Bob

DD, you're right, it's IMG (sorry, it's just a card in my wallet and I hopefully will never have to use it). My coverage, I think, has a $2,500.00 annual deductible but that's fine with me as all I want is coverage for something really big (and it's much cheaper with a higher deductible).

Michael, I spent a fair amount of time earlier this year trying to figure out what coverage I could get over here (similar to the reimbursement deal I had with my BC/BS plan then in place) but the bottom-line was that I concluded that pretty much nothing was available under the new plans (or, more pertinent to me, nothing much was available under any of the Medicare Advantage plans). Each of the available Medicare Advantage plans have the same feature regarding overseas coverage (which seems to be for emergency care only and then only within the first 60 days of a trip outside the US). I don't know for sure but, given the fairly identical provisions, I'm guessing the law mandates that particular coverage and the insurance companies are offering nothing more than that. Given I'm over here 9 months a year, I ended up getting some ING coverage for my time in Thailand. It has big deductibles, doesn't cover pre-existing stuff (no problem for me there), and isn't too expensive. But, as one gets older, the price of such a plan will go up every year and one could definitely have a big hole in future coverage if a new illness/condition becomes a pre-existing condition in a future policy. Given you're out of the country (I think) many months of every year, seems to me that you need to simply go find a policy that's somewhat similar to the reimbursement deal you had with BC/BS. And it'd sure as hell be nice if it was guaranteed to be renewable for as long as you want it.....but I'm not sure you're going to find anything like that. In fact, I'm not sure you're going to find anything that's acceptable that covers you internationally and within the US.

Hmmmm.....correction, an idiot runs Internet Explorer (quote function works just fine for me with Google Chrome). Oh well, back to the drawing board. Sorry Scooby, false alarm.

Guess it's an operator error (an idiot runs this laptop)....but I still can't get it to work in spite of deleting the cookies and other stuff. Oh well, I won't miss it much....you guys aren't worth quoting much anyway...hahahahhahaha. Edit: You will note that I'm no longer a "like" virgin.

Title tells you all, Scooby.

"Underneath that fig leaf-----..." [scooby, the damn quote doohickey still isn't working] Must be where they get the phrase "a FIGment of his imagination?"

"Surprised this thread hasn't been closed by now and not sure it wouldn't be the right thing to do." [i have to type willie's quote here as the damn "quote" thing still won't work] Just be lucky I'm not a moderator as I would have wiped out most of this thread along with half of the comments you just made. First you bring up the "decades old controversy" that you have no knowledge about and then you bring up the owner of another board (who, I think and hope, never posted here). For god's sake man, give all this crap a rest. I've been on the edge of being bored out of my gourd over the message boards and have thought of just deleting the urls to same and doing something more important - like laundry. I'm getting closer to that point every day.

[i tried to use the "quote" feature but it's not working at the moment; in any event, I'm responding to the second paragraph of Scotty's post] Bingo, Scotty! I have no desire to get into this slagfest and wish everyone would refrain from discussing - politely or otherwise (unfortunately, the "otherwise" seems to be winning that game) - crap that happened on other boards.

I guess we all have different experiences. I really like Incheon airport and never noticed it was too warm. And I thought the food was fine on Korean Air (although I do eat with the peasants in economy class...hehe).

Koko, as somebody mentioned, try Korean Air. I flew for years on EVA in premium economy (called "elite" on a 777 and something else on a 747) but I've flown on Korean Air in economy for the last couple of years - and the leg room is about the same as EVA's premium economy. Plus, for me, it's perfect to go to Seoul and then directly to Chiangmai.

Okay, seems to be working now. Whoever was messing with the software, slap 'em on the hands.

Makes sense to me. And the time difference presents peculiar problems and potential benefits. For example, since I'm 12 hours later here in Thailand than relatives/friends back in the states, they keep pressing me to notify them of their lottery numbers; however, since I can't seem to get the right deal on how to split the winnings, I'm holding out for a better deal.

Well, he thinks he is. And most definitely a part of the thread has been a little funny and a whole lot ironic given who's suggesting somebody else is opinionated and then attempting a grammatical lesson about politeness! Sorta in the same mold as George W. Bush taking it upon himself to correct somebody else's pronunciation or grammar!

Like some blondes, you shine a flashlight in a Thai politician's ear to put a twinkle in his eye.

As one would expect, the ex-PAD wackos, Sondhi Limongkul and Chamlong Srimuang, are calling for Thailand to reject the ICJ's jurisdiction and apparently are calling for a military solution. One has to wonder where Thailand finds total idiots like this but I suppose such fringe boneheads exist in almost every country. Sondhi, being his own incredibly wacky self, even said (according to the article) "that Thailand should not be run by politicians for a few years." Mr. Democracy he ain't! http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Chamlong-Sondhi-urge-Thais-to-reject-ICJ-verdict-30219325.html

Whereas I find it quite amusing that I missed that one critical day in college where they explained bizarre analogies.

The Thai press seems to be taking it well. Both The Nation and the Bangkok Post mention that Cambodia won sovereignty over the promontory area but that they lost regarding a nearby hill. The Nation's lead article starts out "We both won." Having read the ICJ's judgment, I'd paint those comments as a little "face saving" as Cambodia substantially (and, in my view, logically and justifiably) won the case. As to what the wacky people will do, I see that one group is already calling on the military to ignore the ruling and to consider the ICJ as totally lacking authority over the matter. I'm at least thankful that Sarah Palin can't see the temple from her house....

Hey, sounds like you had fun and that's all that counts. Somewhat reminded me of the nervous excitement I experienced when I first came to Thailand in the late 90's.

Yep, remember that game; but, only the unfortunate who got tabbed with that dull name would remember it. Last year I could get in using a proxy but it was too much of a hassle and way too slow doing it that way....so I gave up. I guess I wait until Surf can resolve the blocking issue. It's slow for me as I'm using wifi here at the townhouse (the beloved gets the friggin' cable modem connection and I get the scraps floating in the air....haha).

Hate to bug you but twice I did the "flushing" for Windows 8 (and it did say that I "successfully flushed the DNS Resolver Cache" and, while I can log in, every forum I try to get into results in the "website not located" coming up. Whatever it is, I've never been able to even get to the site (let alone log in or get into any forum) using this True Internet. And maybe never will be able to do so.

Okay....thanks for that, Surf, but: (1) I now can get to the main page and I can even log in (just did that). (2) However, every forum I try to pull up, I get a page that says "the webpage cannot be found." Any suggestions? P.S. I was able to actually get to the "contact administrator" area but I can't enter a confirmation code as only an "X" in a black box shows up (i.e., I can't contact you that way).

Hmmm....so what's the new url?

Guess I'm going to have to bribe one of those esteemed members to find out what you told them (they may be esteemed but almost everybody has a price!).

No problem....there's nobody in Thailand who doesn't like a $100 US note! Seriously, given the new note won't have any fake ones around (yet!) and it's more difficult to counterfeit, I'd guess the financial people here will embrace it with open arms.

The story (in the photo caption) mentions that there were about 200 people on board that boat. My god, regardless of the idiocy of being high on drugs while operating such a vessel, no person in their right mind would ever put more than 40-50 people on one of those boats. Look at the photo and just try imagining jamming 200 people aboard! I first rode one of the ferries to Koh Larn around 2000 and I'd guess there were 30-40 people aboard the boat (which looked the same as the boat that's pictured in the news story. While cruising out there, I wandered around the boat and began to notice that I didn't see any life jackets. So, I wandered some more specifically looking for life jackets. Guess how many I found......none (if they had any on board, they were locked away somewhere I couldn't get access to)!