BangkokBaksida

To Thai women, it's not the length that matters. It's how much you pay them.

I worked in Ho Chi Minh City from 2015 to the end of 2021, at which time I fled the country to avoid getting vaccinated. During my time in Vietnam, I visited Dalat a dozen times, Nha Trang four or five times, and Danang three times. They are all highly livable places. Should the world ever normalize again, I would consider retiring in Vietnam, basing myself in the lovely beach city of Nha Trang, but then spending the three or four months of the year when Dalat's weather is at its best in that city. (November through February). The rest of the year in Dalat is quite rainy. It's just a relatively short/cheap bus ride from Nha Trang to Dalat - about four hours or so - so it's not necessary to fly. Danang is also a wonderful city - a good sized city right on the sea, so you have the beach life there, along with all of the amenities of city life. And the cost of living there is quite low. The airport is right in the city and you can fly to pretty much everywhere in Vietnam (and a few destinations abroad) directly from there. Finally, the Vietnamese are quite welcoming towards Westerners, which can even be seen in the word they call us: "Om tay" - which means "Mr. Westerner". It has a totally different feel to it from "farang".

I had a similar problem with my old HP ZBook laptop, which I had bought second-hand in Vietnam a few years ago when I was living there: It suddenly started getting VERY hot. I first took it to a repair shop at Seacon Square, and they replaced some little foam pads inside of it - for 800 baht. I'm pretty sure I paid the special farang price for that. Unfortunately that didn't help much at all. Then I bought an aluminum rack (originally meant to be a dish drying rack - from HomePro - which happened to be the perfect size) to elevate the laptop from my table, and that seems to have solved the problem. The battery also just died, so I will follow the recommendations here - and try to find a replacement battery at Fortune Town. Or maybe I'll just use it without a battery, as I only ever use that one at home. Finally, my seven-year-old work laptop recently started acting up on me, so I bought a lovely Fujitsu laptop that weighs well under a kilo. I had seen it at the Emporium for around 50,000 baht, and it was love at first sight. (It is made in Japan, and I trust Japanese quality. And it's just so unbelievably light - about half the weight of most laptops.) The deal was sealed when I found it on Lazada for just under 40,000 baht during their recent anniversary sale, and I couldn't be more pleased with it: https://www.lazada.co.th/products/i3273787395-s12164887105.html

So you think it's better form to suggest that this young man died from drug use, on the basis that "stars are well known for drug abuse"? Talk about grasping for straws. And you accuse me of spouting incoherent nonsense? Ha.

This is PRECISELY the right time to ask this question. And I think we all know why a man of that young age would die so suddenly and unexpectedly. But many of us don't want to admit the obvious - because we're in the same boat.

How is that different from the COVID "vaccines"?

First of all, I'm not sure if this is the right forum for this question. If it's not, please move it to the appropriate one. I moved to Thailand recently from Vietnam, but I was unable to carry all of my personal possessions with me on the plane. So I left a lot of my stuff with a friend in Vietnam who will ship it to me. It's all used personal household things, such as books, clothes, sheets, and a few kitchen appliances (yogurt maker, black garlic fermenter, etc.) First of all, what is the best way to declare my things? As used household goods, as they are? Or as something else? And secondly, how will they be taxed, if at all? Obviously, if the tax would exceed the value of the goods, I would prefer to just abandon them to my friend in Vietnam. Does anybody have experience shipping personal household goods to Thailand (from Vietnam, if that makes a difference - and I am on a non-O visa, if that makes a difference.). If so, what were the import duties? Thanks and regards.

Asymptomatic people are not sick. But the way these PCR tests work, you can make anyone test positive if you want to - by simply raising the number of cycles the test is run. So it's a scam, and the insurance companies are right for refusing to pay.

One of my friends once asked a Thai girl if she knew what Christmas was. She replied, "Of course. It's Santa's birthday."

Is it actually absolutely necessary to make an appointment to do this visa? Or can I just show up at Chaeng Wattana? Thanks.

Thanks Sheryl. So can you provide me with a link - or some other connection - to get April's French International policy? As I mentioned, I searched for it on the internet and I wrote to what I thought was the French office, but I got an automated response from the Bangkok office of April. It looks like somebody is trying very hard to steer me towards the Thai office/policy.

Hm, I just sent an email to what I thought was April International in France, and I got an automatic response from the same lady in the Bangkok office of April as I got when I thought I was writing to the Bangkok office. So does that mean that I would be able to get the "International" policy from the local office? Again, what would be the difference between the Thai policy and the International one, assuming there is a difference? Thanks again.

Aha, another thing that I didn't know. I just assumed that the local office of April was a representative of the main office, and that I would get the same policy from both. I have just sent an email to the one based in France. Let's see what they can offer me. Do you happen to know the main differences between using April Thailand vs. April International in France? Thanks again.

A very good point! Maybe it's not true, at least not everywhere. I will get my Thai nurse friend to call a government hospital for me and ask this question. Thanks.

This is all very useful information, Sheryl! I had no idea about a lot of the things you mentioned, such as not being able to reduce the deductible later, etc. I am really glad that I asked - and I am glad for the willingness of people like yourself and the others here to share your knowledge. So, as you advised, I will take this as a long-term decision. I have been in contact with an April representative here in Bangkok, and she provided me with a link to their website where I can check the changes in price of the policy by changing various parameters. One thing that I noticed is that the minimum amount of coverage appears to be around US$100,000. Is that much coverage really necessary in Thailand? Or is this another case of needing to think about the long term? Also, what about outpatient coverage? From what I can see, the cost of outpatient coverage increases by around the amount of the coverage, so essentially I would be paying in advance for outpatient coverage that I might not need. So my feeling is that it doesn't make sense at all to get outpatient coverage. Do you concur with this?