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LarryLEB

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Everything posted by LarryLEB

  1. AGREED regarding Vitamin K2 Mk7 for exactly the reason stated above.
  2. RUTNIN eye hospital in Bangkok. I have used them for several eye problems: double vision in one eye - solved by corneal debridement (outpatient) macular pucker in other eye - couldn't be diagnosed in Pattaya [see below] retina checkups - because I have had a retinal tear in one eye and a vitreous hemhorrage in the other I've been very satisfied with the medical care I've received at Rutnin. I live in Pattaya, but is worth the trip. I was advised by a private hospital specialist here in Pattaya to go to Rutnin because the Pattaya hospital didn't have the up-to-date latest equipment to confirm the macular pucker. Rutnin had the necessary equipment. Rutnin always updates its equipment with the newest technology.
  3. Sheryl, as usual, is correct. I have had three colonoscopies. I was awake for all three, not 'put under."
  4. I waited until my late 60's to have a colonoscopy. The gastroenterologist found and removed 8 polyps (photos provided by him and the report by the examiner). The polyps were tested and some found to be precancerous. The Doc said that in two or three more years, i would likely have developed colon cancer. I agree with Sheryl. My advice: "Get 'er done!"
  5. In 1983, I did all my own planning and bookings for a 6-month trip: Canada to Tokyo to Hong Kong to Bangkok to INDIA to Bahrain to France to England, then back to Thailand. No Internet, of course, so I spent a lot of time with the OH&R Guide ("Official Hotel and Resort" Guide). I phoned the hotels myself and booked my own rooms. I decided that the easiest way to see a lot of India was to book a guided tour for my 14 days there. However, I booked a tour with a private car and driver, and with a private guide. Travel between cities was by air. I got to see a lot of India and in the kind of detail that I wouldn't have been able to alone. It turned out that I was a tour group of only one person -- me. I met other people on the same itinerary with the same tour company -- they travelled together as a group, and on the same flights. The first flight was from Bombay (didn't become Mumbai officially until 1995) to Jaipur. I got to know one couple from the USA very well, and we kept in touch afterwards. I had only two nights in Bahrain, so I booked a day tour there, which was going to be cancelled since I was the only one to book (a minimum of two was required). So, I told them I would pay for two, and the tour went ahead. From 1983 to 2011 (when I retired to Thailand), I spent my two-month annual vacations in Asia. During that time, I did the following one-day tours: Ayutthaya, Thailand Tokyo, first day there to help get oriented Seoul, during a mandatory two-night stopover between flights The above tours were the tour-bus type. I wouldn't want to do more than one day by tour bus. There was one more guided tour during this period: a four-day tour of Angkor; this time by private car, driver, and guide, again. Until 2015, those were the only guided tours that I took. In 2015, '17, and '19, my partner and I spent about 2 weeks each time in Japan. We did several one-day guided tours: Nara, Kyoto (three different times), Nikko, Kamakura, Tokyo, but it was just the two of us and the guide -- no group. The guides were local people, experts, certified guides and very knowledgeable. These tours made sure that we got to see what were the most important sites for us; and we were able to get answers to all our questions: a great time! More pricey, but customizable, and far more informative and pleasant than a group tour would have been. In our opinions, good value for money. The rest of the time we were on our own (easy to plan out with the Internet). In summary, I find that guided tours can have their uses, even though nearly all of my travels have been done without a guide or a tour.
  6. renumerated ? ... switch the m and the n, please.
  7. At today's rate of exchange, 300,000 Million Baht equals 8.4 BILLION U.S. DOLLARS. I suspect that your figure is incorrect.
  8. I prefer Clorox Bleach, also. Until about a year ago, it was available at a couple of the supermarkets in Pattaya. Then, seemed to disappear. A now buy Clorox Bleach from Lazada. The 2-liter bottle is around 170 Baht + delivery.
  9. In our condo, the North end of each room is floor-to-ceiling glass, with half of that being the typical sliding panel. These definitely do leak air. For example, when we head to bed, the purifiers in our sitting/dining/kitchen area read 001 or 002 (PM2.5). When we get up in the morning and turn them on, they (recently) have been starting at the 020 to 025 range (with the a/c off). So, the polluted air does enter around the glass panels.
  10. That is NOT the case. We live in a 16th floor condo only 500 meters from the sea. On days like today and yesterday (right now the air "quality" rating is again the highest in Thailand at 159 µg/m³), Ko Larn can barely be seen because of the pollution. (On some days, it cannot be seen at all!) So, being near the sea does not help much, if any.
  11. The air conditioners do not draw in air from outside. They simply cool the interior air. As I said in my original post, yesterday we opened the air purifiers and they read the PM2.5 in our condo as 30 µg/m³. Within 25 minutes, with the air con running, the reading was down to only 4.
  12. Friendship Supermarket on Pattaya Tai or Villa Market on Second Road.
  13. At 10:00 a.m. this morning (January 16), Pattaya's air quality was the worst in Thailand. According to IQAir, the reading was 153. From the same source, the pm2.5 concentration was 59.4 µg/m³, of which the site states: "PM2.5 concentration in Pattaya is currently 11.9 times the WHO annual air quality guideline value." We have 2 air purifiers we use in our sitting room/kitchen/dining room area (about 70 square meters). When they were opened this morning, they read the PM2.5 in that area as 30 µg/m³ they now read about 10, and will continue to decrease. At night each of our 2 bedrooms has one air purifier running and can keep the PM2.5 below 3 or 4.
  14. Mike Lister, please note that lamloki asked the above question about what exemptions we get in our HOME country. Please read my complete post, which includes lamloki's post above!
  15. Thanks for posting the link. To do my one-year extension of OA visa, which do I select,,, Long-Term Extension, OR Retirement Purpose?
  16. It is one one-baht stamp for every 80 baht spent. More on certain promotions. (Last time they did the stamp thing, it was one one-baht stamp for every 50 baht spent.)
  17. First, what a great thread! Someone mentioned Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone) with one of the all-time best musical scores by Ennio Morricone. It certainly deserves to be highly rated. So many great flicks were listed by other posters, including Mulholland Drive, The Big Lebowski, Unforgiven, True Romance, The Wages of Fear (1953). The only poster who mentioned a movie on my all-time top-10 list mentioned Les Enfants du Paradis. So difficult to choose only 3, but here goes: Grave of the Fireflies (a Studio Ghibli film, 1988, directed by Isao Takahata), Tokyo Story (1953, Yasujiro Ozu ), and Ali: Fear Eats the Soul (1974, Rainer Werner Fassbinder). Ozu is my favourite director of all time.
  18. WOW! Desperate Living. We have another John Waters fan: great! Edith Massey (known to many as the "egg lady") as Queen Carlotta. That was the only feature film Waters made without the great actor/actress Divine before Divine's death in 1988.
  19. Yes! The original Wages of Fear (directed by Clouzot). What a great choice!
  20. 30 or 35 years ago, while on holiday in Bangkok, I remember reading in the leading English-language Thai newspaper that living in Bangkok had the equivalent effect of smoking two packs of cigarettes a day. Additionally, the newspaper reported that, at an given point in time, over 1/3 to 1/2 of traffic police suffer from respiratory ailments. This was during the months of June, July, and August. So, serious air pollution problems in Bangkok are nothing new, but go back decades. In the recent years, the months of December through February or March have been the worst here in Pattaya. Our air purifiers get their workouts in those months. BUT, they reduce the indoor pollution levels by over 95%.
  21. Agreed. On my last mortgage, I also had payments made WEEKLY to further reduce the interest. (Just dividing your monthly payment by 4 and paying weekly.)
  22. I very much agree with Sheryl regarding colonoscopy. I had my first one done at BPH about five years ago (I was 65 at the time, and should have had it done much earlier!). The gastroenterologist removed a dozen or so polyps during the colonoscopy. He remarked that 2 or 3 of them would likely have become cancerous in another few years (3 or 4). In the post-colonoscopy appointment, he showed me the photos of the polyps removed. At the time, the all-in price was close to 25K Baht, so all-in currently at 19K is a great price. If you would like the name of the gastroenterologist, please PM me. Regarding your checkup, I had mine done at BPH also (about 16 months ago), and it revealed one or two conditions that needed attention (one of which was heart-related). Since then, that condition has been controlled with inexpensive medication. All in all, you are making an excellent decision!
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