http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/702769-local-chefscooks-toilet-sink-behaviour/?p=7408782

Trying to eliminate all the risks from life, might as well end it all right now AFAIC

Yes, contacting a disgusting tropical disease is all part of life's rich tapestry, go for it. While you're at it, have unprotected sex with a ladyboy in Pattaya, drive a motorcycle without protective clothing, don't get your kids vaccinated.

Check to all the above, except I do get my kids vaccinated, that's the whole point of what I'm talking about.

As the OP asks "Any health risks?" why not go to the local hospital and ask "Any health risks?"

Trying to eliminate all the risks from life, might as well end it all right now AFAIC

I do stuff all the time that increases my chances of an early demise. Skydiving, SCUBA diving, flying light planes, snow skiing, water skiing, riding motosai taxi's, solo kayaking on open water, bicycling in BKK, and on and on.

I do them by choice with the full knowledge of the potential consequences.

I also enjoy a lot of activities that don't increase my risks- family, friends, food, touring, and on and on.

To participate in any one activity that's going to sneak up on me and slowly, insidiously put an early end to my enjoyment of all the others- hardly seems a good deal. And that's how I would characterize swimming with the buffaloes (and God only knows what else) in a fetid swamp of stagnant water.

Warning: Graphic picture- viewer discretion advised:

Edited February 15, 201412 yr by impulse

Well IMO the other fun activities you're participating in - as is simply driving or walking on the roads - are many scales of magnitude riskier than absolutely anything you could do with buffaloes, much less simply going for a swim with them.

And all the very real but infinitesimal dangers spoken of here are very easily checked, even before any symptoms might show up.

Not only relevant but IMO very entertaining:

http://visual.ly/how-are-you-more-likely-die

The schisto... thing is to me the big worry, if there are many snails in the water, look along the shoreline, I wouldn't swim. the parasite can enter through the skin and eat the brain. Look for snails.

Not only relevant but IMO very entertaining:

Not meaning to beat a dead horse, but the chances of a skydiver dying from a parachute accident are much higher than the same guy's chances of dying from a bathtub fall. Since a high percentage of the population do bathe and a low percentage jump out of airplanes, it only makes sense that there will be more deaths from bathtub falls.

My life insurance policy didn't exclude bathing. It did exclude paying out for skydiving accidents, and SCUBA and flying a light plane, (and living in BKK during a state of emergency, BTW).

My chances of dying during childbirth are pretty much nil.

If you really want to take it to the extreme, look up the chances of dying from taking aspirin, or getting the wrong prescription, or getting the wrong surgery done. Makes swimming with sharks look safer than going to the doctor.

Exactly my point, going to the doctor is definitely higher risk than swimming in shark "infested" waters.

Even in Australia, where they have much better medical care and much hungrier sharks.

Skydiving in the US is currently at 0.006 fatalities per 1,000 jumps - per National Safety Council much more likely to be killed getting struck by lightning or stung by a bee.

Edited February 16, 201412 yr by wym

Trying to eliminate all the risks from life, might as well end it all right now AFAIC

Yes, contacting a disgusting tropical disease is all part of life's rich tapestry, go for it. While you're at it, have unprotected sex with a ladyboy in Pattaya, drive a motorcycle without protective clothing, don't get your kids vaccinated.

Check to all the above, except I do get my kids vaccinated, that's the whole point of what I'm talking about.

I'm guessing you just skim read.

Trying to eliminate all the risks from life, might as well end it all right now AFAIC

Yes, contacting a disgusting tropical disease is all part of life's rich tapestry, go for it. While you're at it, have unprotected sex with a ladyboy in Pattaya, drive a motorcycle without protective clothing, don't get your kids vaccinated.

Check to all the above, except I do get my kids vaccinated, that's the whole point of what I'm talking about.

I'm guessing you just skim read.

Why, the ladyboy thing? I have tended to avoid Pattaya for the past dozen years or so it's true, but back in the day.

Watch out for those little fish that swim up your Johnson. Don't pee and you should be fine.

Sent from my iPod touch using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

.

I thought it's "be SURE to pee and you'll be fine". 555

Edit: close quote

Edited February 16, 201412 yr by watcharacters

Watch out for those little fish that swim up your Johnson. Don't pee and you should be fine.

Sent from my iPod touch using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

.

I thought it's "be SURE to pee and you'll be fine". 555

That's for a different kind of critter that gets into your pants...

Asking the locals is the best advice. If you find out that this water is a sewerage outlet, then don't do it. Don't drink the water, and make sure you have no cuts on your feet or tinea, as many little tropical bugs get in that way. The one I'm always on about is Giardia - common in the tropics, unpleasant but treatable. Enjoy the swim.