jmricca

Definitely felt on 10th floor on Sukhumvit soi 34. Did shake the bed for 1-2 seconds, lamp at ceiling kept moving for a minute.

jam me if this is unrelated but it was fun last night coming back from a party at friends. At the corner between Ram IV and Asoke, at 3am, you had hundreds of mopeds lined up to race against one another. Massive traffic jam but lots of potential drivers there. Lots of cool bikes and big hearts but still far away from F1 standards.......

After 4 years living here, I thought I had seen everything, but no, I had my best experience ever walking Sukhumvit. I stopped buying cigarettes at the 7-11 next to the diving shopping near suk. 24 and was walking my way back to soi 26 to grab a cab there. Waiting on the pavement, I saw a cop on a bike stopping next to me... and in very good english accusing me having dumped my cigarette in the street. Wrong pick, if I did actually buy a pack, I did not light any... yet. Where it becomes interesting is that a couple of minutes later here comes the street vendor who usually stands in front of the 7-11. Imagine the rest, I was doomed with this very nice and convenient help from the local.

Needless to say, I had no IDs on me, so, as I have learned so many times already, I went for the quick settlement and swallowed 2,000THB to bring back peace of mind.

I just wonder how much was the kick back to the street vendor..... and how many tourists they grab in a day right next to Emporium. Adding any other comments to this post from my end would be just a waste of time !

Does anybody know why Wikileaks has been blocked by ICT ?

Is this confirmed? I guess not for al stations though.

BTS now running at least out of THong Lo station

Thanks, I don't know about MRT or BTS.

Confirming from my window that BTS Sukhumvit is not running (6:42am)

It didn't take locking his MP's in rooms to get Newin to switch sides, it just was a simple offer of power sharing and inclusion in some flexible fashion. He never needed ANYTHING more than that.

"inclusion in some flexible fashion" .... that's an interesting view of what Newin likes to get out of government - I always thought it was something rather more tangible.

Unconfirmed report from french network, BTS is now closed (6.30am) due to tyres on the tracks @ Chitlom station.

this is my big issue..... of course, no need to fall into paranoia but the big scars on my forearm remind me of what happened in Hua Hin in April..... If anybody wants to see the extent of damage it does, just look at the enclosed pixs.

I am not claiming anything about the species, but surely the danger is there. The very least I want to achieve is not to scare people off but raise awareness. Just simple : in doubt, seek for medical advice immediately.

Those incidents are rare but look since Andrew reported what happened to his 4yrs old son in Koh Mak, how many cases ?

This will always be a case for bad luck, wrong place at the wrong time.... and statistically more people will die every year from falling coconuts.

Believe it or not, I got stung twice in 4 months, and now we make sure we have vinegar in the beach bag. If people could at least get this, this would be an accomplishment.

Same does apply to medical authorities. I know 2 persons who have been struggling to find the right medical support even in reputable hospitals. Nobody to blame here, how would suspect this up until the numbers of cases get high enough to start doing something.

jm

No need to go into paranoia, but with the number of cases reported over the past months, including this 4 yr old boy in Koh Mak (http://www.ssbkk.com/vb/showthread.php?t=1063), I decided to share my own. What follows may be a case of bad luck (wrong place, wrong time), but must be taken seriously as it happened in a familiar and usually crowed place.

I also had a painful experience with a box JF 3 months ago. The deep scars (pixs available) from the subsequent necrosis are not yet healed !

the scary piece is that it happens in less than 3ft of water directly in front of Marriott Hua Hin.... it was about 5pm and I was playing with my kids in the waves. The thing was simply pushed to me by the surf and luckily, as my wife gave me a warning, it ended on on right forearm. Pain on impact was not that big, but the sight of the beast (about 30cm in diameter) pushed everybody out of the water. Frankly, i did not paid much attention to it as being stung in Thailand is pretty frequent and this was not much different from the others. But.... 2 hours later, I fainted, not due to the pain but the deep impact of the venom. Medical attention followed and betamethasone made wonder in calming the pain which during the night was very severe.

All this to say that 3 weeks later, the skin was in full necrosis mode and now 3 months later, only part has recovered. I believe it will take another month for full recovery but left with unmistakable scars on the forearm.

In my case, what has mitigated the initial short term impact is my long term allergy treatment as I take anthistamines and cortisone on a daily basis. For a big guy like me (185, 75kgs), I am a bit scared of what could have happened without this systemic treatment....

The big takehome message here is to say "yes, they are box JF in TH, they are dangerous, and yes, even in 5* resorts and 30cm of water, you can be in trouble".

When we scouted and combed the beach the following morning, there were about half a dozen of them shored overnight in between the Marriott and the Sofitel.

jm