strawberry

when I was in mae sot recently I noticed a small airport. does anyone know if there are flights from either Nakhon Sawan or Phitsanolok or where I can get info

Regards Joe

i just got back from cheching out the mae sot immigration.

a friend was driving up and I went with him just to check it out. My renewal isn't due until Novemberbut my 90 report is due in 3 weeks so I wanted to see how things were and also to get the new address which is

Extension Section

Tak Immigration Office

Asia Road

Maesot

Tak 63110

if you have to go there in October you may have problems as the guy in the canadian restaurant tells me Maesot floods in october.

There is an airport at Maesot.

Regrds Joe

I registered my daughter 12 yearsago at the aussie embassy but I don't recall having this kind of trouble. but it seems to me that the birth sertificate should be enough after all its got my name on it.

In 2007 I arive at the embassy to get my stat.dec. for my visa. A woman at the gate asks me what I want and I tell her what I want she then insists I need to go to the immigration department for that I start to argue and next thing a small guy comes through the gate puts his hand on my chest and starts walking me backwards across the footpath waving my aussie pasport in his other hand. eventually my refusal to leave made him telephone upstairs and I finally get to enter ,but when I get to the consulate office window I'm met with a guy with a strong american accent.

In a way it reminds me that in 1952 I transfer from the British navy to the Aussie navy. There is an aussie ship in Devenport and as I walk up the gangway a guy at the top says '' and who might you be '' and I say I'm a transferree from the British navy at which he tells me ''this is a good navy effed up by a few Aussies''

Regards joe

Hi All,

was hoping one of you guys would volanteer to go for me

Many thanks for the information

Regards Joe

Hi All,

just been notified that I now have to report to Mae Sot for immigration requirements, Visa and 90 day report.

I live in the southern part of Pichit Provence beteen Pichit Town and Nakhon Sawan, in the past its been easy to get to Bkk. Bus picks me up at my house and drops me off at Mor Chit about a 4 hour trip.

But now I've to go to Mae Sot which involves a 2 hour train trip to Pitsanolok and then a 7 hour trip to Mae Sot.

Does anyone know of a way I can get this transferred back to Bkk.

Regards Joe

I have diabetes 2 and for the past few years I've handled it myself and pretty well screwed up.Last year I decided to go to the hospital diabetes clinic. They have been guiding me and my condition has impoved greatly. The other benefit of going to the local hospital is the reduced cost of meds.

Joe

if you are posting it in make sure you keep the receipt from the post office as proof of sending it in

it helps if they loose it or gets lost in the mail

Joe

anyone know of an osteopath practitioner in BKK. my knees are giving much pain

Regards Joe

Hi All

this info was told to me by someone who says it came from ''sun belt asia'' as follows. All 12 month visa's will now only require a 400K bank account instead of 800K. Can anyone verify this. Of course I'm talking about the retirement visa that I'm on.

I have in the past been able to get a retirement visa due to the fact that I have been receiving in excess of 800K per year from my super fund. Since the Aussie dollar has devalued there is no way I'm going to make that this coming year. As it stands at the moment I may need to change my visa to that of married to Thai national

Regards Joe

Allan,

A very good question. I've thought about this over the past couple of years. If enrolled in this school she would sleep there and come home at weekends. I don't want her to go away and its a problem for me but I want her to have a good education and perhaps I need to look beyond my personal feelings to make sure she has this. The fact is she is my best friend as well as being my daughter. I joined the navy at 15 yo and I remember that first night, about 40 of us in that dormatory and I think every kid in that room was crying that night.

My step daughter used the local schools and is now doing uni in BKK doing OK ,so perhaps I should do the same with my daughter and hope for the best.

Thanks Allan

Regards Joe

Hi All,

I anwsered this letter yesterday but must have pressed the wrong button cause it didn't register.

One of the main questions I need anwsered is -- the entrance exam, is it that they need to have hi qualifications or is it that they need to know where to place the child.

Excuss my ignorance but what is a Sarasas School.

I have heard good reports about this particular school. They have dormatories so she would stay there and come home at weekends.

It would put her into a learning environment. Her learing ability seems to be low. I worry about what she will do once I die, we live in a small village and it worries me to think she won't have the education to enable her to get out of this place and ending up with one of the young guys around here with their need for an extended childhood.

Regards Joe

Hi All,

I have an 11 yo daughter and I'm trying to get info on enrolling her at Saint Josephs Nakhon Sawan next year. I'm assuming all of the Saint Joseph schools are the same, at least here in Thailand. getting information is prooving to be difficult. I think this is due to the language difficulties. Can anyone give me a contact with someone who can help me?.

I've actually visited the school but this was pretty well non informative.

Regards Joe

Hi All,

I have prostate cancer and here is my experience.

My doctor recomends castration, that is, get my nuts cut out. Which he urges me to do and will probably get this done this month.

I contacted a prostate cancer support group in Australia and at first they had not heard of this proceedure. But then they told me that this was stopped being practiced 10 years ago, and now it is common to take hormone injections 3 or 4 times a year. This stops the production of testosterone which cuts it 100%, but lengthens life 10 years.

In case you don't know testosterone feeds the cancer. Or so I'm told.

This is what I add up,from the info received. Hormone injections cost about 60000 to 100000 baht per year ( here in Thailand) and stops 100% of testosterone production which also results in changes in the body, enlarged tits etc. and a complete loss of libido. Talk from the support group mention pumps (yuk)

When I weigh all of this up with castration. The op can be performed in one day and home that night ,at a cost of about 10,000 baht.

This cuts out about 90% of testosterone and, my doctor tells me I will loose most of my libido but not all of it.

Getting this done will allow me to live another 10 years but only 5 if I leave things the way they are.

The cost of having my prostate removed is way out of my reach and probably be difficult to find someone in Thailand to do the op I'd probably have to go overseas to have it done. My doctor has offered to find an experienced surgeon in the UK to do it. But I need a lottery win.

I have an 11 yo daughter and I need another 10 years for her, I'm hoping that next year to send her to St. Josephs school in Nakhon Sawan and thats going to cost me 80 K per year. I can do all the things I want to do for her providing I get another 10 years.

After this month I'll change my name from strawberry to gelded.

Regards Joe

Farma

many thanks

Joe

Hi All,

in australia the diabetes tests are in mmol/l but here in Thailand the tests are in mg/dl.

So when I was in aust. couple of years back I bought a new accuchek meter which reads mmol/l. That wasn't a big problem until I was consulting doctors here in Thailand and they couldn't convert my readings into thai readings. I took myself to BKK to the Roche building to ask if they could convert my meter and they said no but suggested that I buy a new thai one .Instead I asked how to convert the figures they told me to multiply my mmol/l readings by 18.02. after 2 years I find this is not true and for the past couple of years my readings have actually been hi without me realising this. I figure this is probably why my toes are numb.

Can anyone actually verify this for me

regards Joe

The company name is META MED Co

its in soi 15 Latprao

Makessome very powerful claims to cure a number of illnesses.

Has anyone had any experience with these folks.

Having prostate cancer perhaps I'm just grasping at staws.

Perhaps there really is real magic in the world'

REgards Joe

I've found thefreshness of frozen foods a problem. I do my shopping about once every month go to Nakhon Sawan with my large Esky to load up on such things as frozen salmon etc. At first it was all fresh but not anymore, the taste is off. White fish as well. At the moment I have a frig full of frozen stuff that doesn't taste fresh. Its the same with the chicken. This comes from Macro but the CP frozen food shops are the same, when my wife cooks the chicken the ''off'' food smell pervades the whole house. It wasn't always like this at first when I bought food from these places the food tasted fresh.

Who do you complain to Oh right this is Thailand and you are not supposed to complain

Regards Joe

Hi Cobra,

If the cancer is still there I can still live for another 10 -15 years. I'm 73 now so that gives me a chance to stash a reasonable bank account for my 11yo daughter as well as leaving my thai wife comfortably well off.

My next step is to go to BKK for a bone scan to see if the cancer has spread to my hips. If it has my doctor suggests he geld me to slow down the progress. Thats a decision I haven't yet made and need to confer with my doctor once the bone scan shows whats what. Apart from that I'm not sure I have the money to do anything more here and may need to go back to Australia. One thing I do know I won't be able to get treatment at the private hospitals in BKK as they charge like wounded bulls and I don't have insurance.

Cross your fingers for me

REgards Joe

Hi Sheryl,

thanks for the good wishes.

Yes I have been treated in Thailand by a farang doctor. Surgeon UK real nice guy. Has been working in Thailand for a number of years..

If you need any more info just email me direct.

Regards Joe

Hi All,

last year I posted about my prostate problem. At that time I was looking at the possibility of laser treatment and contacted the BKK general to get a price. I was told I'd be looking at 300,000 baht . I figured for that price I could go back to Australia with my wife and daughter get the job done and fly back. The problem it was going to take me at least a year to save up that kind of money. I hunted around and found a farang doctor I knew of and finally found him told him of my problem and he suggested He would do the TURP proceedure for me.

I read up on that and decided to to go ahead with it. My doctor is a surgeon and had done some work on me before so I trusted him.

5 days in hospital air/ con room operation on the second day total cost 16700baht. IT turned out I had cancer and now most of or all the cancer has been removed. My PSA is now 3.7. There has been some discomfort (peeing fishhooks) but nothing I couldn't handle.

My Doctor speaks perfect english and Thai and has been very helpful.

If you need any info please feel free to email me direct.

REgards Joe

IT would need to be a government hospital and the type of cancer at this time is not known

Seems like the local hospitals are into diagnosing without the benefit of testig

Joe

Got a sick relative and the local hospitals here are pretty slack. Can anyone tell about the cancer hospital in Bangkok

Regards Joe

I have had a thyroid problem for about 20 years. About then I was given a drug to slow it down, (it was enlarged) I was still taking this drug about 94 and at that time living in CM. I became very sick went to the Ram where the doctor recomended tranquilisers. refused to take them. Got sicker and my wife and landlady wrapped me in a blanket and took me to the public hospital just up the road from the Ram where I was admitted. Turns out the drug I was on was killing off the white blood cells

I was sent to see a doctor there that speciallises in thyroid problems.

You might just be going to the wrong hospital or the wrong doctor.

Good luck its a bmmer of a sickness but can be fixed

Regards Joe

Hey Maestro,

many thanks for that info,been trying to get from thai folks but was not able to do so.

I'll continue with my 2 morning cups that I enjoy each day

Regards Joe

Nescafe' Protect.

Been trying to get info on this but having no luck

Why is it called Protect and what does it protect you from.

Regards Joe