PeterRS

Medical insurance is probably the one issue which many of us just do not factor in at a sufficiently high level for retirement. I had a great world-wide plan with the company I worked for but I knew I could not take that with me when I retired. Even if I had, the premiums would have been prohibitive. From around 55 years old, my experience is that premiums for all medical policies will jump quite dramatically every 5 years with usually greater than inflation increases in the in between years. I even heard of one insurance company based in the USA which raised its premiums by 50% and then 25% - and these were in the in-between years. Private hospitals in Thailand are great but they are now a lot more expensive than they were 20 years ago. Public hospitals can also be very good for many of the doctors work in both the public and the private sectors. But in return for the much lower costs, you have to join waiting lists which can often be months long for non urgent procedures. You pays your money and takes your choice!

Many thanks for your comments. I believe they came to Thailand with quite a large nest egg. From what they told me, their money management has been near disastrous, with far too many risky investments at a time in their lives when risk has to be avoided, the more so with very meagre pensions which go nowhere near meeting the minimum required by Immigration. My apartment is basically a two bedroom apartment which I converted to a one bedroom. They have seen it. There is absolutely no way they could live here, nor would I let them. What I fail to understand is how they did not see all this coming years ago. But then we can all be blind to reality when it suits us, I suppose.

This is a longish and sad tale. I have a horrible feeling it will end very badly. For 15 years or so I had two western neighbours in the double-sized apartment next to mine. They had retired and decided Bangkok would be a good option. Neither is a bar hopper. In fact, I don't believe they have ever been into a gogo bar. They also do not read any chat rooms. Why two guys needed a three bedroom apartment with a huge living room I never asked. Not my business. Occasionally wed meet in the corridor, chat and a few times dropped in on each other for a glass of wine. Five years ago they sold their apartment which had been on the market for probably around 3 years. I know they got a lot less for it than they hoped. They then moved into a nearby rented apartment that I believe was almost as big. Last November one called and asked if it might be possible to borrow some money for a couple of weeks until his pension payment arrived. I was reluctant because we were not especially friendly. But I did lend them a few thousand Baht. I then learned from another friend that their landlord was owed several months rent and had switched off the electricity in their apartment. They later confirmed this was true. As of today I think they have had no power at all for at least 4 months. A couple of weeks after providing the loan, I dropped off three bottles of wine. Soon after that I had another request for cash. I told them I was not in a good financial position myself and it would be difficult. Then they told me they had nothing to eat and the loan was only for another couple of weeks. After thinking about it and knowing both were in their early 80s, I gave them another few thousand baht. When I delivered it it was clear both were very thin. But I had to tell them I simply could not be their banker of last resort and this would have to be the last 'loan'. In the meantime I was told the landlord had taken them to court. The judge had given them a month to get out. That was about 2 months ago. How they are still there I have no idea. About 4 weeks ago I had another call. They were down to one tomato. Could I possibly lend them just a little more. I said I could not. But I would try and get some food as I was going to the supermarket that day. I got some nice sandwiches, soups in special containers, ham, cheese, bread and a little fruit and veg. They were overjoyed when I took it round. Then a few days later I was asked if I could possibly get a little more food. I talked to several friends about this. With their agreement and great reluctance, I had to say I could not continue to help them. They obviously have huge problems. No electricity for months and many months in rental arrears. They say they have no other friends here. Although this may seem ridiculous, I recall I never once saw them with any others when they lived next door to me. When they told me about being given a month to get out of the apartment, I asked what they would do. They would return to Europe where friends/relatives would put them up. With no cash, the Embassy had said it would provide air fares to be repaid at a later date. On later asking them how it was that they had not left, they told me their accommodation arrangements overseas had fallen through. The Embassy would only provide air fares if it had proof of such accommodation. I do know that the pensions they receive from overseas are very small, certainly too small even to provide basic food for a month. Yet, despite their financial woes, they still take a taxi to a shopping centre nearby almost every day to buy simple food at the supermarket. When I queried why they waste about 600 - 700 baht a week on taxis, they told me they also need to put a small charge into their mobile phone. I pointed out that there are 2 convenience stores within 50 meters of their condo. 100 baht could perhaps buy enough basic food for 2 for a day. It will also heat up some of the food they buy. Their condo also has a pool and gym which must have electricity outlets for topping up a phone. I got no reasonable answer. Eventually their landlord will surely evict them, and they have nowhere to go. Soon Immigration will surely realise they do not have anything like enough for their retirement visas (assuming they are on retirement visas). What happens then, goodness only knows. I feel guilty but all my friends say I have done my bit and the 'loans' have never been repaid (but then I did not expect them to be repaid). I just do not know if I can do any more. Lastly, I know they are not conning me. They really are in a dreadful position. There are perhaps a few details they have left out, but I have no doubt what they have told me is the truth.

Before I am attacked on all fronts, RIP in the title stands for "Righwing Idiot Passes". I don't know why it concerns me as I am not an American. But I heard enough of the words of this nasty, bigoted deliverer of hate-filled rants to be utterly appalled. That this man made $85 milliion a year and had his own private jet is also appalling and unbelievable. I for one am glad he is gone.

Thanks anddy - sorry I mistook your point. You are correct. The 20 year is now 1 million from the get go.

You are correct anddy in respect of the 20 year membership. This has now been reduced to 1 million baht. A friend has just purchased one. But your second paragraph is definitely now wrong. If you already have the basic 5 year Elite membership, you can do a one-time upgrade to a total of 15 extra years for a one-off 500,000 baht. There is no longer a need for 5 years increments. My other friend has confirmed he just got his 5 years upgraded to 20 years by paying 500,000 baht.

The boy in my first two pics turned up again, this time with a different sign and without the facemask. A Burmese friend knows him. To protect his identity I will not say which part of Myanmar he comes from but he works in Yangon. The other pic is the scene yesterday at Inle Lake.

In the handful of times I have been upgraded to long hasl F class over a long period of time, I have always enjoyed it, especially for the wines, although I'd aways ask for an extra helping of caviar! For some reason, though, I found Emirates A380 is the only plane where I did not want to be cooped up in a box-like suite in the front. I am sure the perks were great but I just loved their biz class which to be frank had most of the trimmings of first class including the stand up bar at the back serving premium drinks and canapés. Qatar does come close, though, with its Q Suite biz class. Now if only they served caviar

The A321 Neo and the Boeing 737 Max are more or less the same type of aircraft - narrow bodies that can fly the Atlantic. Like fedssocr I loathe the idea of a narrow body on a longish haul route. At least en route to London Qatar flies A350s and 777s. I'll take an A350 any day over other aircraft, but I will certainly miss the A380 when it finally bites the dust. That is my favourite aircraft, especially if you an afford the biz class upstairs.

I got an email from Bumrungrad Hospital yesterday. It states this - "According to the announcement of approval COVID-19 vaccines from The Food and Drug Administration of Thailand and and they will soon be available to the public. We would like your thoughts regarding the COVID-19 vaccine." For some reason the survey only applies to those aged between 18 - 65. It asks three questions I'd like to get the vaccine as soon as possible I'd like to get the vaccine, but not immediately I do not plan to get vaccinated for COVID-19 It points out that this is not a request for reservation. But the fact that it is seeking information at this relatively early stage surely indicates that it will be offering vaccinations sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately I have not seen It's a Sin but keep hoping I will find it somewhere. So far, the comments have been extremely good. The Hollywood Reporter ends its review - "The cast's performances are uniformly terrific with Alexander and West in particular embodying the youthful radiance the virus slowly steals from its victims." The Telegraph wrote, "Fear and confusion and panic build, and the prejudice against the gay community is shocking." AIDS affected many of us in ways we could never have imagined. I can never forget a weekend in October 1984. Three Japanese friends of mine had a birthday within days of each other. They invited me to a joint birthday party even though I lived hours away. I told them there was no way I could be there. As the weekend came close, I changed my mind. These were all really good friends. We had had such fun together. Air tickets were not expensive and so I decided to surprise tham. When I knocked on the door of the small apartment, there were hugs and kisses all around. The party was great. During the course of the evening I met a young man for the first time and he came back to my hotel when the party was over. He was great and I was sorry when he had to leave the next morning. Within 5 years, my three friends were dead of AIDS. Other reactions to the series are here - https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/feb/10/its-a-sin-there-is-such-a-raw-truth-to-it

A friend has told me there are two main changes. 1. If you already have the basic Elite visa valid for 5 years which had cost you 500,000 baht, you can now extend it to 20 years for the price of another 500,000 baht. This compares to the basic price for a new 20 years visa of around 2 million baht. 2. If you are thinking about a Thai Elite visa but do not have one, the price of the basic 5 year one has now been raised to 600,000 baht. Unlike other retirement visas obtained here, there are no other financial requirements - i.e. no need to keep cash unused in an account or to remit a monthly amount. This information is from someone who has just extended his visa to 20 years. I am assuming it is correct.

This news item does not bode well for a return to anything like normal in the next year and more. THAI is laying off 395 pilots leaving the airline with only 905. Worse, it is grounding much of its wide body fleet - the Boeing 747s, A380s and A330-300s. This is in addition to the A340s which it has been trying unsuccessfully to sell for about 8 years and which are stored at U-Tapao. Other airlines have been reducing their fleets by getting rid of long haul aircraft. British Airways has already sent its 31 747-400s off to a graveyard in the States. Qantas has mothballed all its A380s until 2003. This surely presages a major reduction in long haul travel. https://thethaiger.com/news/national/thai-airways-lays-off-hundreds-of-pilots-under-debt-rehabilitation-plan

I love the photos of this guy featured in the Myanmar protests who has been in the media on two separate days. Wonder if he might be gay???

I stand corrected. Thank you. I have many happy memories of meeting up with friends using the old style 1920s telephones along the bar and on the tables. It was fun just to watch someone's reaction when their telephone rang. I found that most first looked around the bar to see who would have a receiver at their ear before answering! In the mid-1990s I had a client who visited the Oriental Hotel once month. Each time I had to have breakfast on the terrace with him. The hotel had quite a few cute waiters at that time, but this one was special. I noticed that he smiled at me as he passed our table on my first visit. Every time thereafter, we would smile at each other, occasionally winking, but I never had the courage to go up and chat with him. After my client's project was complete, I popped into Telephone Bar for a final drink before flying home the next evening. Who should be sitting at the bar but the cute waiter from the Oriental. I went up to say Hi and he gave me a very, very long mouth to mouth kiss. He gestured that i should sit with him. End result was that we had a lovely chat and it seemed he was very interested in coming back to the hotel with me. As I got up to leave, he asked if Id like him to join me. Of course, I said yes. He then pulled my head gently to him and whispered in my ear 20,000 baht!!! Oh well. I suppose some who stay at the Oriental can afford that kind of tip! I did not even try to negotiate. I smiled and said goodbye. Never did see him again.

This is very sad. But surely the bar is not 34 years old - unless it started in a different location. I thought it opened in Soi 4 around 1993. I certainly remember visiting what friends told me was a new bar in Soi 4 with an interesting concept around that time. But memory can play tricks! Around that time one of the barmen was Khun An. He later left the bar to live in London. There he met Khun Tee and the two returned half a dozen years ago to open the excellent Le Table de Tee off Soi Saladaeng. Sadly that lovely little restaurant was one of the first casualties of the pandemic.

Further to my comment above, I had written a short comment on the Paleo Robbie website. I received back an email this morning thanking me for my comments adding they had been passed to their Head Chef. Rather surprisingly, he pointed out that the company had already received two negative comments about this particular dish. Since it has been one of their offerings for many weeks, it makes me wonder why they had not made changes to it before now. However, it was kind of them to write.

I have little sympathy with Thai Air Asia. Every business concern must have a disaster scenario playbook. If not, then to have disaster management consultants on a retainer. Such disasters for an airline can include various types of crashes with some or total loss of life to forced grounding. I accept that the present pandemic is unprecedented. But the red flags had been flying with SARS in 2003. One of the worst airlines hit was Cathay Pacific which quickly flew many of its aircraft to a desert airstrip in Australia and had them out of action until air travel out of Hong Kong started to resume. If the Executive Chairman of Asia Aviation had not heard of second, third and fourth waves of covid 19 and their various effects, sometimes occurring months after the end of the first wave, then he does not deserve to be in his job.

Sorry to be a downer. On the basis of the recommendation I registered and ordered the Alaskan Fish Pie with mash which looked very good on the site and which we planned to have for an early dinner this evening. It was delivered right on time. So we popped it in the oven to let it cook for about 20 minutes. Frankly we were disappointed. The portions are large - perfectly good for two. There were loads of excellently cooked vegetables (carrots and broccoli). But the potato mash was not potato mash. It was lots of very large chunks of slightly undercooked potato. We could find very little salmon in the mix and what there was was virtually tasteless. On the basis of this one dish, I would not return. But I will give it one more try. Perhaps steak next time.

Agree that Singapore is one great success stories of our times - plus it is one of the most beautiful of cities. But Singapore was democracy in name only for many decades and certainly also today. Which democratic leader would have the nerve to say this - “We have to lock up people, without trial, whether they are communists, whether they are language chauvinists, whether they are religious extremists. If you don't do that, the country would be in ruins.” Lee Kwan New 1986 “I say without the slightest remorse, that we wouldn’t be here, we would not have made economic progress, if we had not intervened on very personal matters – who your neighbour is, how you live, the noise you make, how you spit, or what language you use. We decide what is right. Never mind what the people think.” Lee Kwan Yew 1987 "So when people say, 'Oh, ask the people!' It's childish rubbish. We are leaders. We know the consequences. You mean that ice-water man knows the consequences of his vote? They say people can think for themselves? Do you honestly believe that the chap who can't pass primary six knows the consequences of his choice when he answers a question viscerally on language, culture and religion?" Lee Kwan Yew 1998 How about the rule of law? His former Solicitor General wrote, "It is our responsibility to let there be no shadow of doubt whatsoever that we are committed to these two principles -- the total commitment of the judiciary in Singapore to dispensing justice according to law, and to upholding the independence of the judiciary -- and to dispel as forcefully as lies within our power any attempt from any quarter to cast doubt that these two principles are being adhered to here. "There was, alas, a vast chasm separating the precept from the practice." Francis T. Seow 1997 Singapore has always been a dictatorship disguised as a democracy. Benevolent perhaps, apart from those who have tried to change it and ended up bankrupt or in prison - or both.

Spoon will be better able to comment. But I do not believe democracy is merely the ability of the electorate to eject a government and install a new one. When Article 153 of its Constitution guarantees racial priority to ethnic Malays over the other ethnic peoples in the country, that in my view is not democracy. Its first Chief Minister Tunku Abdul Rahman had clearly stated to the British colonial government that the new Malaya should not discriminate on the grounds of race or creed and that all citizens should have equal rights. Yet discrimination has always existed and is enshrined in Article 153. It is also illegal for Parliament to discuss any changes to Article 153. So, for example, ethnic Chinese do not have the same rights as Malays even though it is the Chinese who drive most of the economy.

Elections increasingly seem to mean little in Asia. Myanmar, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, The Philippines, Hong Kong (where they are now dead) and Japan are/were all answerable to a certain extent to an electorate. Much less so today. I venture to suggest that only Taiwan and South Korea have anything like true democracy, although South Korea is borderline.

Ill take a punt. A shoe shop - MIKE being a Thai rip off of NIKE.

And you would be happy with the cost of healthcare as in the United States?

Might this be the reason for Trump's reluctance to criticise Putin and his regime? Or just another KGB game to sow seeds of doubt? Journalist and author Craig Unger, who has written seven books including "House of Trump, House of Putin," has just published a new book "American Kompromat" whose primary source is a former KGB agent Yuri Shvets. Shvets claims Trump was recruited as a Russian agent 40 years ago. He compares Trump with the Cambridge Five in England. This group of Cambridge undergraduates, recruited in in the 1930s, were the sleeper spies Burgess, Maclean, Kim Philby, Sir Anthony Blunt who later held a position as Surveyor of the Queen's Pictures, and John Cairncross who had worked as a code breaker at Bletchley Park during World War 2 and fed secrets to the Soviets. Burgess and Maclean were discovered in 1951 and fled to Moscow. At the time there was talk for years of a 'Third Man". Philby, who for a time had been a member of Britain's Secret Service MI6 and then worked as a journalist, fled to Moscow in 1963. The following year Blunt was exposed, but his treachery was covered up and he was permitted to keep his knighthood and his position at Buckingham Palace. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher was forced to admit in parliament he had been the "Fourth Man". In 1964 Cairncross admitted he was the "Fifth Man" in return for immunity from prosecution. Cairncross had been recruited by Blunt. "Unger describes how Trump first appeared on the Russians’ radar in 1977 when he married his first wife, Ivana Zelnickova, a Czech model. Trump became the target of a spying operation overseen by Czechoslovakia’s intelligence service in cooperation with the KGB. "Three years later Trump opened his first big property development, the Grand Hyatt New York hotel near Grand Central station. Trump bought 200 television sets for the hotel from Semyon Kislin, a Soviet émigré who co-owned Joy-Lud electronics on Fifth Avenue. "According to Shvets, Joy-Lud was controlled by the KGB and Kislin worked as a so-called “spotter agent” who identified Trump, a young businessman on the rise, as a potential asset. Kislin denies that he had a relationship with the KGB. "Then, in 1987, Trump and Ivana visited Moscow and St Petersburg for the first time. Shvets said he was fed KGB talking points and flattered by KGB operatives who floated the idea that he should go into politics."