could not give any statement other than cry. Both his legs were chopped off from the hit and he had lost a lot of blood. The team had to quickly bandage his legs together and sent him to the hospital.

As for McCarry; he could not give any statement either since he was completely drunk. The officers measured up to 211 milligrams percent in him, which is way over the limit of 50 milligrams according to Thai law.

Probably the response would be that the garbage collector was not collecting garbage in a farang approved manner.

In the proper TV style, I'll speculate that McCarry's family bought his way out of this by giving the poor man's family some pittance. I don't know that that's true, but making wild accusations based on personal prejudices is sure fun, isn't it?

Kaojai thank you! I thought I was alone out here. How many times have we read a news report and had the whole story turned around the next day. And the lynch-mob well....there's egg in ya face!!

My sincere condolences to the family....a tragic loss.

Well, I have to be honest your product sucks just like all the rest of the products I have used here in Thailand and the USA. I just finished the patch treatment and ran to the store for a pack of smokes last week. I woke up yesterday morning and said to myself I can do this the reason I have failed so many times is because I trusted that replacing the inhaled nicotine in my system with one through a gum or patch had to be better. It's like anything when you set your mind and realize the truth about the situation and you really want change and are willing to change without excuse you can do it. I haven't had a craving yet which I did on the patch and I don't want to waste any more money on things that don't work or cigarette's this time when I feel like wasting money I take my daughter to buy something she wants. If your a sponsor of Thai Visa I'm sorry I just made that all up the lack of nicotine got to me.

Yes, IMHO you hit the nail right on the head there. The best stop smoking aid is your determination to stop. I think you are only fooling yourself by relying on a product (a crutch) to make it easy. When you fail you can blame the product..oh no I didnt fail. I would like to tell you my story to prove it.

I was a heavy smoker, 30 to 40 per day for 30 years, and decided I couldnt keep walking the white lines in the middle of the road without suffering the consequences one day. I have had quite a healthy life and I guess thats one of the reasons I kept up the filthy habit for so long. It just didnt seem to affect me. But at the same time I knew it could bite me any day. I had given up before but not for me....you know, the wife at the time, having kids etc. And oh I craved and thus was only successful for a while.

About three years ago I decided to give up (for me) again. It was around New Year. I have seen lots of people make New Year resolutions to give up smoking. But they resolve to give up for the New Year. They wake the next day (New Years Day) with a hang over and too tired to resist the urge. I had heard of people having success by resolving to give up at a nominated date that year, or even some time that year without giving a date. So I made a promise to all and sundry at the N.Y. eve party that I would give up some time that year.. Two days later I had a very bad back accident, and was confined to lying on my back for about 9 months. Now I had nothing else to do but smoke, read, smoke, sleep, smoke and watch TV while smoking. I had months of going to physio's and chiro's, ct scans, spinal injections etc...lots of fun things. As I was still telling myself that I was quitting later that year I found I was really psyching myself up, the cigs and my room etc started to stink more and more. Every time I lit a smoke I was sickened by the stench and found it hard to believe I could persist with such a filthy habit. My bed stank, the curtains were foul, everything stank.

After 8 months, as I (my back) was getting slowly better and I was able to walk somewhat again, I decided to nominate September 19 (Quit Day in Australia) as the date I would stop.

This also coincided with the time when the specialists were telling me to start getting in the pool and get some exercise to build up my back/stomache etc. By mid September I was swimming again and, funnily enough, the day before Quit Day I ran out of smokes and couldnt be bothered going for that last packet, so gave up a day early. It was so ###### easy I couldnt believe it and find it even hard to explain today.

I think the ease was a result of a combination of the long term brain washing I had been giving myself plus the need to get myself back into physical shape. I also think the swimming, (1 km every day for a while and even twice some days) plus the resultant endorphin effect, had put me into a very positive state of mind, making the whole thing so much easier.(fags also get soggy in the pool and wont light too good).

I had a strong desire to feel fit and healthy, which left no room for smoking.

Now I did stumble for a while. Not long after arriving here in Thailand (6 months after quitting) I was captured and led astray by some local women content on forcing me into a life of depravity and sordid behaviour and I was also tempted into smoking again for a while as it seemed to be the least of my concerns at the time. I did however manage to escape after a month and stopped smoking again, and as before, with the aid of the swimming pool. I have continued smoke free since and swim about three times a week now.

So I guess what I am trying to say is you have to be determined, give yourself a good reason to quit, concentrate on the negative side of the habit, over a period of time beforehand, and replace the filthy habit with healthy one that makes you feel good.

I wish you all the best in your determinations.

"What's your favorite piece of advice from your father?"

One of my father's classics was:

Son! Buy as much land as you can and keep it for as long as you can

I wonder if you have been given any pearls of wisdom to say pass on to your kids

Lets hear them

If its got tits or wheels, its bound to cause problems.

"What's your favorite piece of advice from your father?"

One of my father's classics was:

Son! Buy as much land as you can and keep it for as long as you can

I wonder if you have been given any pearls of wisdom to say pass on to your kids

Lets hear them

"Before borrowing money from a friend, think what you need the most."

"With the yanks as your friends, you dont need an enemy"

"DONT SMOKE!" (But I did of course)

and for marriage..."Why buy a cow when milk is so cheap"

I caught dengue last year in pattaya, it was the most miserable and painful periods in my life, all my joints ached all my muscles ached, a deep depression and the worst part of it was that there is no treatment, it took 12 weeks to clear up and i have had small recurrences ever since maybe 1 or 2 days each time, this apparently was the weakest or less debilitating of the various strains of dengue.

A very horriffic thought is that each time you contract it, it increases in severity finally ending up in a haemorragic type disease similar to ebola, to which there is similarily no treatment and eventually death.

Mosquitos breed in stagnant water, i have ensured that none equists around my house, even down to long lasting puddles on the road, we make sure that we put small fish into any other water collection or pond to eat the larvae. Half a cup of kerosene floats on top of our water supply has the same effect as does a similar amount of salt. we also have UV zappers in each room.

So far so good and since then ,there does seem to be a noticeable decrease in mozzies.

Maybe these precautions seem extreme, but if you are ever a recipient of this disease you will not disagree.

---------------------------

I have also had dengue. Four years ago in Samut Sakorn. Similar symptoms to yours I was in bed for three weeks. For a good part of that time I was dreaming that I was floating on a raft in the ocean, burning up under the sun.

Excrutiating joint and soft tissue pain. I'm not sure what my temperature was but I'm sure it was the highest fever I ever had. My Thai relatives were "taking care" of me. They thought I had SARS.

I tried to explain that it wasn't but it was impossible to convince them.

EVEN THOUGH I'M A PHYSICIAN. Once a Thai doctor made the diagnosis they believed it. No cough duh!

Very,very, nasty. Even worse than ameobic dysentery contracted in 1974 in India which almost killed me...

Ah yes, amoebic dysentery, I remember it well.....Morroco 1976. The very best delirium money can buy (or not) !!!

I checked with the wife: she says she didn't feel a thing

That's funny as she told me she certainly felt the earth move....

Nah, it was only with 'margin' that she didn't feel a thing