Shaunduhpostman

Sheryl, do you happen to know what time the after hours clinic opens?

Great, thanks again all, much appreciated! I feel better already!

Thanks for your input all. Yes, I was looking at Srinakarin in Khon Kaen, just wondering if anyone had had any good experiences with any particular doctors. 

Also, for Bangkok, if people know any good eye doctors. At the moment I'm not feeling particularly comfortable with the idea of gambling on getting a competent opthamologist at Srinakarin. I'm also wary of the numerous eye clinics you see in Bangkok, it almost seems I'd have the opposite problem of doctors trying to go over board with treatments surgeries etc. or their just being nothing but cosmetic oriented doctors. Seems its all very commercially geared in Bangkok and therefor a bit of a mine field. So any specific doctors for eye infections would be much appreciated.

Hard to know that your problem is serious and not just conjunctivitis. Just a heads up to people if you get what you think is conjunctivitis. The doctors, strangely, don't even seem to be aware that there are very common more serious eye diseases. You'd think you'd get at least a mention that there could be a more serious problem, even from a general practitioner. Not so in my case after seeing two different doctors.  Take care everyone.

I have had problems with one of my eyes for at least 3 months. I have seen two doctors, but both were just general practitioners. The first guy, without hardly examining my eye just said, "You have a bacterial infection." As that is what I get every rainy season since I moved up to Isaan 6 years ago, it seemed like the right diagnosis. Seemed to me just a routine problem and his seemingly disinterested one minute session with me suggested it was nothing serious. He perscribed me eye drops and an anti-biotic, both of which I took, and followed his instructions to the letter for the full course. There was an improvement, tho' one of the symptoms, some clouded vision, especially after waking up, never really went away. But the slight swelling and much of the redness seemed to clear up. The second doctor, whom I went to see when my anti-biotics ran out took a bit of a look and said my eye seemed to not have been damaged, but that I probably just had a bacterial infection and it looked mostly cleared up and that continuing with anti-biotics would not be a good idea and that I should only carry on with the eyedrops for a week more. I did as he instructed and there was a further improvement. The weather got better, drier and sunnier for awhile and that helped even more, still there was some cloudiness to my vision. Last week, the rain returned and sure enough my eye returned to a swollen and red condition tho' not as bad as previously, but with a few days of some mild ache in the back of my eye. One dose of Ibuprofen seemed to have knocked that problem off, it hasn't returned. Its been sunny the last few days and the swollen and red condition has again improved. But what's clear to me tho is that I still have the same problem. I think I need to see someone who is a specialist, I'm worried that I have a keratosis infection. Anyone know a good doctor in Khon Kaen, Udon or Roi Et? It would also be worth going to Bangkok if it means saving my eyesight. Thanks in advance for any leads.

The "news" about tourism seems to change by the week to suit the needs of whoever is delivering it. One report and it's all about record numbers of Chinese tourists and the next about how a boat accident has decimated the Chines tourist arrival numbers. To me, Don Muang seemed positively overrun just a few months ago in September. 

A recent news items from Thaivisa quoting TAT suggesting other than a problem with Chinese tourist numbers:

Several very heavy showers today in Roi Et, Mahasarakham, Kalasin area. Worst cloud burst of the day happening right now as I type this.

"It's not the first time someone has plunged from a balcony at the airport."

Some of the many Thailand hotel/apartment plunges are no doubt because of the low walls. I wonder if that is the case here, somehow I don't think so, but still, may simply have been misjudging the height of the wall and then over ya go. You don;t have to be drunk or otherwise high either, just being tired or distracted will do it. I fell off a narrow cliffside walkway in Indonesia once, I simply started thinking about something for a moment instead of looking where i was putting my feet and fell 4 feet. Luckily I landed on feet, on relatively flat smooth concrete, but was wearing flip flops and utterly creamed my left foot. Not drunk, not high just a bit tired and my concentration had flagged for a second.  Had I landed on my head I could have been in intensive care like this guy.

Yeah, I know, it's me again droning on and on. If its too long then obviously you don't have to read it to find that out. I think what I have written is more useful for people who are not too familiar with how things work in Thailand. If you live here I think a lot of what we we find in this case is all par for the course. That said, here's my inventory of whats wrong with the whole picture of this latest Ko Tao rape/murder drama even if most of it for Thais or expats may go without saying.

To me, it is clear there is not yet any particularly damning evidence, but there are a number of things that are perhaps a bit off. For one thing it doesn't seem right that we never hear from the girl or her mother, it is all what the Thai police say the girl said to them on their investigation junket to the UK. That alone doesn't inspire much confidence, in fact it is rather a non-starter for me to be asked to just take the Thai police's word. I'm not holding my breath, but it would be nice to hear some in depth statements from the UK police etc too. Seems the girl is being shushed by someone, maybe lawyers, maybe the UK authorities, dunno. And I hope that this isn't the last we hear of all this, even if it is only that the Thai police were right in this particular case, that indeed it was just some drunk confused kid that got into something rather less than what she and her mother might be trying to  lead us to believe. Somehow I don't think so, but i have no evidence to go on to suggest my gut feeling is right, not yet anyway. Unlike the Thai police, I am not saying this case is closed, not by a long shot, and i don't think that anyone who is interested in this case is. So, granted perhaps i am a bit biased by the past Ko Tao tourist murder cases, some of which were very badly handled, and seem to me and many others to have likely been cover ups. But again being asked to listen to the Thai police's side of it and their side alone doesn't help their credibility. Not that they seem to care at this point, evidently. I would think that if this is just a case of a hysterical girl telling lies you'd want to appear as open and public about all of this as possible, but then again who knows, I'm certainly not going to say the police are hiding something just because their modus would appear to be somewhat less than transparent. Obviously I and the public know little to nothing about any of this case.

But I find things reported in this latest article that, not surprisingly, all point to a kind of haste and insecurity and a tending towards a foregone conclusion. If nothing else, even if at this point it is fair to say there is no evidence of a rape other than what the girl has said, a habit of doing investigations that are foregone conclusions seems to be making an example of itself. Yet again. Its like shooting fish in a barrel, but the problems with the "investigation" reported by the police to the media in this article, I would assume, would be, frankly, and sorry to say, insulting to anyone's intelligence: 

“However, she could not identify the site of the attack nor the identity of the attacker. She could not even provide details on how the attack happened,” Piyapong said. Therefore, due to the lack of sufficient information offered by the woman, Thai police could not proceed with the investigation, he said.

Really? Well...so...? Lots of things happen to people, particularly when there is distress involved, where they don't remember exactly what happened or how it happened. But by no stretch of logic however does it mean that whatever it was didn't in fact happen or that you can still be reasonable and ask us to take you seriously and say you're finished with examining some unsolved case, that the person was lying or not cooperating or whatever just because they can't answer your first couple of questions about what happened. There are plenty of other lines of questioning that might turn up evidence besides those an investigator has decided are the best ones. If you are genuinely interested to get to the bottom of something, what grounds do you have to essentially say something like,  "Well, the victim won't get with the program and answer the questions, so then we're done." To my mind, for whatever that is worth, the questions don't even seem particularly good.  If I am not mistaken, the incident happened at night, the alleged victim was a tourist and therefor it's quite conceivable she was not entirely familiar with where exactly she was or what her alleged assailant looked like. Seems we are being asked by the Thai and UK authorities to think it reasonable to assume that most tourists would have a clear idea of exactly where they are when it is dark outside in some place they may have not yet had a chance to become even remotely familiar with. Again, we weren't at the questioning and we have to accept the Thai police's interpretation of the alleged victims responses. Those who live here know how easy "misunderstandings" happen. What exactly did the girl say or how did she respond? The questions the police posed seem to me like an OK starting point, but that only, it seems rather like some shoddily contrived set up for the victim to fail to just call off the investigation quickly and get back to shopping, or new directives from Theresa or your London bankers, or new watches or a banquet with Yingluck or whatever it was was actually the more important items on the trip to UK agenda. 

"The alleged victim did not file a report with Koh Tao police. Instead, she returned to the UK in early July and reported the alleged rape to her mother, who then lodged a report with local police."

Seems strange that this is so important to the police. This is cited in practically every article on this whole alleged incident. I'm not in law or law enforcement, so perhaps there is something I have missed, but this seems more an issue of the claimant not following a certain arbitrary set of bureaucratic rules that she is supposed to somehow already know by telepathy. I cannot fathom what  difference  it could make as to whether she was raped or not whether she filed a report with the Ko Tao police or not. Its like they think they are halfway finished with the case simply because she didn't file a report with the right people. And by that the police are rather baldly admitting that their unsaid unspecified rules are what's important, not whether or not someone was raped, almost as tho' to say, there is no reality to anything that doesn't conform to our expectations or arbitrary bureaucratic requirements. I think this point should be noted by anyone who is reckless enough to go to Ko Tao, that if you get in trouble there, it's about playing the police's rules as to ho w you make a complaint and other regulations not about what happened to you, you are on your own. After you understand that not following arbitrary procedures is more important than anything that could have happened to you, ironically, it's like why would anyone report to them. You have to laugh, I mean, aren't they like annoyed if you go into report a rape to them? That's always what I've gathered, don't even bother with the police in Thaoland unless you want even more trouble. Do the police not know that by bringing this point up again and again, that the girl didn't report the crime to Ko tao first, that they are proclaiming in underlined capitals to the world, we have no interest in even putting on the pretense of protecting people or tourists, if you have a problem, you can just forget that, you now have a problem with us: figure out our rules and dance or we'll come after you in your home country, provided you also have interesting other things to do there to make it truly worthwhile.

"Speaking at the same press conference, national police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda said it has been concluded that there was no rape on Koh Tao as claimed by the woman and police considered the investigation closed."

And there you have it, because we've told you that our "examination" found no dna on the shirt we took, and that the girl didn't respond satisfactorily to questions about where or what the assailant looked like, it didn't happen. Right!

 I hope that actually it simply is that they don't care about the case. Contraray to what they would have us believe, There is no conclusion being made. If you don't investigate anything you can't have a conclusion.  There is nothing investigatory about any "investigation" and its handlers who make such "conclusions" who forego basic logic with the because there is no evidence that we can find the incident never happened. Its just a dismissal and an order for people to accept whatever the Thai police want to say.. They would look better to me if they just said, "We don't care about this. Go ahead, Boycott us, who cares? If you don't like it, go to Bali! Go to Vietnam! Go to Greece for your beach holiday. Ya buncha western hypocrites, what nerve. We have plenty of other tourists from countries who don't raise a stink. Scram!"  But no, there they are telling you, and I think, insulting everyone on top of it all with: this we did an investigation and we have come to a conclusion that the rape never happened. They wouldn't know a conclusion if it bit them in the ass at the beginning of their next life as an 8th generation R2D2 robot in the 337th sequel of Star Wars!

But all sarcasm and mild outrage aside, I think it would be fair for the police to say, there is nothing conclusive showing anything suggesting a rape happened and we don't know one way or the other and sorry but frankly we aren't terribly interested in this anymore. Seems to be the UK authorites' tack in this.  But to say it didn't happen is over the top. They cannot even be bothered to say how they concluded that no DNA was on the shirt. Its just there wasn't any dna because we say so, none of this ever happened, just forget it all bye bye! Might makes right, end of story, welcome Ko Tao "A tropical dream," to quote the current header on the Lonely Planet Ko Tao page.

6 hours ago, hotchilli said:

It's all right to joke about these things but some people are really getting worried about their options...

I'm talking about the younger person, say age between 30 to 50 who has come over here, got married and ploughed everything into setting up a home and business for the wife.. the only option for him to work is as a teacher (if he's qualified), most other things are prohibited..

Now they find themselves without the requisite lump sum in the bank nor the monthly income required...

question is what are they now supposed to do to stay here?

If you are married you don't need to show income, actually. Tho' if you want/need to avoid showing that, you do need to get a multiple entry visa (available in Savanakhet, maybe Jakarta, Indonesia still as well, not sure if they issue that type of visa anymore) and leave the country every 90 days tho'. I can't stand the lack of clear rules and games of internal immigration, so to me its easier just to leave the country every 90 days than to go through the extension of stay process. I would then also have to travel even further than out of the country to do my 90 day reporting, which is made unnecessary by my leaving the country every 90 days, going to Laos is closer than the nearest 90 day reporting office, since for my area they make us go way out of the way rather than to a relatively nearby immigration office in Khon Kaen.

3 hours ago, lincolnshire poacher said:

I remember back in the early 1990's, Lonely Planet warned about a mafia like system where anyone saying at one of their guest houses would be booted out if they didn't partake of their diving trips. I've never been to Bali but I can agree with most that you have written, particularly regarding the junk, either home produced or imported. What a sad fate for what once was a beautiful country, being destroyed by greed and lack of respect for the environment

Yeah, now that you mention it, I do remember that about the requirement to be on a dive course. That Lonely Planet remains mum on all of the Ko Tao mayhem just makes them look corrupted. They must know all about whats going on, but probably figure its not in line enough with their business model to warn people.

In response to Connda's post, exaaaactly...you are paying taxes/giving tax cuts that "disappear" into these folks pockets to help them alter your perception in ways that further their profits. As we know from Wikileaks, memos and other Clinton campaign correspondence, it has been shown some of these groups were taking direct orders from the Clinton campaign, I beleive it was Washington Post and New York Times. Its about profit/propaganda not reportage. To take just one example, these are the same outlets that allowed the lies about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.   According to former head accountant during the Clinton years at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, Catherine Anne Fitz, 26 trillion US tax dollars (and counting) since the 90's are untraceable or have essentially disappeared. Do you suppose...? Never enough.  And of course since it is all on the web they are also directly monitoring how you use their websites so money from that data as well. Yeah! Send 'em your money!

What if you don't have the money? Are they going to confiscate your dogs and cats? 

No need to explain what the money is for either, and no need to ask, the apparent lack of interest in any of that on the part of the govt. tells you right there its just an excuse to collect money. Hopefully it won't end up being lucrative enough to be worth the bother.

Well, thats just the thing, as a foreigner, I don't really understand if this is abuse or not. How would any Thais, including the animal trainer know either? None of us are elephants living at this zoo, so how would we know? I agree it doesn't seem that there is anything particularly bad about what we are being shown here, but that's just it, I have to trust that I am being presented with the full story. I am not there at the animal show or zoo or whatever it is and have never visited it either. What if an elephant were sick or tired, do you think he'd be given a day off? Somehow i doubt it. The show would just have to go on and he'd get psushed into the pool despite perhaps having a cold or congestion of his trunk so that he couldn't breath properly. I get the feeling the Thai public is just being shown select bits of this situation so as to create an opportunity to try and create some kind of a national feel good moment and thus improve ratings with a, "Ya see! We are criticized by these foreigners who just don't get it!" Its not about being wise and understanding elephants at all.

Or could it be that because of many reports of temples and animal shows in Thailand clearly abusing animals that the rest of the world doesn't trust Thai animal handlers? I don't. Thai businesses and institutions are hardly any better with people either, regard for life or safety the whole nine yards, it doesn't matter, just abuse people and get your money and save face however it suits you, whatever it takes. Its routine. The word is out as well, so what is it that foreigners don't understand, oh PPTV? I think its clear who doesn't understand something here.  If anything isn't understood, its that, at this point, the rest of the world has seen enough stories about Thai treatment of animals and human beings that you come away concluding from such reports that there is not one zoo, animal show or temple in the country that doesn't at least cut corners on providing for their animals, or neglect important aspects of care and safety or straight out mistreat the animals. You don't clear the record for Thailand either by presenting one case of being unfairly dissed in the foreign media either.

2 hours ago, webfact said:

The changes come in the wake of Maj-Gen Surachate Hakparn taking over as the new chief of immigration last week. 

 

"Big Joke", as he is affectionately known in the media, has promised to get tough on criminals.

The article writers really making a good effort here to demonize/conflate criminals with people who have up until now been legitimately able to stay in Thailand with a letter from the UK embassy. Also, what does Big Joke becoming immigration chief have to do with the UK's alleged decision not provide income documentation letters? That isn't explained if indeed there is any connection at all.

There's no need to make the situation more menacing than it already is with indirect threats, as tho' if you don't have the support of your embassy anymore you become a criminal. Makes you wonder what is going on with this, seems really a deliberate attempt to generate fear amongst people. 

I've got a 50 mps download speed just now and have not noticed anything unusual in over a year, glad I ditched TOT, what a nightmare, no internet for 2 months, and had to pay for it, just before we dumped them and had to give them another month's payment to cancel.

More copycat American style political theatre, get everybody focused on immigration, while the looting continues unchecked, complete with daft threats and solutions. They are clearly showing they don't have a grip either in citing a few thousand Canadians as the highest number of migrants, there is no way that is accurate.

Deportation after a month...(?) I think if they want to threaten people a better way to put it is that we'll put you in jail for a month, otherwise why mention the month delay. Then again perhaps this is, once again, just badly reported/translated.

With too many Thais there is a very weak to non existent notion of cause and effect,  there is so much outrageous nonsense that your average Thai has to get with and play along with 24/7 that it seems that there is no room for developing any sense at all. There is so much that is so opaque in relations and day to day situations, so many deceptions and an acceptance of lies and obvious falsehoods and illogic and the perpetration of such things and so on and you can see how many would just develop into completely self-destructively illogical beings, living completely in fantasies and dreams to the point where they cannot begin to drive or even walk down the street. Talking about Buddhism, Thailand is samsara on steroids.

I was never a fan of the street hawkers either for the 10 years or so I lived in Bangkok. But that's just me and they are clearly important for people who want a quick low cost meal. I doubt moving them to designated areas will go smoothly let alone work well, I doubt the people behind this reform care what happens and it will be badly planned, botched etc. I knew of one area around Thong Lor area on Sukhumvit that was famous for its noodles and then Khao San road, if you get rid of the hawkers in those places you are throwing the baby out with the bath water. But that is just the point, in part, to appear arbitrary, bulldozing and indiscriminate because you are military junta Thailand, tough guys stamping out corruption and crime.

Thai people them so nice have nice smile, not same your country! 

Too bad that there are no Mattayom school sports. Considering how much Thais love futbol, there should be a national mania over school teams and competitions. School sports competition and leagues in all major sports while requiring a lot of funding and freedom from corruption would be very rewarding for Thailand. Don't think it will ever arrive here tho'. Perhaps the Thai way is one that shrugs off talent as "not my problem," its not just in sport, but everywhere, in the workplace, the classroom etc. Its as tho' people with ability and talent are discouraged and shunned, much in the way that foreigners who reside here and want to volunteer are blocked from doing so. Seems it is the same for Thais as well, you'll be blocked, generally speaking, from contributing, so what motivation do people have to become great at athletics or anything for that matter?

I think I am developing a new pet peeve

13 minutes ago, xylophone said:

Just ad a closer look at these Shaun and I was right...………..their wines priced at around 399 baht pb have fruit juice added and it states that on the back label, whereas those priced around 600 baht and up do not, and different description on the back label.

 

Cunning stunt if you ask me!!!!!!

Ugh...I think I can safely say that at this point I have developed a new pet peeve: fruit wines mixed with grape. In a few weeks tho' I'l be in Bangkok before going to Indonesia for my annual break from Thailand. I am looking forward to getting a few bottles of good value real wine to enjoy in my hotel room. Can you recommend good shops for wine in Bangkok? I have always gone to Villa but seeing as you are so keen on wine you might have some better suggestions, especially with regard to sales or better prices and/or selection in general.