jaideeguy

Can anyone in Pattaya area tell me if there is any safe secure self storage company that i can store a few items for 3-4 months....motorcycle, tv, furniture etc?? and what are rates by cubic mtr?? phone number would be appreciated.....

One more sad platitude that i might add that may sound kind of harsh is 'that here in asia.....kindness can be intrepreted as a sign of weakness" and you will be taken advantage of. I can say this with 15 yrs living as a kind hearted expat. and not saying that i take my own advise either as i support many of my wife's relatives and have to constantly say 'no' or 'later' when asked for money. Your situation with drugs involved seems much more hopeless and if you value your own sanity and life, you should take others advise and 'get out of town' fast!!!.

Sorry to hear your horror story....it's not the first I've heard with us well intentioned falangs here in asia. I agree with the overwhelming majority of posters that you should get out of this movie and take care of yourself. You can't help her or anyone until you help yourself.

She [and maybe you] sound self distructive and it looks like all the 'help' you have given her so far has only enabled her to destroy herself even more. you are not doing her [or yourself] any good by [$] helping...she will drag you down even further.

GO man GO!! they survived before we came and will always manage to survive without us!!

I've tried to help many people here in LOS and have come to that conclusion. My policy now is to 'help the ones that help themselves' and forget the rest

Good luck and keep us informed.

I'm planning to have a 1 rai lake [pond] dug and want to stock some food fish [talapia and catfish & whatever else that tastes good], but i would like to try my hand at koi raising. Location is up north near CM, so we get cooler winter weather.

It seems that there may be more room for profit in raising ornamental fish over food fish, same as it's more profitable to grow flowers than food crops.

any input would be appreciated.....

thanks in advance,

jdg

Depends on if you hire a pool contractor [shark] or do it yourself. the 15kbhatt/sq mtr would apply to the shark method. i built one myself, about the same size as you want [designed myself and contracted local cowboys] and did it for around 500kbhatt plus a lot of headaches....but building costs have gone up!!

ask me if i would do it again.......NO WAY!! I'd buy a new truck instead.

Hi Simon.....

Just to let you know that there are others here in the same boat as you. last year, my 88 yr old father [who was living in a condo, alone] broke his hip and it seemed that his fate would be to recover in an institution. he had full medical insurance [sicko american hmo] and still would have to pay many tousands of $'s per month, not to mention the indignity of the system we have for passing the responsibility to the institutions to care for our parents.

So, here I am, retired in LOS with a wife and kids....my brother and sister both have jobs and no stable family situation and I seemed the logical choice to care for Pop. I went over to fetch him back on the long trip to LOS and he agreed to come with a return ticket just to check out the situation here. After a couple of months he agreed to stay and I got him a retirement visa...no problem as immigration officers respect the elderly and they gladly gave him a 1 yr visa.

I built him a small, handicaped friendly bungaloo for around 500kbhatt, with internet, sat tv and he has adapted well, eating thai food and we have comparable [to the us] medical access at 1/4th the price so he dropped his medical insurance and medicare and is [so far] ahead of the game.

His presence has had some impact on our regular family routine...keeping us on a shorter leash, but we have a maid to help and give us breaks. mostly it has been a positive experience for us all as it completes our family and fits in with Thai family values. Now that he is settled in, his expenses are less than 1/6th of what they would have been in the west, but he is 88 and will need some more professional help at some point. not wanting to rush him into a paid caregiver, I've done some research and found that i can get a live in caregiver for less than 15kbhatt/mo when it is needed.

so far--so good and hope that you have a good experience as well.

Yea, that's the life of a pool owner...I spend more time maintaining mine than i do swimming in it. Wanna buy a pool??

Yea, excellent burgers.....but a little too big for me, would be good if he 'downsized' a little and offered a 'mike's junior'.

i hate leaving food behind and don't like to ask for a doggy bag, as burgers are best hot.

Does anyone up here in CM know of a pool supply shop that does complete water testing or have a Titration test kit? I’m presently experiencing a cloudy water situation and can only test for ph and get abnormally high readings, 8.2 and suspect that as my problem.

Thanks again cdnvic,

I'll post on the CM forum. Your avatar profile states that you are in CM, so i thought you were up here. i do have a couple of gallons of sulferic acid ....will that bring my ph down same as muriatic acid??

aloha,

jdg

I should add that today, I did a ph test and came up with 8.2...top of the scale. would that explain my cloudy water and possibly scale build up??

Hey cdnv,

Good tip, but what shop in CM does water testing and sells those fancy test kits that you have pictured?? I get most of my pool supplies at 'chemicals far east' on the Mihodol road and have never seen anything than the basic cholorine/ph test kits.

As an alternative to the costly 'pooltrine' and other water clearifiers, they suggested simple [cheap] 'alum' liquid as a flocculent. I have used it once with amazing success years ago, but forgot the exact procedure and have just done a google search on it and came up with some conflicting info. one site suggested dosing it directly into the pool and vaccuming it to waste....then another site said to add it into the strainer basket in front of the filter.

any first hand experience with alum as a flocculent???

So, where can i get a complete water analisys [in CM]?? i used to only check on ph and chlorine with a home kit, but gave up on that as i didn't trust the accuracy on them.

In all fairness, I do enjoy the normal routine of maintenance, brushing and vacuming, but i hate handling the chlorine and when the algi is blooming....no fun. Presently having a problem with clowdy water [suspended solids] and having to add a flocculent [alum]....didn't add enough and have add some more.

And twice I've had to drain my pool and use hydrochloric acid to remove calcium scale....no fun.

And to top off my complaints, my shy thai wife will never wear a bikini....instead she wears a 1 piece bathing suit of the era that my mother wore.

I do enjoy an evening dip, but mostly find that i don't like to be in the direct sun.

I'll discount my 'pool for sale' if it is removed cleanly!!!!

I don't know if I structured the poll correctly, but the main question that i have to ask is...would you do it again?? if you could back up the hands of time. considering the cost of construction, maintenance, etc verses the time/pleasure you get from owning your pool.

I would vote 'not to do it again' as I spend more time above the pool maintaining it than in it. My kids have grown bored with it as well and it's one problem after another.

Just wondering if other pool owner/builders would do it again.

anyone want to buy a 2nd hand pool??

Grace gets my vote after 6 yrs of regular visits and recomendations to many friends, i haven't heard any complaints except that they are a little more expensive than most Thai dentists.....but still 1/5th the price of a decent dentist in the states. great staff, hi tech equipment, excellent english skills.......

re; medical.....after living here for the last 8 yrs, I feel quite comfortable with the Thai medical system, [or at least as comfortable as the states] and as in the west, i take anything said to me or prescribed to me with 'a grain of salt' and double check all meds and as mentioned above a second opinion is cheap enough to not think twice about.

and not to forget...the nurses are a lot nicer to look at here.

More on Pop's adjustment to LOS........

at 88 yrs, I knew he was taking a giant leap into the unknown by comming to a strange far away land, but in my 'sales pitch' to him i mentioned all the plusses we have to offer here.

good affordable health care [at least here in CM]....he dropped his HMO from the states which was pinching him for $400/mo and is [so far] ahead of the game.

cheap professional help [nurse/caregiver].....maid for 100bhatt/day, nurse/caregiver [10-20kbhatt/mo]

good food, he loves my wife's cooking and she likes it hot!!

friendly respectful locals....not frowned upon and shunned like old folks in the west.

good communications....I set him up with adsl and he can keep in touch with the outside world via skype for small bhatt.

"Main problems: distance from City and hospitals. Generally, I think

Americans, myself included, regrettably, are disinclined to hand themselves

over to foreign doctors. A major obstacle, but one perhaps more of

perception than reality."

yes, true, most Americans are afraid to get out of range of their HMO's.....i don't know what the hospital situation is in Korat, but here in CM, we have many fine hospitals with proficient dr's and modern equipment and a half hr drive from home.

"Government complications are definitely an issue. I would think that strong Thai partners or even some existing institution like a hospital would be essential."

I got my father here on a retirement visa and it was a breeze with immigration officials as they had utmost respect for an old guy like him.

more later....

I'm the same boat with roietjimmy as my 88 yr old father took my invitation to 'finish it off' here in CM with me. he is dealing with osteosporosis [a slow degenerating bone disease] and survived a broken hip, that motivated us kids to look at alternatives to 'the institution' and it seemed that i was the most prepared to care for Pop as i am settled in LOS with a thai wife and family.

So, he has been here a year already and I've built him a small bungaloo designed with handicapped friendliness for the long term. We live in a quiet rural area and he can walk [shuffle with a cane] in safety. It has had somewhat of an impact on my family life, but so far, he is still somewhat independant.

We can manage his needs at this point and I have him hooked up with a good bone dr for his osteosporosis, but he is getting older and will need more care than we are qualified to give. At that point, we plan to hire a live in nurse, as we have space for a room to be added to his bungaloo. I do have limits and have to spread myself thin with family needs. luckily i'm retired and can oversee his needs.

One thing that I've NOT found is a geriatics specialist here and was told by his bone dr that geriatrics is not a popular speciality because of tha Thai family system caring for their own.

I think that building a care [retirement] home for the elderly would be a good idea with good affordable medical and caregivers available here as well as the [mostly] good weather here, and have considered doing a limited care facility here on our land, but the idea of dealing with 'old strangers' is not appealing, so I wish you luck, swelters.

let's keep in touch thru this forum and maybe we can share ideas and resources as well as support for the caregiver as well as the patient.

Yes, t's always been a fantasy of mine to have a floating house and 5 yrs ago, i saw an ad for one on a lake [forget the name] up north of CM and it seems that you can get mooring rights with the govmt that alows you to use it. I went up to the lake and saw a group of floating bungaloos for rent, but the downside was thet in the center of the bungaloos, there was a floating karoke bar. nice way to ruin a night's sleep and contrary to getting away from it all. There were other floating fishing huts with nets attached for fish farming. maybe one could purchase the rights to set up a small scale fishing operation and build a comfortable bungaloo.

That's still a fantasy and if anyone knows of a quiet lake with rights to rent/lease, I'd be interested.

A comfortable and sturdy house could be built on those pvc drums,.

With tsunamis, storms and floods, i'd be reluctant to do something like this on the coast or a river.

A couple of things that i might add to my topic is that 'our' buggers start out like a small pimple, then radiate out from there into multiples. Leaving scars on my wife's back and arms. I've put my 30x magnifier on it and see no trails that scabies leave. it's subsided somewhat, but I would like to find a better explination than ghosts..........

An update on my 'insane itching' for those interested..............

It's been over a week since we consulted with CM's best derma dr. and my itching has run it's course and now back to normal.

My wife's welts and itching is still there, altho not as intense. mostly on her inside elbows and back around bra line....I bought her a cotton sports bra for going out and advised her to go braless at home [which i like].

At one point, she thought she might be posessed and we even went thru a ritual of offering a pig's head, insense, bottle of whiskey and lots of other little things that go with a northern ritual. Having drawn a blank with the derma dr, I saw no harm in trying the spirit thing. that was a couple of days ago and .....still waiting for those 'spirits' to go bite someone else.

Seems to be a lot of itching in our moo ban with others and still no definate diagnosis or cure.

Will inform this forum IF and when we find out more.

I'm in the same boat as you, in that i'm retired and expat living here in LOS, on local BUPA [which excludes US coverage] and i have made several trips back to US over the years and have never had any health insurance requirements come up for me or never been asked. Who is requiring it??

Notify Michael Moore!!!!

I was getting the same thing [agonizing wake ups in the middle of the night and having to walk it off] and a friend recomended an electrolyte [sports drink or oral rehydration drink] and it worked the first night. you can get them at any drug store for 5 bhatt ea and mix with water.

I now mix mine and drink at night and leave some beside the bed as i get thirsty at night.

When i went back to the states, i could only get gatorade for $1/ bottle. they don't sell it in the powder form like here.

I LOVE cheap fixes!!!

good luck and let us know how it works

Thanks all for your feedback...especially Bina. good food for thought!! we do have hamsters and our naughty cat has night freedom and comes and goes thru an open window, sometimes bringing in a fresh rat to chomp on usually under our bed.

The Dr's visit didn't reveal much. She took a scraping and found no scabies so ruled that out also because scabies usually start in the webs of the hand then spread from there. also ruled out airborn allergies...they start outside of clothing. and also ruled out heat rash as that usually starts in the groin area or under armpits. Her dx was that 'maybe' it was an allergy to some insect bite that we have recently come in contact with and to air all our bedding in the sun, wash all bedding and clothing with hot water [not easy here in LOS] and spray bedroom and de-bug our pets.

a question that I would like to ask Bambina [are you listining Bambi?]...is how do i de-bug our cat [she does sleep with us] and our hamsters who do seem to scratch a lot, but i thought that was the nature of hamsters. Our cat WILL be locked in or out of the house unless she learns not to bring her kills in side to eat!!