PeterRS

Not sure how it is done in Germany but in Bangkok the basic equipment looks pretty complicated and expensive. But spread over several procedures per day, that cost will be amortised in less than a year I reckon. Part of the cost in Bangkok is for the anaesthetist . He/she not only administers the sedative but has to be on hand in the remote case of something going seriously wrong. I suspect the doctor and anaesthetist fees cover about half the cost. Plus Bumrungrad now pads bills quite heavily, no doubt to help finance its expension into other countries.

There is a ,lengthy topic over on gaybuttonthai about Hong Kong Airlines being in a precarious financial position and how it is cutting back its trans Pacific routes. It had planned to compete with Cathay Pacific over the Pacific but with tourism in Hong Kong down around 40% Cathay has now axed some flights and will no doubt be slashing fares on some others. It seems clear that Hong Kong Airlines will have a mighty job on its hands keeping its trans Pacific flights afloat at those fares. With a mountain of debt and large reduction in passengers, the chances must surely be that all their trans Pacific routes will be axed sooner rather than later.. https://gaybuttonthai.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=10005

If I may be permitted to go off on a slight tangent, how you fill in the time between checking out and getting to the airport can throw up odd experiences. Checking out of a New York hotel about 15 years ago with 4 hours before I had to leave for the airport. I decided to get the subway down to the Village and buy a few gay DVDs. Purchase made followed by a nice coffee and cake, I returned to the hotel, got my bags and popped the DVDs into a back pocket in my carry on. I then locked that part. Checking in for my flight to Los Angeles, I was surprised to see SSS in rather large letters on my boarding pass. I asked what they meant. Confidential, I was told. So I slowly ambled up to the security check, took off my shoes, took my lap top and my small bag of liquids out and walked through. No problem. No alarm or anything. But a very large lady waddled over to me and asked me to move to the side. She then proceeded to all but strip search me. Satisfied, she then turned to my carry-on and I realised too late that the porn DVDs were inside. Naturally I had to unlock everything and let her go through the lot. She found the DVDs whereupon she laid them individually on the table for all other passengers to see. I was more than slightly embarrassed. When she found nothing, she asked me to pack it all, get properly dressed and proceed to my gate. Once in my seat, I heard my name mentioned. I was being asked to go to the first class cabin with my luggage. Great, I thought. An upgrade. Unfortunately no. There were two airport cops waiting to escort me out to the boarding area. They were extremely polite but would not tell me what was happening. Once outside, nothing happened. Then one shouted at the top of his voice, "Get over here fast. Were holding up the aircraft." Soon I saw the overweight security lady waddling as fast as she could. When she arrived, one cop asked her, "Where?" She pointed to the back pocket of my carry-on. As requested I opened it and they found the DVDs. They then became extremely angry - but not at me. "You held up this flight just for this?" "Yes, these should not be allowed!" The cop angrily shouted at her to go back to he post, repacked my bag and then apologised very profusely. They then asked me to fill up a form which I understood would enable me to claim some form of compensation for harassment. I waived that right and said I just wanted the plane to get on my way to LAX. On board, the purser came up to me and offered me a bottle of wine as compensation - but sadly no upgrade! It was only weeks later that I discovered what SSS meant. Airlines have access to the full details of a ticket. Since mine had originated in Bangkok and Thailand was still regarded as a 'sensitive' country, the SSS stood for "Special Security Screening". You live and learn!

I would not bank on it. Tourism is down by huge numbers. Hotel prices have dropped quite dramatically and shops have enticing sales. But the protests show no sign of stopping because the idiot Chief Executive has been totally reactive and put offers on the table that are weeks and months too late. My guess is that CX is preparing for another round of cuts if the protests do not stop in the next week or so. The airline's balance sheet will already make for depressing reading. Future traffic projections even more so. Unless tourism figures start to increase - and we are already in the peak tourism season - my gut feel is more flights will get the chop. Sorry!

Meanwhile Bangkok has enjoyed the longest monsoon rain free months I can ever recall. There have been a few storms but far fewer than over the last 15 years and each has lasted only 15 minutes or so instead of often one hour.

There is a small number of hotels that have started to introduce 24 hour bookings. So if you arrive at 7.00 pm you are entitled to a 7.00 pm check out. The U Hotel Sukhumvit and the U hotel Sathorn (off Ngamduplee not far from Babylon). But their cheapest rates will be a lot more than the other hotels discussed here, even on agoda.

I think there is a degree of selfishness when we travel. We know hotels have check-in and check-out rules but we sometimes expect them to fit in with our own different arrival and departure times especially if we inform them in advance. But the fact is that the staff in hotels have a lot of work to do between check out and check in. Although we may arrive at 7 in the morning we get pissed off that there is no room for an early arrival. And if we have a late night flight we again get pissed off when we cannot stay beyond the official check out time. As others have stated, you are much more likely to find fewer problems if you keep the hotel informed. And if you have paid for a room, the hotel is obliged to provide you with a room even though you may have suffered a delay, But many people do not prepay their rooms. That becomes a gray area. If you are delayed and have not got message to the hotel, then you could well find tour room is given away if the hotel is full. I once had an extremely long delay arriving at a New York hotel and no way of reaching reception to inform them. So instead of arriving at 5.00 pm as earlier advised I did not get there till 1.00 am. The receptionist looked at my reservation form, checked hi computer and then told me he was sorry the hotel was full and they had given my room away a couple of hours earlier. But i had prepaid. As I was about to explode, he informed me that he would upgrade me to a top floor suite for my three nights! It happened to be a 4 star hotel but not a chain hotel and I had stayed there only once a few years before. What would have happened in a one or two star hotel I just do not know. But having paid in advance, there must be some obligation on the hotel to provide accommodation whenever you happen to arrive in that 24 hour period My rule is therefore clear. I prepay much more often than not. I keep hotels informed of my expected arrival time and any change. If arriving early or departing late, I request in advance access to the room early or late. But I accept it is up to the hotel. Sometimes it works, most times not. But if I am arriving on an early flight at around 7.00 am, I will usually prepay that one night just to make sure!

Not sure how old the Tarntawan is but hotels and apartments built before around 1995 are likely to have metal pipes throughout the building. A new water tank seems likely the cause on this occasion. But in the heat and humidity of Thailand if the general piping has not been changed to the heavy duty plastic variety increasingly water will have a slightly brownish tinge.

Seems clear the writer has no clue that The Birth of Venus is one of the great Renaissance paintings by Botticelli!

Four years ago a colonoscopy at Bumrungrad was 30,000 baht!! Bumrungrad has been consistently raising its prices over the last ten years.

Well, I may have drawn an incorrect conclusion but working abroad is one of the key factors in the two links you posted.

In the case of a colonoscopy, I recking this is a false saving. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the USA for men and women combined. This year it is estimated 51,000 men will die from the cancer. In the UK, approx. 100 males are diagnosed with colorectal cancer each day. I believe I am right in saying polyps which develop and may become cancerous are a leading indicator of the cancer. These are easily spotted and whipped out in a routine colonoscopy.

I believe it all depends on age and what the doctor finds - if anything. I was always told everyone should get one at 50. If clear, then ten years before the next one is OK. But if he finds a few polyps, I was always told every 5 years. Now close to 70 I have had 4 over the years and nothing has ever been found thankfully. A few weeks ago at Bumrungrad, I had a different doctor. After she had prescribed some medication for an unrelated illness, I asked when I should have another colonoscopy procedure. My regular doctor had said 5 years since the last. After looking at my file, this doctor said 10 years after the last! Curious!

Isnt one problem the very real fact that civil servants in Thailand are basically paid peanuts at least until they reach the upper levels. They have no incentive to do anything more than apply rules. They are not paid to think.

Delete - sorry

The Thai Tourism Authority has given India preference for funding promotions for at least two years now. Also the main carriers like THAI, Thai Smile, Bangkok Airways, Nok, Thai Lion and Air Asia have added quite a few regular extra flights from India. On the last few times I have been in Central Chidlom in Bangkok, Indian visitors have been very much in evidence.

I typically carry not only essential meds but a number of others just in case I happen to need them and have difficulty finding them when I travel. Just basic things like a bottle of panadol tablets, several daily vitamin tablets, imodium in case of stomach upsets, mild sleeping tablets and so on. I may take a couple of each on a plane in a small clear container but I am not adding to my on board luggage by putting them in that. Another issue is booze. The booze stocked by most duty free outlets at airports is basically the same popular brands. In a city I will sometimes get a digestif or a bottle of sherry (have you ever seen a fino sherry in a duty free outlet in Asia) which will be considerably cheaper than if purchased in Thailand. That has to be packed in my checked luggage and will show up on the x-ray. I'll bet the eagle-eyed customs will demand the bag be opened and I will be asked why I did not carry it on board. They will then either charge duty on it or trash it. They will not be interested in finding out WHY it was not purchased at an airport after checkin. I still see this as another waste of money with someone no doubt having received a very large brown envelope form the purchase of the machines. A bit like the army's very expensive hot air observation balloon that just collapsed and died!

Martinson, you told us you have lived here for 13 years and the reason now is primarily your boyfriend. I assume you are retired - please correct me if I am wrong. But if I am right, you have posted one link to a survey that specifically relates to where it is best for expats to work. The issues are not identical. I cannot see that "Job Security" has much interest to retirees. On the other hand, I totally agree about the TM30 nonsense.

I can see yet more lengthy queues as a result of this measure. If I have some medication in my case, how are the x-ray machines to know if this is prescribed medication and not illicit drugs in pill form? They can't. So how many inbound passengers will be stopped and asked to open bags unnecessarily? It just seems another exercise to put off tourists.

When I was mugged in Rio, it was around noon on a bright sunny Sunday near the centre of the city with few people around. Muggings do not necessarily happen after dark!

Of course it is not the case that all expats have to pay someone to process the paperwork. I decide to use a law firm to help with all the documentation for the annual retirement renewal, if only because in my case there are around two dozen separate pieces of paper that have to be filled in and signed, most only in Thai. But as to the corrupt Immigration officer argument, my rule of thumb throughout my career is that when a problem arises I investigate to find out the root cause. I am not into quick fixes because the problem inevitably arises again. The primary reason for the new retirement rules and some having to tie up virtually $26,000 unused for life is exclusively due to corrupt Immigration officers. If they did not exist, there could be no crook agents. There could then be no crook expats. But Thai immigration seems perfectly happy to let these crooks in their Department continue to operate. Frankly, I reckon many of the crook agents have already worked a way around the 800,000/400,000 rule. Only the bribes will have to be a bit larger. As for the TM30, why is it not possible for a collection drop box to be available at the airports for those who happen to travel outside Thailand either occasionally or regularly? Why has immigration relaunched it without any grace period and, much more importantly, without getting the bugs in their computer system fully ironed out so that it would work smoothly from Day 1? I have no porblem with rules - provided the implications of a rule have been thoroughly thought through and those enacting it accept that there is no one type of expat. There are different types of expat and there is no one rule that fits all. That is what has given so many the impression that most expats are crooks and need to be reigned in for the safety of the Kingdom. I do not like to be considered a crook by anyone!

It would serve them right if an aircraft in trouble just happened to land in the middle of one!

I can understand the reasoning behind the TM30 form. What I totally fail to understand is why the old rule was reinforced so strongly without the Immigration Department being ready for it! I read a letter by one Bangkok Post reader to say he had gone to Immigration to register his apartment, waited four hours and still could not get to a counter. So he had to return the next day. Total cost? Endless frustration and a waste of about 1,400 baht in taxi fares. Recent days have even seen a senior Immigration officer admit they still have procedures which need updating. Its just nuts! I believe I wrote on another thread. When I return from an overseas trip, all the information required by Immigration is on my arrival form. Immigration has already had precisely the same information on their files for years ever since I started on the retirement visa route. But now after I arrive back at my condo, assuming I have registered - which I have not - I have to fill in a TM 30 and send it in, once again with exactly the same information on it! Why can I not just give the Immigration officer at the airport a TM 30 along with my arrival card? Or why not have a collection box at the airport? It seems Immigration assumes that all expats live in rented accommodation and spend weeks travelling around the country or to neighbouring countries. They seem not to believe that anyone might actually own an apartment and always return to it. It is always the reduction to the lowest common denominator - in this case an assumption that farang can not be trusted no matter that they have obeyed all the rules for many years.

Seems like 11 articles under this part of the Board https://gaybuttonthai.com/viewforum.php?f=4

I had the same problem - and I thought it was only me. I did not have a regular salary as I was a company director dependent on how the company performed. I had over $200,000 in my account with that bank at that time. I was informed I would automatically receive a Platinum card. I did not want one - merely a regular card. No problem, I was told. A week later I was informed by letter that I had not completed details of my salary and could not receive the card until I had done so. After my phoning the bank and being told it was their error, I got yet another letter saying the same thing. I gavve up and transferred everything to a different bank!