elektrified

There is a very good ENT doctor in the old city right near the moat. I was just there a couple of weeks ago with an ear infection. His name is Dr. Chalermpong.

We had a purebred GR here for 12 years. She was a wonderful dog and very smart. She's been gone for about 6 years now. If she wasn't indoors she was outside with complete shade. The one thing I will say is that there are a lot of ticks around Chiang Mai. Not like the ticks in the West. These carry a parasite that infects the dog's blood. We were constantly giving her injections and removing ticks as she loved to wander round the moobaan and swim in a neighbors lake. During certain times of the year she would come back with a lot of ticks. It was a lot of work.

Thankfully the Haya puppy market closed years ago.

Don't bother. 15 years ago I had a few Amex cheques which had been sitting around for a decade. I tried to cash them while in Europe where I received the most unfriendly reception! The bank was really unhappy that I wanted to trouble them with this antiquated procedure. As I recall, it took two days to successfully complete the transaction and I was charged a crazy fee to cash them. When I completed the ordeal, the woman at the bank told me that they would not be able to accommodate me (or anyone) again with travelers checks. No doubt it would be the same here. In fact I'm sure of it.

It will be interesting to see what you find. I live here and have been to Baan Tawai twice in the last 14 months. Both times, perhaps 70% of the entire village was closed or out of business. It was like a ghost town and a complete waste of time. There are some shops on the road from Hang Dong to Baan Tawai that are still open. I would try those first.

As I stated earlier (or in the prostate thread), the C.M. surgeon whom Lop refers to - Ajarn Bannakit - is not seeing patients at this time.

Once again, my apologies for the confusion! (I was reading a thread about prostate issues just above or below your post and confused the two). What I meant about the general anesthesia was only related to prostate biopsies. Of course all hospitals offer general anesthesia during surgery. But in Chiang Mai - only RAM offers general anesthesia during prostate biopsies. Best of luck with your issues. As I replied to the gentleman in the other thread who inquired about C.M. urologists in general.....for simple things, probably any of them will be O.K. For anything complex, I would go to Bangkok and seek help there. My urological issues were badly mismanaged here. And the technology has not progressed much in the 15 years I've been here. They may have 3T MRI here now - I'm not sure. They were discussing it for years. But Bangkok has many more urological experts and new technology available there.

Sorry, my misunderstanding. I thought prostate was mentioned.

Having had two biopsies, I recommend you have yours at Chiang Mai Ram. Ram is the only hospital in Chiang Mai that offers general anesthesia during the 20-30 minute biopsy. No other hospital has the required life support equipment in the radiology department and therefore will not give you general anesthesia. At RAM, the O.R. for urology procedures has all the radiology equipment inside. The biopsy will be ultrasound guided. If you don't get the Propofol IV at RAM (anesthesia), they will only give a quick injection of topical anesthetic and when the machine enters your prostate 12-20 times it will be uncomfortable/painful as hell. My friend described it as feeling like he was being bitten by a snake in his prostate over and over!

In my opinion, he was the only one who could really help in C.M. He was my doctor for many years.

Hi Sheryl, I've never had any cancer coverage on any of my policies over 15 years here? And as far as the Thai SS coverage, we witnessed a young (25-30 y/o) Thai woman (colleague of my wife) with Ovarian cancer die at a Chiang Mai Hospital. They said she needed 2 million Baht of imported chemo drugs to save her which government insurance won't cover. They gave her Morphine until she passed.

Actually Sheryl, Dr. Bannakit is not retired (he's still young), but he's not seeing any patients. He is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at CMU and is currently not seeing any patients. But not retired.

Lop, Ajarn Bannakit has not practiced for about two years now. He is the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at CMU and is currently not seeing any patients.

They do NOT cover expensive imported chemotherapy drugs.

No health insurance covers cancer in Thailand.

The first one was most likely Dr. Bannakit who is a very nice person and a kind, caring doctor who for many years was the most popular urological surgeon among male and female patients. But he is to be praised for the work he is doing now, including raising billions of Baht to rebuild and equip with modern technology the badly needed Sujinno Building at Suan Dok, and he is the International face/spokesperson of Suan Dok and CMU Faculty of Medicine.

If it's something minor then probably any of them will suffice (infection, etc.). If it's something major by all means go see a urologist in Bangkok (there are several well-known and respected urologists that are named in the health forum). They also have procedures available in Bangkok that they don't have available here. I've had extensive experience in the urology department here and my case was incredibly mismanaged. One main problem is that most of the well-known C.M. urologists here come from a "clique" at CMU where they all teach, they travel together to conferences around the world, write papers together and so on. Basically, they all think alike. You will not get a different opinion from any of them. In fact they will not even entertain an MRI interpretation if the radiologist is not a CMU Professor in their clique. The surgeon I liked the most and who helped me the most is now the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at CMU and sadly he no longer practices and sees patients - at least for now as he is still young. Another who is named above and whom inherited all of that doctor's patients when he became fully engaged at the University, never answers questions to my satisfaction. Once he even insisted that he had no knowledge of something when he was in fact the lead author/researcher on a study of that same subject and it was a published study.

O.K. 95% do.

I haven't used a bank book in 15 years. I did an extension recently and supplied 12 months of bank statements (200 Baht from the bank) as well as the letter from the bank confirming which deposits were International transfers (another 100 Baht). That was all that was required.

There is no automatic insurance and there is no signature. Without the signature I don't see how the sender could ever prevail in the event of a not-received claim.

e-Packet is only a few Baht less than Registered Airmail and less safe.

How on earth did you come up with that?????

He said that there is no difference in delivery time at all between the two. I forgot to write that e-Packet is also available at 285 Baht but with no loss/damage coverage at all and according to my friend, is not recommended.

O.K. I just called a friend who works for Thai Post. He said that "Rong Tabien" (Registered Airmail) to the USA up to 100 grams is 360 Baht and e-Packet "Plus" is 315 Baht. He said that registered Airmail includes up to 1,200 Baht loss/damage, signature, and that if the package can't be delivered, that it will be returned to the sender. e-Packet "Plus" includes 1,500 Baht loss/damage, no signature, and if the package can't be delivered, then it will be destroyed. I asked about Small Packet and he said "not available to most countries", and to the countries that it is available, there is no tracking and no loss/damage coverage. He said that the postal service always recommends "Rong Tabien" over any other service as it is the safest, can be tracked to every country except Australia and Canada, and will always be returned to the sender in the case of non-delivery.

For a couple of months it was indeed 990 Baht to the US if the package was under 50 grams. If you added a little weight and got it over 50 grams, the cost came down to 325 Baht. Since the start of Covid, prices have been going up and up. I sent a number of packages the other day; several to the US (now up to 360 Baht from 325). The clerk said that the Covid surcharge is the highest to the USA than any other country. I also had a small package around 70 grams to Belgium and it was the same thing; around 700 Baht for Airmail or 390 Baht for e-Packet but only 1000 Baht insurance and no signature. Someone mentioned small-packet rate: Good luck getting that rate. We have tried at about 4 different post offices and they always say "not available" regardless of the destination.