billd766

Well, after coming to me and hearing that I didn't have any medical insurance (as it was an uninsurable pre-existing condition) the surgeon talked with his team and decided that he should cross two of the listed probes off the bill.

I have a suspicion that the team has a bit of the Robin Hood spirit of robbing the rich to give to the poor.

There is a long-standing tradition of this in the medical world. Before the National Health Service, there were lots of stories about it in UK.

Clearly, it would be quite easy for the theatre team to load a few unused probes on to bills that are being paid by insurance companies, and so build up a stock that they could draw on to help out in a needy case.

If I were a cardiologist, I would do that rather than having to stop trying to bust a blockage, just short of success, because I had used all the patient could pay for.

(The surgeon had to ask me in the middle of my operation whether he should carry on trying, because he had already run up such a bill. My answer was: "You carry on hammering at the plaque, and I'll hammer the credit cards". And my thought was: "Bugggerr the Banks. Defaulting on card payments is not something for which Thailand would extradite me, surely.")

I went to the Bangkok heart hospital and a Dr Witaya Jongsupangkarat did mine. Including the room and op etc it came out at 286,000 baht more or less.

I had a deluxe room on the first night as there was nothing else but went to a standard room after the op but I only paid the standard rate. I made a small error in not placing a big deposit when I booked in assuming that my Kcard would pay all the bill in one go. It didn't happen as I could only get 100,000 a day from the account and I had to go back the day after I was discharged to pay the rest.

My only bitch is that I have to take 3 1/2 pills in the morning and 2 at night and the hospital prices are outrageous. When I go to the pharmacy on Sukhumvit I only pay about 40% of the hospital price.

The government may have to create a new Ministry of Inactive Posts so that all the departments will have to transfer their inactive staff.

I wonder how big that would be?

Well said, 'billd766':

"If you are correct why is it that when I was having heart surgery earlier this year she brought down all the bankbooks including her own and all her gold to sell just in case there was not enough money to pay the bill."

Same thing happened with me. And while they were closing me up again after blunting several US$500 probes during angioplasty, my wife was persuading the surgeon to " give Special Price, please"!!!!

I would never have dreamt of trying to haggle in a Regional Heart Centre, but TiT!!!

Martin did your wife get a special price for you in the end?

I wish my wife had thought about it.

I am going to have a traditional English/Thai sunday lunch of either yesterdays left over liver, bacon, onions and potatoes or the real sunday lunch of sausage, bacon egg and fried bread. After that I am off to a friends noodle stall to meet my family and scoff a couple of bottles of Leo beer and 7up, then the (also) traditional sunday afternoon siesta.

Tourists killed in Hat Yai bombing, Military Coup, tighter visa laws...

I think tourisim is going down whether they like it or not.

I don't think now would be the time to add to the ever expanding amount of bars here.

Did this all take place under the caretaker government?

If the bombing In Hat Yai was done by the militants from the South why did the previous government not talk to some of the leaders instead of ignoring them. The task was given to the military and then second guessed and micro managed by a person or persons no longer in the country.

The majority of the Thai people (84%) or so seem to welcome the coup and if my mathematics is still working, of the 66,000,000 people in Thailand, 55,000,000 thought it was a good idea. What happened to the 16,000,000 voters who voted TRT last time then?

The tighter visa laws will only affect a relatively small number of people and real tourists are not affected in any way.

At this stage nobody really knows what will happen in the weeks and months to come.

The CDRM say they will be out of it in a couple of weeks as soon as they can get a fresh and fairly honest government in place after which the 1997 constitution will be revised and updated, something that Thai acedemics and some of the original constitution writers wanted.

Give them a chance to do some of these things. You never know, we all may be pleasantly surprised.

but are they in love?

Sure! With your money

So what you are saying really is that every farang living with, engaged to or married to a Thai woman is only in that position because Thai ladies only stay with farangs for their money and nothing else.

Can you please tell every one of us how you have reached this conclusion?

I am confused as I thought my wife who I have known and loved for over 13 years was with me because she cared and loved me in return.

If you are correct why is it that when I was having heart surgery earlier this year she brought down all the bankbooks including her own and all her gold to sell just in case there was not enough money to pay the bill.

I've had a look on Google Earth, and from Asoke BTS there doesn't seem to a great difference(as the crow flies) in distance to either airport.

Crows can fly in a straight line but the traffic has to follow the road system, stop at red lights and get stuck in traffic jams. Crows don't have that problem.

I live up in the central region about 60 km southwest of Khampaeng Phet and in the village it was market day as normal except the bank was closed as were the schools.

I went on down to Nakhon Sawan and it was the same in Big C.

Up here it seems as though nothing has changed (and it probably hasn't).

austallia_1980 Posted Today, 2006-09-20 22:34:55

I am shocked at how happy and proud Thais and Farang are of the Thai Military's decision to declare Martial Law and interfere with the democratic process.

Why are you shocked?

As far as I can see Mr Thaksin has subverted many government officials and indirectly and directly changed the laws of the country to suit himself and his friends.

He has tried most years to change the military promotions list and promoted family and friends into positions of authority in the police and military.

I think the term I am looking for is som nam na.

Our son was 2 on 1st August and he is sort of tri-lingual with a Thai Mum, English Dada (who sometimes speaks fractured Thai) and some Muser hilltribe people who work for us.

When he first meets strangers he doesn't say anything but once he knows you he won't stop chattering.

When he sees the 18 wheel truck/trailers he says Mae, rot yai yai but for me it is Dada big, t..uck as he hasn't quite got the R sound yet.

He chatters more in Thai but that is because he is with his Mum more than me, but he is getting there.

Kids, I love them (spit roasted so the fat drips off and there is some nice crackling).

I couldn't eat a whole one though as I can't find bread big enough for a sandwich.

My first car was an old Ford Thames van similar to the one in the photo. It cost me the princely sum of £17. 10s. (£17.50) The original engine had been replaced with a 1500 Lotus Cortina somehow shoehorned in and mated to the original 3 speed box, the brakes were not touched - it would go but had trouble stopping! I kept it for about 9 months before selling it for about £40

There is one similar to that on Sukhumvit 81 or 83.

My first car was a 1939 Standard 8 that I paid £7.50 for. MOTs had not been invented, I was too young to have a licence and to stupid to have insurance.

I caught the rear wing on a Jaguar Mk 5 and ripped it off my car, the jaguar was unmarked.

3 days later I parked around by the council offices to pick up my girlfriend and a nice man in a blue suit spoke to me about the licence and insurance that I hadn't got. It cost me £15 and a years ban in 1963. See I said I was stupid.

I live relatively close to the new airport (a little before, in fact) and it routinely takes me 1h 15 mins to get home and sometime 2 hrs from Wireless.

So basicaly this new airport is further and takes more time to get to Sukhumvit Soi 11 than from the present airport, right????

Basically yes it is. From the old airport you could take a taxi up onto the expressway for 20 baht, though the Din Daeng toll booth, another 40 baht and come down by the railway line at Sukhumvit soi 1, then up to soi 11.

Rossarin Vaitayanon, 78, said she and her friend hired a taxi to go to

the airport and wait for her to return for about 800 baht from Bang Na.

Bloody hel_l thats a bit steep, Bang Na's only just up the road!.

kinda begs the question ..... ~~Bangna--airport--Bangna~~ ... now long was the wait?

but still ... $20USD ... not insane

What do you mean $20 USD ... not insane.

Are you insane? 20 bucks to go 5 miles. This could dramatically inflate the ecomomy even worse. You can rent a songtaew elsewhere in the country for that much for half a day.

Westerners (or at least those with Western mindsets and wallets) destroy the economy by willingly paying too much for goods and services. This means that taxi's and shop keepers only want to provide services to stupid (khii nok) farrangs. It means that the majority of the population (living on 3000 b/month) either have to pay their life savings on piddling things or ... well there isn't much alternative is there because the MRT doesn't go all the way to thei airport yet. In the end, silly Westerners who thought they were being generous, wound up inflating the economy beyond control. Soon we will see greedy restarsunt owners only paying their employees with the tips they receive the way it works in America.

If the lady was 78 years old and hired a meter taxi who kept the meter running while waiting it would depend a lot on the waiting time but 800 baht is not unreasonable.

Most taxi drivers do not own their taxi but rent it or share the cost with 2 or 3 others.

Bear in mind that it was a THAI national who hired the taxi and not a farang, in addition to which it is more than 5 miles from Bang Na where traffic on a good day is very bad. I know because my wifes family live in a soi off the Bang Na Trat road at km 7.5 and I don't like going there either but I do because they are family.

There are no songtaews that go to the airport, very few buses as yet, no BTS or rail link so how else is a 78 year old lady going to get to the airport and back. Walk???

I am not sure how you made the leap from a 78 year old Thai lady hiring a taxi to Westerners destroying the economy by paying what the meter reads in a taxi to the majority of the population living on 3,000 baht a month. Most of the taxis I see around Bangkok have Thais in them unless I am in an area frequented by Farangs.

When I arrive at the airport I always get a taxi and make sure that he uses the meter at the rate set by the government, not off the meter at the rate the driver wants to charge.

Also how strange that Westerners by being generous are inflating the economy beyond control and not the price of oil and anything imported. I must stop giving a 40 baht tip to be shared among 8 bar staff the next time I go out drinking for 5 hours.

...Sunbelt posted his list of required documents in this thread...

List of Documents for Marriage Visa (Thai Wife)

...

6. Letter from Thai Bank stating that your account has no less than Baht 400,000 balance or letter of guarantee of pension income from your Embassy. Making an annual sum of no less than Baht 400,000 Baht.

Sunbelt mixed together a requirement for support Thai Wife (400K) and a requirement for retirement (pension income) and will probably come back to correct it.

For support Thai wife it is in fact 400K, brought in from abroad, or local, tax-paid income of 40K per month, or a combination of both.

No age limit on extension for support of Thai wife but several posters older than 50, some older than 60, have indicated that Immigration tried to convince them to extend for retirement. However, if one already has a job at the time of application for extension or if one makes it clear that one wants to keep that option open, there should be no problem in getting an extension for support of Thai wife even long after reaching the age of 50.

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

Maestro

I am 62, my wife is 41 next month and our son is only 2 (and came as a big and very welcome surprise to us both). I renewed my Thai support visa last week after a 1 month wait and it is usually 6 weeks. Nobody tried to convince me to try for a retirement visa instead of a support visa.

For anybodys information when you come back on the required date you do NOT need a ticket from the information desk. You go just inside room 101 to the right and pick up a pair of tickets and attach 1 to your passport and put the passport in the tray. Immigration will collect them in batches, get them signed and stamped then call the number. If you are not there the passport is left in a white tray until collected but there is always someone there except fo half an hour at lunchtime.

There is no such thing as a "marriage visa". There are two situations that are commonly called this.

1. Multi entry O non immigrant visa issued by a Consulate to visit (in this case your wife). This allows 90 day stays for the validity period of one year from visa issue date.

2. Extension of stay to support Thai wife issued by Immigration. This provides a one year stay and can be renewed each year. No exit of Thailand is required.

I was on option 2 and a renewal. From the renewal I went back and got a multi-re entry visa and then completed my 90 day report (what a good boy I am). To complete all 3 tasks was nearly 2 hours but I did get there at lunchtime. The re-entry permit was a belt and braces thing because 3 years ago I forgot one and had to start all over again.

There have been times when it has taken me 2 hours from Sukhumvit 101/1 to Sukhumvit 22 especially in the evening.

I would take the route from the new airport via the eastern ring road to the On Nut turn off, then all the way down to Srinakharin and turn right along Srinakharin to the Pattanakhan road. Follow that into new Petchburi and along to Sukhumvit soi 3, turn left up there to opposite Bumrungrad hospital and across into soi 11.

An alternative would be coming along the express way past Sukhumvit 62 towards Din Daeng and come off just at the Sukhumvit road keeping to the right after the turn and up onto Petchburi road then right into Sukhumvit soi 3 and up to soi 11 that way.

Most times of the day the traffic is a bitch so plan on at least 1 1/2 to 2 hours and you will be OK.

The fast train/BTS link is still quite a while away.

I asked the bank for a letter stating this and they said it would take a week...

That’s a funny bank.

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

Maestro

I have an account at Kasikorn bank in the village and I waited about an hour as it was only the second one they had done. My letter last year was the first.

I also have an account at Bankok Bank near Sukhumvit soi 8 and that was done while I waited.

Kbank 100 baht, BKK bank 200 baht.

Hi guys, me again!!!

I was just wondering on how you all make a living in the LOS,

I'm guessing, but not sure, that you're all living on income based in your home countries?

eg rent or pension or investment?

Please don't shoot me down in flames, but how much does 'normal' life cost

out there, average home and average tastes etc?

Thanks

David

Best to come over for a holiday and see for yourself. You will never get the answers asking

others, who may prefer a more luxurious lifestyle than you. Or folks who simply cannot

afford an upmarket lifestyle.

Naka.

Actually Naka strangely enough there are a lot of people who can afford an up market life style but are much happier with a more simple life and I can speak from experience.

David, Naka is correct in what he says but if you are married and your wife wants to live in "her" village it will take a lot of getting used to but if you can adjust to it, village life is much slower and more relaxed but not so many western conveniences to hand certainly in the food department.

There is a thread running about village life if you care to read it.

billd766

Sorry double post

I live in the north of Central provinve about 60 km southwest of Khampaeng Phet about 6 km from the "proper" village.

My day begins when I get up between 6 and 7 in the morning, open the shutters and doors, clear the dinner dishes from the big house table and take them up to the Thai style kitchen at the small house and then feed the 3 dogs. We used to have about 15 but the attrition rate is high and it is survival of the fittest.

Then I wander over to the fish pond for a look at the fish, then back to the main house for a shave etc.

A morning mug of Earl Grey tea goes down well with internet, TV, emails and sometimes I hear my 2 year old son playing upstairs while his Mum tries to sleep a bit longer. Either they will come down or the guy that works for us will come and get him. If he doesn't then I will have breakfast shared with my son while he watches Uu ta hatee (spelling) or Chang in English which is favourite movie while my wife has her first breakfast, a Marlboro lite and coffee (she gets crabby without it and snarls a bit).

After that our workers wife, son or daughter clean the house while I catch up on odd jobs or go to the village for some shopping. My wife generally goes to the market on Monday, Wednesday or Saturday for fresh fruit and veg while I go to the village with our son to get local stuff using my fractured Thai and the locals using fractured English. Somewhere in that time I usually give my son a bath or a "grown up" shower.

Lunch is either sandwiches if my wife doesn't do something or sometimes we go to a friends noodle shop for fried noodles and a bia Leo with 7up. The afternoons are lazy because it is very hot up here around 36 unless it is raining when it is cooler but I run around closing the shutters to keep the ran out. Our son generally sleeps for a couple of hours in the afternoon and I keep an eye on him whilst surfing the net and playing computer games.

I feed the dogs then shower around 5:30 to 6 then we have a whiskey and soda or two before and during dinner which is usually Thai but not too hot for me and the brat. Our son gets bathed or showered again and we play with him for a while but he now likes to watch a programme on ITV with ghosts etc.

My wife and son usually go up to bed around 8:30 while i surf a bit more and go up around 10 to 10:30 and read for a while before sleep.

Our friend from Denmark is here for about a month and lives on the next plot but one and other than him I probably may not see another farang unless there is any in the village for weeks at a time.

Sometimes we go to a friends place 15km away for food and draught Leo or to our Danish wifes restaurant and Karaoke or next door to the resort but not so often.

Occasionally I will get an offshore job for 3 to 6 months and then "rest" for a while.

We have 15 rai where the house is and grow bananas, pineapple, squash, papaya, chillies, man and a few other things I have no idea what they are called plus the fish. The other 11 rai is planted with man (taro, tapioca ?).

My wife is thinking of planting trees after we harvest the man this year but it will be a long term project for our sons future.

Would I live in a city again? Not a chance unless I was working and got paid for it.

I love Thailand and especially here at home.

I don't have a landline, ADSL etc and I use my Nokia 6260 to connect to the Internet using GPRS.

Can I use skype while I am up on the Internet?

thanks again all for your replies.

just really makes me wonder if this country will actually progress into a reasonable society, or just become more and more messed up.

and the Thai authorities could not care less.

I think it is about role models and what is acceptable behaviour as agreed by a society in general,

not necessarily written in law.

Where is the Nelson Mandela/Aung San Suu Kyi/Ghandi for Thailand?

someone to show the way.

This from someone that runs a bar full of hookers - pot, kettle, black ?

Is this acceptable by society in general ?

Pedro

I went back to the OP post 1 and I could only find that he had 1 girl apart from the cashier working for him and that was the one that went next door.

Where did you find a bar full of hookers from?

Read posts carefully before repyling, it sometimes helps.

The details get worse...turns out it's now 4 years old and into it's 5th and I've found out that the high mileage is because it's been used by a marine repair company transporting parts long distance to and from Phuket - and driven by lots of diiferent employees at that.

Amazing how it's transformed itself from a one lady owner, 3 year old 4X4 bargain.

Do I still want it? ....err, let me think a nano second, NO

Thanks to everyone for their input - Not one of you said go for it... and I've listened

Geoff

It all depends on what you really want. This one sounds to me as though it is a bit of a dog and not regularly serviced.

My Thai wife told me never buy a used car in Thailand unless you know the owner and car very well.

It reminds me of buying ex military vehicles, one careful owner, (the government) and 100 careless drivers.

Mine has about 135,000 on the clock but it is one owner from new and regularly serviced.

There has only been me, my wife, her brother and her Dad driving it. I used to use it for working sometimes and a lot of weekends I used to travel 800 km to home and back to BKK.

geoffphuket

Cheeky Farang

Who gave you permission to take that photo of my wife and her sister?

I can say that as she is upstairs and not looking over my shoulder.

The details get worse...turns out it's now 4 years old and into it's 5th and I've found out that the high mileage is because it's been used by a marine repair company transporting parts long distance to and from Phuket - and driven by lots of diiferent employees at that.

Amazing how it's transformed itself from a one lady owner, 3 year old 4X4 bargain.

Do I still want it? ....err, let me think a nano second, NO

Thanks to everyone for their input - Not one of you said go for it... and I've listened

It sounds to me as though it is a bit of a dog and not regularly serviced.

It reminds me of buying ex military vehicles, one careful owner, (the government) and 100 careless drivers.

Mine has about 135,000 on the clock but it is one owner from new and regularly serviced.

There has only been me, my wife, her brother and her Dad driving it. I used to use it for working sometimes and a lot of weekends I used to travel 800 km to home and back to BKK.

geoffphuket

Cheeky Farang

Who gave you permission to take that photo of my wife and her sister?

I can say that as she is upstairs and not looking over my shoulder.

Agree with much of this

First POWER

What about love, trust and friendship.

My wife and I are buying a house for the two reasons of growing family we need the space, and second it is in the long run better to own than to rent.

Sure the house is going to be in her name, that's the rule for houses, and if the worse came to the worse that would be her asset.

I think what some of the posters seem to want is no responsibility so they can walk away without any costs, or they are afraid of the woman not being what they hoped for and only "in it for the money"

If that's the case it is rather sad.

Bill by the by seema a nice guy! The one thing that makes the nappy change fun is that my baby keeps smiling through it all never mind what lurks down there!

I also agree with a lot of the posters have said, however with POWER comes RESPONSIBILITY. If you want to control the relationship then you MUST take full responsibility for what happens and that if the relationship fails through money or property then ultimately the buck stops with you.

As loveandlaughter says above, our home and land is my wife and sons asset which I freely gave the money for, without bothering about power, control or cash simply because I love my wife and now my son.

BTW loveandlaughter, thank you for the kind comment and I need your help, as I think my son ate a dead rancid elephant last night and my wife is out so I guess I have to go back to the nappy mode again.

I still love him but............ phew. Kee mak mak

Sorry, it's just not going to happen. We don't get any money for ours

wayner Posted Yesterday, 2006-09-04 23:42:27

Hi Folks

Hope this is the right place for this question.

My wife and I have just had our first child in the UK and are now receiving child benefit for him.

We are planning to return to SE Asia soon and wonder if we would have any difficulties continuing the claim. I'm aware that we are not entitled to it. (Seems ironic that people now coming from places such as Greece or Poland to the UK can claim benefits for themselves AND child benefit for children at home in their respective countries - I'd like to make it clear that I do not resent this in any way but I am dissappointed that we're not entitled because we're not in in Europe)

I'm just wondering if anybody from the UK has any advice or personal experience in this matter.

Thanks jap.gif

Me neither and I did talk to the correct department and they apologised and said that the law regarding this specifically forbids payment of Child Benefit outside of the EU and those countries with a reciprocal agreement with the UK.

When I receive my UK pension it will not be increased either.

I actually do resent this as I have paid up all my contributions for 44 years and I will only be able to get the basic married couples pension with no increases ever until the law is changed.

I have a Ford Ranger 4x4 double cab with a 2.5 turbo diesel engine that is 4 1/2 years old but no carry boy.

I have had it regularly serviced and it had done about 137,000km and I have had only a couple of problems in that time. The most serious was a steering problem that caused the n/s/f tyre to wear badly and that was fixed under warranty and the original remote alarm and the 3 following ones lasted less than 18 months, but they were not original Ford items.

Somebody stole the spare wheel and tyre so I bought a lock when I replaced it. I ordered a spare wheel and that is what I got, then of course I had to buy a tyre. TIT.

I changed 4 tyres at around 120,000 km and there was still a bit of tread left.

I get around 9 km/ltr overall.

I wish I could afford a new one as there is now a 3 litre turbo diesel with an auto gearbox but it is top of the range and around 900,000 baht.

My wife wants a people carrier next like the Kia Carens.

I am more than happy with it and if I could I would buy another.