connda

Personally have have extreme myopia. 11 diopters. Extremely elongated eyes. Very thin retinas. Nobody ever discusses this, but with my eyes, the chances of having a retinal detachment post-surgery are astronomical. I may never have it done. It's like - Choose the way you wish to go blind. I'm sure I could throw a few hundred thousand THB at the problem, but then the doctors shrug and give you a Mai Bpen Rai.

Ok. Explain why this needs $25,760 USD. Break it down. Where will the money go? How will it improve this one elephant's existence? How much in "administrative expenses" and "overhead" will be siphoned off to care for this wonderful creature? Because to be honest - scams abound. Answer the questions to my satisfaction and perhaps I'd be willing to chip in. How about checking with some of the foundations for dogs who are racking in a few million USD a year. Could they help? Just thinking.

Did you get out of the sarcastic side of the bed yesterday. I don't understand the snarky replies regarding a conversation about our individual experiences with SSA 7162 forms. I hope you have a better day today. Good-bye.

I wish we could get some heavy rain and even limited flooding would be welcome as it's been dry as a bone out here in rural Lamphun and if they manage to get rice in this year it's gonna be late in the season. I good heavy soaking rain is really needed.

Agreed. It has a lot to do with how the kids were raised. My step son got into retail sales and excelled. Not bad as he was a really shy kid, but we encouraged him and provided the private schooling to allow him to get ahead.. He turned out to be a really good, responsible, hard-working man. He has his own house and car, and other than that he saves his money for the future. I'm proud of him. Same for most of my extended family in the US. Virtually all the kids in the family were raised by caring parents with traditional values. Several home-school and those kids turned into responsible adults as well. Family upbringing as a lot of influence on how kids turn out.

You're speaking like this is a "Thai" thing. It's global, at least in the West and wannabe Western countries. And it's not limited to just women, it's both sexes. Basically it's a generational phenomenon. So heavily tatted gals simply end up marrying heavily tatted guys.

It's s'all good man!

You're correct. Then what do you need a facial scan for? I'm totally clueless regarding what this 50K rule is. How are you limited to a 50K transaction?

Catch-22. Hi, I'm Joe Farang and I want to take 100,000 THB out of my account. You need facial ID to take out money. Ok, how to I get a facial ID? You Farang. No can get 'facial ID." OK, well, I'd like to take out 100,000 THB from my account. No can. You need 'facial ID." ????

What is a "cisgender gay man?"

Why should the Thai healthcare system accommodate young children whose parents want them to have the genitals mutilated? If a family wants to go that route? Then pay a private hospital.

Drug use leading to violence is more likely caused by alcohol, yaba, and mixing alcohol and yaba. Cannabis use, if anything, was incidental. I'm serious in since I started smoking pot in the mid-1960s, I never met a violent pot-head. But other drugs: PCP, tweeters, meth, alcohol? Different story. If the authorities want to make a case for banning a drug that causes violence? Start with alcohol.

Of course - Reefer Madness.

About 9 hours a night. I'll let you do your own research. It's out there. And teens? About 9 to 10.

But I have "received a follow-up letter that my 7162 was not received" more than once.

That Great Abyss is once they leave Suvarnabhumi. The issue is via the airline carrier and USPS itself which blows on a good day. I pretty much guarantee that USPS is the Great Abyss. Let's all do an experiment. Make copies of your SSA 7162. Send one out via regular mail and send one out via registered mail and then track it. The Great Abyss of Registered Mail is on the USPS side. It will bounce around in New York for awhile and then bounce back and forth between NY and PA, and then bounce around in PA before entering the Great Abyss in Wilkes-Barr. Don't believe me? Then do it and keep receipts. If I'm wrong this year - Ok, I'll admit error. If I'm not wrong and the registered mail gets dropped in a bin and sat on in Wilkes-Barr? Then write your congress-person and Senator and ask why? I've done that before and received no replies. But if enough of us do it? Maybe we get their attention. Which might be a good or bad thing. <shrugs> I'm going to send my original via regular mail and send a copy via registered mail and then track it and see what shakes. I'll post my results here later this year. Ya'll should consider doing the same. Let me know if you are interested in participating in this experiment in tracking SSA 7162 forms sent from Thailand to Wilkes-Barr, PA via registered mail. PM me if you want.

My experience is that Thailand Postal Service is 200+% better than UPS. I've tracked packages in and out of Thailand numerous times. From Chiang Mai and vicinity to leaving Suvarnabhumi is always less than 48 hours or from Suvarnabhumi to Chiang Mai and vicinity is always less than 48 hours. Anywhere in the United States can take a week or more. Consistently! The only hiccup in that system has been when my bank sends me credit cards. Then they disappear in a black hole somewhere in Thailand for up to three months if they show up at all (mailed first class international). I just received two credit cards that my bank sent me in January and March. They showed up last week. Before they finally showed up, I had the bank cancel the cards as "Lost" and resent via"expedited mail" (tracked) and the above held true (about 10 days transiting the USPS mail system in the US and less than 36 hours to clear customs at Suvarnabhumi and arrive in at my physical address in Northern Thailand. So from my experience if the mail gets held up anywhere? It is in the US somewhere in the rather pathetic USPS system. Talk about a system that desperately needs to be privatized sans any government subsidies. And as far as sending SSA 7162 forms to Wilkes-Barr via Registered Mail? I don't recommend it. But if someone whats to experiment? Try it and see if you have better luck. I doubt it.

They go to Wilkes-Barr and then sit, then show up after the 'due date.' My experience. And more than once.

Mine too.

I just got mine today. I checked the mail last week, so this has come in the last few day. Mailed June 2nd. I'll make copies of this and mail it back tomorrow via regular mail. Registered mail just gets thrown in a bin in Wilkes-Barr, PA and the sent to the SSA after the "drop dead date." Go figure that some petty beauacrat in UPS gets off on delaying forms sent by registered mail, but I've done that three times and the result was the same every time. They DO sit on them and allow the clock to run out. Amazing. I'll fire off copies of SSA 7162 via regular mail ever couple of weeks during July and August. It's an inefficient system so you have to play into the inefficiency. In this day and age, it doesn't make any sense that this can't be done electronically. Heck, even Thai Immigration has a functioning 90 Day Reporting System. SSA should have the ability to accept expats SSA 7162 forms online. When "Pigs Fly" I guess.

You can buy bulk Glycine powder on Lazada. I've bought some in the past. But then again, I'm not freaked out that everything from China is somehow unfit for human consumption. Western propaganda hammers out that everything China is "Bad," but at the end of the day, virtually all of the stuff Joe and Jane Average purchases in Walmart-Target-<add your Big Box Store here> are Chinese imports. But, as they say here in Thailand, "Up to you!" If you somehow believe that your Glycine powder sold by Western retailers doesn't come from China like a vast majority of pharmaceuticals do? Then try iHerb.com. You'll pay a premium price for the same stuff, well, in my humble opinion. I'm not anti-China. The Western corporation off-shored manufacturing to China decades ago and destroyed Western domestic manufacturing. The model holds true today as well. So if you think that what you buy from a Thai retailer who imports from China is somehow inferior? Well, I don't lay awake at night worrying about that. Best of luck.

The one out by the Iron Bridge? I'll check it out the next time in CM.

Thank you!

If I'm indulging my taste buds? I don't care "what additives are in it." <laughs> Wow - this has gone way off topic. I'd still like to know of anyplace in Chiang Mai that is selling Cream Of Wheat. If anyone comes across some, let me know. Shopee worked this time around. But I'd still like to know if any retail outlets are selling it in CM. Thanks!

You've missed the entire point. You could mix vegetable powder in soy milk and ground earthworms, and obtain an nutritious meal which is also an "experience." But it's not an experience I particularly want. Cream of Wheat once or twice a year. Yep - it is an 'experience' to be enjoyed. Well, at least for those of us who have functioning taste buds and an appreciation of foods we grew up eating. "It's a bloody meal." Nope - not bloody at all. Very vegan and sustainable in fact.