Digger

I was advised by a very respected and educated Thai who ran our company in Thailand, that Bangkok is the beginning and ending of Thailand as far as professional credibility is concerned. Basically what he was saying is that the best of the best will ONLY want to work in Bangkok. He was of the view that you will find the very best of everybody in Bangkok, in the provinces are the second tier of professionals and he spoke as someone from the North originally. My experiences have confirmed this for the most part. Anything important, go and see the best in Bangkok - the costs are comparable but the quality is much higher.

Specifically about BPH, you will find that they do have some good doctors and specialists who all troop down from BKK for one or two days a week. If your lucky you get to see them, if your not lucky, well good luck. For my money, if I was in Pattaya and sick, the first thing I would be doing is arranging an ambulance back up to BKK if at all possible. Having said that if I was in say a car crash at 2am I would elect to go to BKK Pattaya hospital - of all the Pattaya hospitals they have the most doctors on site 24 hrs a day - just hope they can handle your emergency. Forget Pattaya memorial - no where near enough expertise on site and Pattaya International is similar, but in between the two - what worries me is the emergency doctors at all these places that work the night shift - they dont give me any confidence that they can handle real ER situations effectively and for the most part single handedly. Things may improve for BKK Pattaya once they have that massive extension finished and they get better economy of scale and can justify having a larger ER doctor staff but I dont have much faith in any of them, particularly when a lot of their specialists are living in Bangkok, 90 minutes drive away. Thats what re-assures me about places like Bumrungrad, 600 doctors on staff and a very well staffed ER room, 24 hours a day with specialists on call and permanent 24 hr laboratory, theatre and radiology sections.

Incidentally an often overlooked fact is that in many hospitals they cannot operate a lot of equipment such as CT or MRI scans as they do not maintain 24 hr coverage for the radiologists that work the machines and interpret the results. So if u get taken to Bkk Pattaya at 2am odds are they cannot give you a scan as no staff to operate the machines they do already have.

One of the go-go bars on my usual drinking route has for reasons best known to itself sterted to employ a couple of ladyboys top stand outside and entice customers inside.

However I was dismayed on my lest visit to see the two aforementioned LB's dancing on stage along with the rest of the girls.

What on earth makes the owners/management of such establishments think that guys going into lady go-gos want to see a couple of blokes in bikinis dancing on stage.

I realise that there are people attracted to such things but why or why can they not just stick to the already established katoay bars.

This mixing practice has ruined Nana Plaza in Bangkok over the last few years I sincerely hope that Pattaya a gogos are not going to go the same way.

I'd hazzard a guess that your refering to Kitten a Gogo on Pattayaland Soi 2 - the irony would be if its that bar, that the girls are for the most part, so butt ugly, that the Katoeys would enhance the current offering

Its no surprise that they wear cat masks in that bar - but the really frightening part is when they take them off

Dr Mattana Hanvanich is an infectious diseases specialist who works evenings at Bumrungrad Mon-Fri. During the day she is an infectious diseases teacher at Chula uni med school. Very knowledgable and perhaps more importantly knows everybody - if she wants someone else to look at you, she will advise you who she suggests and odds are it will be one of the doctors also teaching at Chula and having private practice at Bumrungrad. She actually specialises in HIV, but her level of knowledge is amazing. This is not a 5 minute consultation doctor - she is very very thorough and speaks perfect English - expect to be with her for 20-30 minutes but beware as a result of this she is always running late - if you have the last appointment (e.g 7.45pm) odds are you wont see her until 10.00pm as she spends so much time with her patients. Consultation fee is between 400-600 baht and you must book to see her - she runs full appointments every day.

There must be half a dozen detached houses around Mabprachan that meet this criteria with signs up for rent/and or sale at the moment. Easiest to drive round the lake and just jot down the numbers on the boards outside said houses.

I'd concur with the general view that Maprachan is becoming the place to buy/build/stay in the Pattaya Suburbs - the local Tambon are very strict in what they allow to be built and it has the potential to become the definative high end suburb of Pattaya if things continue as they are (but of course, its a very big IF). Biggest plus factors in my mind are ease of access to Bangkok via 36/7 highways and the tight planning rules because of the resevoir (i.e no factories). Access into Pattaya is easy - straight down Siam Country Club and the Thai family owning Horseshoe Point Resort with their couple thousand acres, seem to have a steadying influence on what goes on in the district (i.e they are so loaded already, they dont need to do things to get a quick buck, which could endanger their long term land values). Infact I heard that Horseshoe Point are about to launch their own high end housing development very soon.

I always thought there was more than a slight irony when Harmonica asked/mentioned something about looking for a house for rent for around 10,000 baht per month or something pretty cheap for such a sure fire wheeler dealer.

I dont agree with your view - I would have thought this would have come under your own 'due dilligence' in assessing worth/return of an investment. The realtor works for the seller - they are selling a product and I for one would not take anything I am told as 'gospel' without doing my own homework. Its not really difficult - typical 2 bedroom 120-160 sq m condo in a mid range condo in Sukhumvit belt will be achieving approx: 50,000 baht a month up to 100,000 or even higher for some larger/nicer buildings. However one of the biggest factors is the quality of how you furnish somewhere - its no good buying a 20,000,000 baht condo and then putting crap Index type furniture into and expecting it to rent for 120,000 baht month - it just aint gonna happen. I remember when looking for my first condo in BKK, I discounted loads as they may have had fantastic bathrooms, teak wood from floor to ceilings, but none of them had an oven in the kitchen. By the same token, if you have a 30 sq m studio in a mass market condo without a kitchen, there is not much point in putting in a 42" Plasma TV as you will not get it back in rental income versus the initial expense.

BKK90210 - what is the signifigance of having a septic tank in a new house 20 odd feet away from the property? Based on current newbuild rules, any single dwelling has to have a plastic septic tank connected to 2 large concrete overflow tanks and the principal behind this is that the waste is broken down in the plastic septic tank and then essentially water overflows into the concrete tanks and then waste away through a gravel base. The theory is that these tanks rarely need emptying as the bacteria within the plastic tank basically eat the waste. Waste water (showers, sinks etc) do not run into these tanks, basically its just toilet waste. The plastic tank is 2/3rds filled with water at the outset to prevent the plastic tank collapsing under the weight of surrounding earth.

Also if the tank is 20 feet away from the house, thats a lot of distance for the PVC pipes to run when you considered the angles involved. i.e the further away, the deeper you have to bury the tanks (and higher risk of collapse and ground water seeping into the plastic and concrete tanks after a downpour.

With your engineering background I am sure you can explain because I have always been quite impressed by the approach taken here.

Top notch of course means serious money - an example is the firm I use - Deacons who are based on Sathorn in Bangkok - managing partner is guy called Harvey Price - very competent but as I say not cheap, however there advice is sound and they are dilligent and fast. Harvey is American born and getting on a bit but I believe he is very good at what he does. In terms of fee's as a guideline - partner hourly rates are somewhere around the 350US$ mark, more junior staff are far cheaper. Your probably looking at similar fee's with all the top flight firms.

They have a website at www.deaconslaw.com

I think that the service fee for the new Raimon Land development "Northshore" is 45baht per square meter per month - which will make it one of the most expensive condo's in the area, if not the most expensive. Basically a 100 sq m condo is going to cost around 4500 baht a month.

For what its worth I think many of the new developments in and around Pattaya/Jomtien are overpriced and in questionable areas - Siam Royal View is an example of a seemingly nice project but its in such a bad area - its almost beyond belief - there is nothing of any merit in that area and the idea of living in a 10-20 million baht place while next door you have 600,000 baht thai houses for the poor masses would not inspire me to buy there. That just seems to go against the principle of getting the worst property in the best road. Having said that, they are selling so someone is clearly not concerned but it would not be me.

It depends upon the company - funny enough I'd suggest that if your business head is a foreigner that you have more chances of being given the compensation without question than if he/she is Thai - disputes with the labour dept are time intensive and not that nice for the employer.

In my personal situation, I had worked continuously for a Multinational for over 10 years and had been in Thailand for 3 years - when we (read they) decided "on a change of strategy" - I negotiated full severence package as in my contracts it always stated that the start date was considered as the first date I worked for the company, not the first date in that country. Therefore, they had to pay me one years salary in compensation and it was paid/agreed without any issue - the lawyers they use confirmed it was the correct and proper amount. In reality, they could have tried getting away with 3 months as I had worked for them as a Thai employee for only 3 years. It was a very nice conclusion as far as I was concerned as I was actually planning to quit about 2 months later and I would have walked away with 3 months payment reflecting the terms of my contract as in the position I held, I would not have been allowed to stay and work out my notice.

I found that the JW Marriott in BKK tends to have the best burger - its not cheap somewhere around 400 baht including fries in the cafe/restaurant but the quality of the meat is superb - just the right amount of seasoning and fat content. Day to day, I find Burger King in BKK good but pricey compared to McDonalds - never have understood why that it is.

I've heard that about Big Pizza also. Is the crust thick or thin? The new shop accross from Carefour is also authentic Itallian. I tried it, was OK but not filling. Eight pieces to one pizza. very light. Not that I eat pizza a lot, it's just good to try different places around town.

Barry

When we visited Rome back in 1997, I ordered an individual sized pizza at a little sidewalk cafe, and was shocked at what I got. Nothing at all like what we Americans eat. It was a thin, crispy dough, with very little tomato sauce on it. It was very good. But it was truly a "different food" than what I call "pizza" here. Perhaps that was just that restaurant. I don't know. I only tried pizza there that one time.

Thats sounds like a quite authentic pizza to me - of course there are many regional variations wherever you go in Italy, but invariably the base is thin and its served quite crispy. Variations in the USA that I have had tend to be far more "doughy" but can be equally delicious, but they are not the same as what you would get in Italy.

I'd suggest a secondary mall on Sukhumvit but near to BTS and subway - the obvious thought in my mind would be Times Suare Building next door to the Sheraton. You have perfect access to both BTS and subway - easy car parking - Prominant location - unoccupied premises on the shopping areas, however I am not sure if they will permit alcohol to be sold everywhere - having said that there are restaurants in there but presume it must be OK. Its probably quite cheap as well given that its pretty old now but location is excellent and very little direct competition to detract people along the way from ever getting there.

Personally I have never been in Simons beer bars or even that complex - no car parking and wrong side of the street means its too hard - easier options elsewhere - no offence meant to those bars but its the wrong area in my opinion.

Yes it is normal that banks provide finance for such sized projects however they will only release funds based on % units sold - that way they minimise their exposure - a lesson learnt the hard way in '97 crash.

GA is not the most solvent of developers anyway and it appears they are getting ahead of themselves - again.

Price rise is simple - in Thailand if things dont sell, the price goes up to compensate for lower sales - i.e fewer people buying still equals same money to the developer. No logic in this but its how things work in Thailand.

25% of sales - yes for sure, but probably 50% of those have been sold at below cost to close friends, hoping to muck a quick buck when the thing is finished and the others are probably ficticious sales to keep the banks happy. i.e use some id cards, pay the deposit and hey you have 25% sold and bank advances first tranche of money to get things underway.

Incidentally, there is NO reason for a building project to be 1 year behind schedule if its correctly managed. Look at other condo's - they are more often than not coming in on time or within 30 days of when they said it would.

I had a feeling this development was going to turn out this way. Typical approach of an underfunded company who have ideas above their financial resources. This development is being funded by banks and customers not the developers money and if not enough have been sold and deposits booked and receipted, the banks will slow down the funds accordingly. Work will then slow down and this type of situation happens. I have said this before, but in Thailand, there is very little protection against this happening and dont for one moment ever believe the sales figure that your quoted as the first 25% of sales are to *friends* to make it look like its selling better than it really is.

Is this a Grande Assett management project? Probably the same will happen to their new project in Pattaya/Jomtien - If its them, they actually do not have much cash and cash is what gets things built, not assets on a balance sheet.

I hope I am wrong on this for your sake, but suspect I am not.

Dont know about new people working there but when I popped in for breakfast last weekend everything was fine and running well.

You can spend anywhere from virtually zero up to $400+ an hour for the senior partners in major corporate law firms in BKK. Really depends on how complex the purchase is and how much is the condo - if its a 2,000,000 baht condo, not always so wise using the services of a top flight law firm as their fee's may be around 300,000 baht. However if its a 30,000,000 baht condo - the law fees pale into insignifigance.

As an indication, a strong corporate lawyer such as Deacons charges anywhere around US$100 hour for junior associattes up to the $400 for the big partners. Benefit is that many of the big partners are westerners and so its easy to get along, they are fast and responsive but your paying a lot of money for that kind of service and there fee's are strictly by the hour, not per job.

Not defeating, but managing is probably a better word to use - HIV/AIDS still has no cure - medicines control the growth of the virus but they cannot eliminate it completely from the body in difficult to get to areas such as the brain, lymph nodes etc.

Having said that, its good news for people who have access to medicines and statistically confirms the general prognosis of HIV doctors - with access to medicines and good health care, a HIV patient is now considered to be living for as long as their peer group and to die of something not directly related to their HIV condition.

For the first time, a cohort study of people with HIV has found that a fairly substantial proportion of patients – namely those who maintain a CD4 cell count of over 500 cells/mm3 – have a death rate that is not significantly greater than the in general HIV-negative population.

The study analysed the mortality rate of 2279 patients in the Aquitaine Cohort, which comprises patients prospectively enrolled since 1987 in a hospital-based surveillance system of HIV infection in southwestern France. The selected patients had all started protease inhibitor -based antiretroviral therapy between 1997 and 1999 and their mortality rates were followed up until June 2003.

Of these patients, 549 (24%) were defined as Favourable Responders. This meant they had, to quote the study, “at least two CD4 counts over 500, no count under 500 and no viral load over 10,000 in the year preceding the last available data.”

Of these favourable responders, seven (0.7%) died. When compared to people in the general population of the same gender and similar age, this mortality rate was only 10% above normal – a non-significant difference. This yielded a ‘standardised mortality ratio’ (SMR) of 1.1.

Patients maintaining CD4 cell counts over 350 but under 500 cells/mm3 in the year before the last data had an annual death rate of 0.9%, yielding a SMR of 3.1, meaning that they were just over three times as likely to die as the general public; those with CD4 cell counts over 200 but under 350 cells/mm3 had a SMR of 4.8; and those with CD4 cell counts under 200 cells/mm3 had an SMR of 23.6.

The overall death rate in the group was 2.2% or 8 times what one would expect in the general population. Only half of the deaths were due to AIDS-related conditions.

The researchers merely conclude by pointing out that favourable treatment responders had the same mortality rates as the general population. However this study should add further to the evidence that people living with HIV who are on successful antiretroviral therapy or have good CD4 cell counts should not be treated as ineligible for life-insurance.

Reference

Lewden C. Responders to antiretroviral treatment over 500 CD4/mm3 reach same mortality rates as general population: APROCO and Aquitaine Cohorts, 10th European AIDS Conference, France, abstract PE18.4/8, 2005.

Richard - I am curious about the scenario you mention where people 'sponsor' a childs medications. Did anybody indicate what is the cost of such a scheme? Sounds like a good way of raising funds - I presume even people abroad could pay for medical treatment and get a real good feeling getting a letter from someone who's treatment they are paying for. Might be a good way of raising cash for the centre - kinda makes it easier to justify why somebody needs to keep up donations when its so personal.

Very moving summary as well - must have been tough for you but I am sure worthwile.

If I were him I would offer a monthly figure for looking after the baby - odds are regardless of any laws in Thailand if the mother started pursuing this in the US with a no win no fee lawyer things could get very expensive for him. If he offers to make some kind of payment, say 10-15,000 baht month - could be enough to allow her to keep whats left of her face. This is purely a hyperthetical scenario as personally I believe the guy should willingly face up to his responsibility - who else is to blame?

AIDS?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Surprisingly AIDS does not cause death directly, but indirectly through weakening body immune system. Other illnesses can then take over and cause death such as pneumonia, cancers and TB, that in a well person could be fought off. Therefore in most advanced countries cause of death is shown as for example: TB as an AIDS related illness.

Dont forget the simple but very real diagnosis of death is the heart stopping functioning - every other death is related to something causing this to happen - it is for that reason that people can be kept alive for years IF the heart is working - anything stops the heart working and you die - simple really.

Interesting fact;

For all the Airbus A-330s and A-340s in use around the world there's never been a single fatality on either aircraft with the exception of a test flight by Airbus itself. The only ones ever to crash them have been Air France. 

cv

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

777 has also never crashed to my knowledge