islandguy

Traction can help various disc related problems. Physical therapy clinics may have an apparatus that allows you to lie on a table while traction is applied horizontally. Hanging upside down is usually too strenuous for someone with an acute condition, and getting back up to the bar can be quite hard if you are not fit or if your blood pressure is not good. Lying on a slant board is probably the easiest kind of traction to do in a home setting. Head down

Not in Lamai, but with spinning and yoga

Samahita

http://www.samahitaretreat.com/

http://house-yoga.com/en/home/teachers

http://www.sajeevayoga.com/

Thanks for the replies

Since I didn't find a recent thread on this topic, is there anything I need to consider before I send USD to my wife's foreign currency account here in Thailand? She has checked that she can open such an account with SCB but hasn't done so yet. I have been transferring funds into Thailand from another country with the conversion from dollars to baht done by the transferring bank, but the rate they give me seems to be about 3% less than the exchange rate available here at SCB. Any thing to watch out for and suggestions as to best bank would be greatly appreciated. Is there still a minimum amount to avoid some kind of withholding?

Most popular hedge plants here are 'Cha Hokkien' (Fukien Tea or carmona retusa ) and 'sai gawli" (a kind of ficus), Both can grow to be tight hedges. Cha Hikkien can be used for topiary, a rectangular hedge (with lots of pruning), or just allowed to bush out into round shapes. Sai gawli is more vertical in shape.

Let us know if anything is not more expensive there. It would be interesting to know, since much of their cost of doing business is certainly higher.

Needed to print something Saturday last and was surprised to see the formerly open area where you could use computers filled in with offices. Not just partitions but solid walls.

First hard winds and rain in months:

Flashlight - check

20 liter water bottle in bathroom - check

3G - check

Umbrella - check

Hard rain and wind South and West sides this afternoon

From a 2012 thread on this forum (use search word 'desalination')

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Quote: I forgot to meniton that there has been constructed a very big desalination centre in Baan Tai, Koh Phangan which brings water from the sea to the unit to turn it into fresh water it is not completed as yet however I expect it to be in operation in the very near future maybe Samui should look at doing the same thing !!!!!

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Has been for some years.

There is a desalination plant on Soi Tongsai off Plai Laem (after Big Buddha). Unquote:

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Later in the thread Tropicalvo (?) states it is still working and supplies about 5% of Samui's water

How does a pipeline increase tourism? Can someone elaborate on this?

Quite simply they will send water from the mainland.... when completed... If there is not any water as is the current problem in some areas of Samui, tourists or locals will not be happy.

There is some talk of it here: http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/917173-no-water-in-the-south/

Would be better to invest in a Desalination plant

You mean like the garbage to power plant (already built but shut down for years) and the Lamai waste water treatment plant (finished and then destroyed by floods some years back)?

Anyone have any idea if work has started on the mainland for the pipeline to bring water to Samui? Or the underwater portion of the pipeline? February 2017 could well see much of the distribution system here on Samui complete, they are going gangbusters on the South side of the island, but not much use without the new source of water from elsewhere.

Jimmy, I think that pipe is to be used to distribute water that is supposed to be piped in from the mainland. I kidd you not ? No idea when or if it will arrive on our shores. Meanwhile, the big reservoir near the tiger show is still pretty much full.

Ah good to know! IG... Keep us informed of it's progress ..

It did stick me as being a lot larger than the pipes they put around the island a few years ago...

Just took another look at that reservoir, actually only about half full now.........

Jimmy, I think that pipe is to be used to distribute water that is supposed to be piped in from the mainland. I kidd you not ? No idea when or if it will arrive on our shores. Meanwhile, the big reservoir near the tiger show is still pretty much full.

I think the crush is over, made a phone booking for popular times with Seatrans the 11th and 14th with no difficulty.

It will be interesting to see how social media and the influx of Chinese tourists affect the ease of running scams here. While Thai Visa posters cannot (and should not) 'name and shame', tourists who come and go aren't going to be worried about posting, especially if they are upset at the time. I also see the Chinese as being very willing to complain when they think something is wrong with their bills. Up to now it has been true that there is always going to be a new tourist who doesn't know the score (although the smart businesses understand that local repeat business gets them through slow periods) and can be taken advantage of without repercussions. So far, the changes in the availability of information and the increase in less easy going tourists doesn't seem to have made all that much difference, but more and more tourists are checking on their smartphones before every choice they make.

Thanks Jimmy, nice photos and good to be reminded of how nice it can be here. I don't get many visitors to show around, maybe time for what the Singaporeans call a 'staycation', a weekend staying at a hotel in your own country/island. Even though I don't live in a cramped public housing flat like so many Singaporeans, it can still be a fun thing to do here. If anyone won a local hotel voucher in a lucky draw and wants to sell it for a good price, just PM me!

Some of the times I have become upset over being overcharged in Thailand have turned out to either be my error or simple misunderstandings. When my (Thai) wife orders, there are still honest mistakes on the part of the server sometimes. However, knowing Roo slightly and having been to this restaurant (If it is the one I think it is) over a period of years, would tend to go with Roo's account as being what actually happened.

The local criteria for calling someplace a resort here is about as rigorous as the criteria for calling someplace a villa ?????

Stopped going there about 3 years ago. Wonder if they would try this if one of the diners was Thai?

Last time I did this on line tracking ended in Bangkok. Delivery to Samui was outsourced to a local business with all the signage of a famous international company, but it was all just a sham as far as directly linking with that international company. And yes, some companies send it from Bangkok to Samui by post, and then attempt to deliver. Try to to find out which freight forwarder here might be involved with getting it from Bankok to Samui and go to their office to check directly.

Out in the night West side, blew out capacitor on my water pump.

A great take on the supposed subservience of Asian women, was given to my by the graduate student teaching a lab class I took at Uni. His wife was one of the first Thai women I met married to an American. When I asked him about this stereotype, he got a pained look on his face (probably tired of the question) and said that the difference between his wife and a standard American woman in this regards was that when they had company over and he said something stupid, instead of telling him so on the spot she waited until their guests had left before letting him have it..........

Seems to show a commendable amount of tolerance and forebarence from the Thai police. Good to remember that sometimes Thainess has it's good sides. Not in any way condoning the behavior of the immature and self centered offenders.