Gary

About ten years ago I had a fairly minor stroke, that is if you can call any stroke minor. My blood pressure had always been above the normal limits. Since then I take a blood pressure medication and monitor my blood pressure myself. I have a small cuff type automatic battery powered unit made by a company called Lumiscope. It wasn't that expensive and it gives me peace of mind. It is small enough to take with me on holidays. I consider it a good investment.

I too miss good ham. When I am in Jomtien, I always stop by Rich Man Poor Man on Soi 9. His ham steak dinner is great. He makes a mustard horse radish sauce the really compliments the already good ham. I asked Eddie and he did tell me where he bought the ham but I have forgotten where he said. You get a generous thick slice of ham.

Your web site doesn't give much information regarding a return trip from Pattaya to Hua Hin. I personally have no interest in a tour. The price for a return trip and the time involved are pertinent.

My extensions cost 1,900 baht per year. I have never paid any money under the table. If you anticipate going in and out of the country several times a year, the multi-entry would be best for you. I seldom go out and when I do, it is never more than twice a year. I pay 1,000 baht for each re-entry permit.

When I lived in Jomtien I had no problem using the income letter from the US embassy. Then I moved upcountry and that immigration officer was a true prick. He insisted that I go back to Bangkok to have that letter "legalized" at the Laksi government office. Then it was only good for one year. I didn't want to go through that every year so I put 800,000 in my upcountry local Thai bank and didn't touch it for over three months. I had the verification letter from that bank but that didn't suit him either. He had to know what I was living on since I wasn't touching the 800,000 account. Fortunately I had been using my Pattaya bank account for living expenses and was able to show him the activity in that bank book. After that I used the money from the 800,000 local account for living expenses and every year topped it up three months before my extension expired. That old bastard is now gone and the young guys in that office are easy to deal with, polite and efficient. Each office apparently makes up their own rules as they go along. I had made the mistake of arguing with the old bastard. I was right and he was wrong and he knew it. After the argument he found faults where there were no problems. He even insisted on a doctors report years after that was no longer a requirement. He also wanted three signed copies of everything.

http://www.asiasold.com/view/samsung-s3-use-3-months-good-condition-8000baht-147974?doqs=1

I know a few farangs who stay here without any visa too. That doesn't make it legal. I also know a well off farang who has a farming operation. Thai farm workers have priced themselves out and he employs Lao workers. He had and has to jump through all sorts of hoops on a regular basis to employ them legally.

I was going from Pattaya to Jomtien, I waved down a Jomtien bound baht bus and was on the way. The baht bus was then waved down by a group of six people who talked to the driver a long time. They all piled in and off we went. The baht bus turned off and headed up the hill and stopped at one of the fancy hotels. I got off and asked the driver if he was now going to go to Jomtien. His answer was that he was sorry but was headed back to Pattaya. He then told me "No charge for you". No shit! A motorbike taxi was sitting there and the driver was grinning at me. That little bastard charged me 100 baht to take me to Jomtien. I usually don't have any problems with the baht buses but it is becoming much more frequent for empty baht buses to pass you by without stopping. Not a big deal but it is irritating.

Generalizing is never accurate. Do all Thai women want a farang husband? Some do and maybe many do. My wife had a Thai husband and according to her he was a nice guy but he was stupid and couldn't manage money. Her sister married a Thai guy who was a very talented construction worker who could build anything. Unfortunately when he had some baht in his pocket, he refused to work until he was broke. If his wife said anything about him being hung over and the kids having nothing to eat, he would beat the shit out of her. The house was in his name. He sold the house and left his wife and kids homeless. He took the money and ran off with his girlfriend. I witnessed this first hand. This was the first time I ever heard my wife say that this was the reason that she wanted a farang husband. Her friends always ask me to find farang husbands for them. Do Thai ladies want to leave Thailand and go to the promised land? Don't believe that. My wife would probably go but she wouldn't be happy about it. This is her country and she is happy here. After ten years with this women I am always a little surprised that she still puts up with a crotchety old fart like me.

I once came out of a Go Go bar with a lady on each arm. Someone was filming a documentary and had me in their sights. I'm talking this huge shoulder mounted camera and a farang lady with a microphone. I told the lady that it was likely that someone who was camera shy would would shove that microphone up her ass and smash the camera. I then gave her the double bird and told her that she could put that in her video. Yes, there are some violent prone farangs who would attack them.

They would sell a lot more food if they had a sign out front. A friend and myself were down there a couple weeks ago and every meal we ate at the Camel. Had we known that little bar had food we would have given it a try. If there was even a little sign, we didn't see it. Thanks for the post. Now I know.

My US doctor advised me to have it done on a Friday after work. He said that by Monday I should feel fine. I had it done on Friday and the next day, Saturday, my boss called me and ordered me to go to work. I did and it was very uncomfortable. By Monday I was fine.

I usually stay at the Honey House 2 on Soi 22. It's quite a ways off Sukhumvit but there are always taxis going by. One reason is the The New Cowboy bar up from the hotel towards Sukhumvit has the best coffee I have ever had in Thailand. It comes with a big cup and in a coffee press. Breakfast is pretty good also. A morning walk agrees with me. I think the price for the room is 900 baht. I'm a cheap Charlie and usually find my flavor of the day at Queens Park Plaza. Nana Plaza has priced me out.

I emailed Social Security with expat questions about part B. The lady told me to save my money because Part B would be basically useless for me. The question is what will Obamacare do to the existing medicare benefit?

Variety is the spice of life. That's why many guys are here and not married to Western feminists. Food is the same. Who wants to eat the same food every day.

Hopefully you still have your expired California licence. Mine was expired but my Thai licence was current. I think they ran my expired licence through their computer to see if it was still valid when it expired. I got the car.

You need a letter from the condo committee saying the unit is within the farang authorized number of units.

MM, you forgot to say if the food was any good. Pictures are hard to taste.

Anyone who uses Norton antivirus and thinks it's a memory hog hasn't tried Norton in several years. I DO agree that in the past it used a lot of resources. A couple of years ago they totally rebuilt their system and it is a very good program now. Do I use Norton now? No, I got a free year from them for testing and I was quite impressed. I use the free MS Security Essentials and have no problems. I'm not that familiar with desk top computers but I know that my machine has two ports for different video cables. I got both cables when I bought a new Samsung monitor. Quite frankly I can't see any difference in performance regardless of which port I use. My motherboard is a Gigabyte. If the computer has two video ports, you can easily determine if it is a video card problem.

For my taste, maple syrup is ONLY for pancakes and waffles. Some people may use it for other food but that is not a common practice. If I use steak sauce on any beef, that means the beef is poor quality and I need to somehow add some flavor. Unfortunately here in Thailand most beef is VERY bad and on the rare occasion that I order any type of beef, steak sauce or even ketchup is likely needed. Bangers here are hit and miss too. I have had some that were very good but the majority of them are simply ground pork stuffed into a casing of some sort. Maybe with other fillers added. Sausages NEED spices added to be sausage. That said, I don't care much for the Bourbon Street breakfast sausage. In that case, there is too much spice added.

I had a policy with LMG Thailand. I don't remember for sure what it cost but I bought it before I was 60 years old. I bought from LMG on the condition that I would never be cancelled because of age. What they didn't tell me was that they could and did price me out because of age. I cancelled the policy when I was 65 years old. In the years that I had the policy, I had one claim for appendicitus. If you are over 60 years old you will pay through the nose for probably a shit policy and you can be sure that your premiums will increase substancially every year. I am self insured now and if worse comes to worse and I am able to travel, I will return to the USA for any super expensive treatment. Unfortunately no one knows what kind of coverage retired US expats will have available in the US now that the government is involved.

Having a Thai wife, we have to have two refrigerators. There are a number of Thai condiments that I won't allow in my refrigerator. I have no idea how they can eat some of those vile smelling things.

I was a little surprised that no one had mentioned Bully's before. They do very well with beef and it's a short walk from Nana Plaza. I was quite disappointed with the Tony Roma ribs. I have only been in there once and have not gone back. Maybe they had an off day.

Restaurants come and go. Some start off with good food and for one reason or another the quality goes to hell. Bourbon Street has been very consistent over the years. Of course the old Washington Square days are now gone and Bourbon Street in the Square is gone too. The new location on Ekamai is really not too far out of the way. The quality of the food remains very good but pricey. I don't know where else you can get genuine chicken fried steak. You can even get a very good steak. I don't really care for Mexican food but my friends rave about it. I don't remember ever getting a bad meal there. There are few things more disappointing than remembering a great restaurant, then going back when you are really hungry and finding it has totally gone to hell.

I like Bourbon Street food and service. It is pretty hard to find fault with the food. Unfortunately it is also quite pricey. I guess it comes down to you get what you pay for.