humqdpf

This is very old news for any patient treated in a hospital. I hope that those in an outpatient situation, capable of getting their own medication, get a script or note of the name of the medication from the physician to obtain the medication from a pharmacy outside the hospital. The mark up on medications within the hospital situation is a bloody disgrace. And over-prescription would have me suspect that physicians are on a kickback but would I suggest that???

It is also old news that equipment that has to be prescribed will often go through a company that is associated with the hospital where you were treated. Getting a prescription for the equipment so as to go elsewhere is very difficult and foreigners run into the usual problem of how to assert themselves without becoming angry and without letting the Thai doctor lose face.

on an international flight to suvanabum airport last week arriving at 10PM, the immigration stalls were empty til our arrival. I have never ever arrived to find my flights passengers are the sole entrants.

I did the same. For the first time I could not help noticing that the queues for foreigners at the immigration stalls were about the same as the number of Thais!

Although not a scientific analysis, I noticed that the numbers in Bangkok and in Hua Hin were way down and were mainly locally based expats.

<deleted>?????????

What are they going to do with him???

They are going to force him to reinstall their broadband connection to their TV station and ultimately get their TV station back to full broadcast.

Gives me an idea - for those occasions when your Thai broadband goes slow or stops but you still have to pay for it (or the situation I am in now where 12call have charged me 300baht for 5 local phone calls plus 5 minutes online and refuse to deal with it) and no one will take your complaint seriously, round up some locals, pay them a few hundred baht and head down to the providers office to get the CEO to solve the problem.

I could not help noticing that the tourist quoted in the report said that they needed valium to sleep after their experience of the riots and killings on Saturday night. Bad enough that the fighting and deaths are for tourism, I hope that the tourists who resort to valium have remembered to bring a valid prescription for the drug to the kingdom! If not, they could face prosecution under the arcane laws that are only used against foreigners - see previous reports about a young European guy facing a year in jail for possession of 2 valium tabs without a prescription. There have also been reports of tourists being searched at Ekkamai bus station for possession of prescription drugs without a prescription - they seem to target Viagra and valium but I have heard about rumours of even medicine like life-preserving heart and blood pressure medicine being targeted! If appears that in Ekkamai you have to pay between 2000baht and 4000baht to the cops to stop you from being taken away for trial, which could take months anyway and you could face a year or two in jail if found guilty.

By the way, this is despite the Tourism Authority of Thailand telling tourists that they will NOT be bothered if they possess a maximum of one month dosage! How that is arrived at I am not sure!

Yet another reason not to visit the land of smiles!

"Doctor Doctor! I feel very strange! In the past week I have an unbearable urge to dress in red, stop all the traffic in BKK and pour blood around certain government buildings! What can I do?"

"I am so sorry, dear patient but you have come to the wrong therapist. Unfortunately a therapist cannot treat a patient who exhibits the same kind of neuroses as he or she does."

"But Doctor, you don't have this incredible urge to dress in red. So how is it that we share the same neurosis?"

"Well, when you go out dressing in red, stopping all the traffic and pouring blood around certain buildings, I get the incredibly strong urge to dress in yellow and take over the airport."

I don't see a problem with this and those are relatively low numbers. Surely they would allow you to visit the ATM machine before they booted you out of the country, if you didn't have paper currency.

I got hassled last time I entered the UK because I had something like five euro's on me and was dressed like a bum (also had a big beard at the time). They made me go to an ATM and show them my balance despite the fact that I had a nice laptop with me and multiple ATM, Debit and Credit cards - and had visited the UK many times in the past.

Here's a tip. Don't go to the UK if you have a beard. Even when I was a resident in the UK (pre-9/11), everytime I returned I was stopped and questioned. It got to the stage that I even got to know the Special Branch chap who would pull me out of the line whether I was with others or not. It was clear that they were profiling for men with beards. As soon as I shaved it off, I became invisible to them.

Remember that the UK likes its terrorists not to become dependent on state handouts! So if you have a beard, either shave it off or have wads of cash. (Hint - this is irony!)

If every falang arriving in Thailand must have minimum 10,000 CASH, this will be a significant leg-up for the muggers, bag-snatchers and thieves. And if you must have it on entry, it will be enforced that you must have it on you at all times. Therefore, all thieves and robbers will be certain that falang are always going to be a good hit. This will mean that ordinary Thais won't have to worrry about crime of this sort as no sane mugger/thief will bother them when there are so many foreign walking atms to be hit.

If we follow the logic, crime stats are also likely to go down. No falang in his right mind will bother the police if he is robbed or mugged as he will be in breach of the 'must have 10k on you at all times' rule if/when that money is stolen.

This is in keeping with the 'in possession of a prescription drug but with no script and you go to jail for minimum one year" rule. Many of the drugs that you get legally across the counter in other countries officially require a prescription in Thailand. Valium for your fear of flying, heart medicine that you have been taking for years or even viagra and its derivatives can get you into trouble.

This reminds me of a comment made about pedestrian/zebra crossings in another country - their purpose is not so that the drivers should stop and let people cross the road. They are there so that the cops know where to pick up the bodies.

Anyone visiting many countries (including a few western countries) ought to learn about local traffic customs, such as that traffic lights, crossings, speed limits, one-way streets are not adhered to or enforced in the same way. And, in Thailand, if the driver is from a high status family, it is unlikely he will ever face the music anyway - remember the famous road rage incident some years ago on Sukhumvit? To date, as far as I have heard, no one ever received compensation and the perp never did time despite a number of fatalities and injuries.

And of course...the boys in brown will see to it that his stock of cars are well looked after and safe whilst he sorts out his tax affairs

I read it that his car showroom was in Hungary so the Hungarian BiB are looking after his assets and probably giving them a run around the forests.

Anyway, as I understand tax evasion is not a crime, tax fraud is. We all evade tax by claiming various get outs.

You are mixing up what is usually known as tax avoidance and tax evasion. Tax evasion is criminal activity in almost all jurisdictions.

Tax avoidance is allowed provided it was done legally. For example, you can legally declare certain costs in many jurisdictions so as to reduce your tax bill.

Tax evasion is illegal. This is where you evade paying tax even though you are liable. Some people just do not pay the tax and hope that the authorities do not find out.

Tax fraud is where you act fraudulently so as to make it appear that you are not liable. There is a fine line between evasion without fraud and evasion that involves fraud. In jurisdictions where you are committing fraud by not including a tax liability on your tax forms, tax evasion is usually not possible without committing fraud.

But, invariably, tax evasion is a crime. However, getting your taxes slightly wrong is not generally considered evasion, especially if you are involved in the vagaries of value added tax and the VAT rules are complex. Also, a number of jurisdictions have historically not investigated tax avoidance because of corruption or lax government. But this is where those without connections (especially foreigners!) get into trouble whereas locals do not.

I think you will find that people with experience of Windows 7 will generally echo my comments

I have found that the vast majority of people that are slagging Win 7 have never even seen it, let alone installed it and used it. Or they are typical MAC/Linux trolls with nothing better to do. PC's are a tool that's it, its not a religion and not a reason to spend all your day crapping on other people's opinions. I too have been using 7 since the Beta and could not be happier with it. I laugh when I read all these trolls complaining about this that and the other.. when I did ZERO hardware upgrades to a two year old machine and it runs much faster than XP (benchmarked) and I find it much easier to move around with the repeated locations for so many functions..

If you are happy with your MAC or your NIX box, great and good for you. But until you actually install and use a product day in and day out, assuming it sucks based on a previous product by the same company you are simply painting yourself as ignorant. You might actually like the product if you open your mind.

For the record I have a MAC and run Linux on my netbook, so please spare me the flames... I also run Solaris on a web server, if you really want to talk OS comparisons...

You know, I heard the same arguments all those years ago when I upgraded from Windows 3 to whatever version came after it. At each stage I had no choice but to accept the latest Windows OS because either it came preloaded on the machine, was required to run some new applications etc. Back in the early days it was a case of being able to share documents, spreadsheets etc that would run on each other's equipment and one was afraid of deviating from the PC/MS standard because of fears of incompatibility.

But each time I upgraded or accepted the latest version of Windows OS on a desktop/laptop, there were problems. I had to throw out several printers because the drivers no longer worked on the new OS. I found many problems with compatibility with older documents and running earlier versions of software.

The final straw came with Vista which it is generally acknowledged MS put pressure on laptop manufacturers to use Vista as the OS and this led to machines not being able to cope with the weight of the bulky software. This led to the almost hilarious result in my case where my old machine was running faster in terms of boot up and generally running software than my old machine. And getting to use WiFi was a nightmare on the new mahine.

At that time there was no choice if you were buying a laptop such as a Lenovo. You could try to take Vista off the machine - good luck if you are not a specialist. And I was not able to find such a specialist in Thailand. Only later did Microsoft issue a software tool that would allow this but by that stage I had bulked up the RAM and found a specialist to remove the gadgets, wigits and whatever other its and make the machine run a bit faster.

Now I hear that Windows 7 is wonderful, stable (wow, a stable OS product from Microsoft! Lets buy it now!) and quick. Too late. More than 20 years of problems and irritations that Microsoft never really addressed or addressed too late. My decision to switch to a Mac was made when I was trying to get my Vista laptop to hook onto Wifi while one of the guys accompanying me who has used Macs all along has no problem. I knew that he has never had a virus, never suffered from any instability and he uses his machines for an average of 5 years or more where I can barely get 2 to 3 years out of mine. During the discussion it was clear that all the problems of incompatibility that we are scared about no longer are an issue.

I agree that computers and OSs are tools, not religion. But, given my experiences, only a kind of deep (and misplaced) religious kind of faith would keep me on the Microsoft road. For me, it is time to try something new.

My friend upgrade his Samsung nc10 to win7 and battery time go down from 8 hour to 3,5-4 hour! Good reason skip this suxx product.

Wow - I had opposite experience.

I upgraded from XP - formatted & installed Win 7 trial version.

Got increased battery life, programs opened twice as fast, no memory issues, and no compatibility issues (except skype - now rectified)

Had massive problems with XP - most notebooks have issues with drivers - as a way to move people to Vista.

Also had many dramas with vista (first release, and then an upgrade) - until my laptop got stolen - then the new laptop I had to buy with Vista SP2 was fine.

My concern is that nobody in Thailand is gonna sell a registered copy.

All are pirated knock offs.

The ones who do have no idea about computers and sell them unopened from the box - so you cannot look at the laptop or use it first.

I wouldn't upgrade to win 7.

Format and get a clean version, or buy a laptop with it already installed and all drivers complete and ready.

It is an awesome OS that should make up for the twin disasters of win 2000 and vista

My friend??

I like your comment and don't kid yourself..Right now Silicon Valley has many problem with Pirate knock offs but, no one comes forward..( long time ago but, now it is a hot topic )

I am sure some company use the knock off without noticing...Right now the Sanfrancisco customs are monitoring the pirate products....

One of my friend's friend came from Hongkong trip and he brought 5 sofware CDs...the custom demanded him to pay $3500 or spend the nights in jail...take a pick?? The guy had to pay with credit cards. It was a talk of town. I warn everyone at this point??? This is a real story and it is serious in the Valley at this moment...my point and opinion.

This is another good reason to stay away from nasty regimes that claim to support free markets and the freedom of the individual but simply like to put people in jail because they have a bootleg copy of something. In many countries it is IMPOSSIBLE to buy software or DVDs that are NOT bootleg!

I will be celebrating the launch of Windows 7 with my first purchase of a Mac!

Just because I own and run a car does not mean I really want to become a car mechanic. And it is the same with PCs run on Microsoft. On each occasion I acquired a new MS operating system, I inherited new problems. Old programs did not work. Had to throw out periferals because incompatible. And in the case of Vista which I had no choice but to buy as it came preloaded with the laptop. It never worked properly until I beefed up the RAM to 3Gb. And even still it leaves me with no control over what is going on in the computer.

I have since discovered that Microsoft put a lot of pressure on the computer manufacturers to sell their equipment with the software preloaded and the so-called compatibility testing was clearly fudged. Later, Microsoft had to produce some software so that people could re-install XP.

I also discovered that newer versions of MS Word did not open documents saved under older versions. I had to buy WordPerfect so as to open older Word documents, save them in the newer format before I could open them in MS Word.

OK, OK, I get the message! Stick with Microsoft and you will get screwed!

Now that Apple Mac computers are capable of running just about everything I need, including Microsoft programs, and do not suffer from the onslaught of viruses that we have come to expect with Windows based systems , I am going to treat myself to a Mac laptop.

While I agree that the couple would not have been let off so lightly in their home country, Iran, I also have to say that they would experience long-term consequences in Western countries. This would have been especially so in the USA where they would have been charged probably with a felony - on conviction they would have lost their right to a passport and other citizen rights, such as the right to vote or to work in certain professions (become a lawyer, for instance). They would most likely have done several years in jail and invariably would be placed on the sex-offender's register. This would make them social pariahs - they would have to find an area to live where there are no schools or parks or day care centres etc. This status and their felony status would most likely be for life - with the exception of criminal activity, it is highly unlikely that they would ever make a good income.

So, sometimes the Land of Smiles gets it right!