# Useful Links



## Guest

This post will include as many as possible of the links you come up with. Medical, visa, legal, tourist info, all suggestions welcome... I'll start the ball rolling with a couple of embassies...

Useful comments about any of the entries? - I'll add a link to the post with the comment, next to the entry.

*EMBASSIES and CONSULATES - Bangkok*

US Embassy
UK Embassy
Australian Embassy
Belgian Embassy
Irish Consulate
South African Embassy
Swedish Embassy
French Embassy


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## Serendipity2

frogblogger,

Thanks for putting that up but I think the last thing most expats want is the contact to their embassy. No offense, but I sure don't want one to mine! The further I distance myself from my government [and all others as well] the healthier and wealthier I am.

I do think every expat could benefit from a list of medical providers and dental offices, though. A few of us might need to contact our embassy - perish the thought - but all of us need medical and dental - even if on a preventative measures basis. For example, a tooth that needs filling or an oral exam/teeth cleaning. On the medical side, an annual physical or flu shots etc. When one is in serious health is not the time to try to figure out who to consult or which clinic to go to. If we can possibly afford it, all of us should have some sort of health and accident coverage too. If we don't [happened to me] you will get bent over and reamed - full bore retail - which is many times what it would cost for the same procedure had you been covered. Sooner or later ALL of us will need medical and most of us will need dental. Planning ahead is a good idea and a money saver. Just my humble musings! 

Serendipity2


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## Guest

The point of a list of links is that it should be comprehensive, and cover as many aspects of life in LOS as possible. Obviously that may include health contacts, good sources of information for tourism, as well as official departments (for visas etc). Whether you like your embassy or not, in certain circumstances contact with them is unavoidable.

I picked embassies as they were the easiest to find to get something into the list to start things going, no other reason. I'm assuming people will come across handy info now and again and, hopefully, will post the links here.


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## Serendipity2

frogblogger said:


> The point of a list of links is that it should be comprehensive, and cover as many aspects of life in LOS as possible. Obviously that may include health contacts, good sources of information for tourism, as well as official departments (for visas etc). Whether you like your embassy or not, in certain circumstances contact with them is unavoidable.



frogblogger,

Kudos for the British Embassy. I've also heard good things about the Canadian Embassy. But I thought medical and dental and health/accident insurance coverage would be beneficial to everyone.


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## Guest

Serendipity2 said:


> frogblogger,
> 
> Kudos for the British Embassy. I've also heard good things about the Canadian Embassy. But I thought medical and dental and health/accident insurance coverage would be beneficial to everyone.


I'm sure it will. Post a few useful links, and I'll add them to the top post!


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## Bevdeforges

Serendipity2 said:


> frogblogger,
> 
> Kudos for the British Embassy. I've also heard good things about the Canadian Embassy. But I thought medical and dental and health/accident insurance coverage would be beneficial to everyone.


Not sure how it is in Thailand, but I know in France the consulates regularly put out a call to medical professionals in the area to prepare their listings of professionals who speak English (or, more likely, those willing to take on foreign patients who don't speak the local language). Other than in the large cities, they are having more and more difficulty getting professionals to "speak up" to be listed. Maybe the Brits and American patients are too demanding or they just don't want to be bothered, but compiling a list of English speaking professionals can be a huge chore - then there the wishes of the practitioners themselves to consider. Some doctors don't want to be listed as "English speaking" for whatever reasons, and in some countries listings may run counter to local laws regarding advertising for the medical (or other) professions.
Cheers,
Bev


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## Guest

Yes, and it goes without saying - or though perhaps I should have pointed it out in the first place - that recommendations for individual businesses etc are borderline without respect to forum rules on advertising. This may or may not be manageable, we'll see how it goes.


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## Serendipity2

frogblogger said:


> I'm sure it will. Post a few useful links, and I'll add them to the top post!



frogblogger,

Thanks for your reply. I'm not in Kingdom but a few thousand expats are. Many of them living in Chiang Mai or surrounds. 

I'm reasonably sure that you have had some interaction with the medical, dental and health insurance issues and could start the list. Others could add to it. The list should, if possible, try to include some rating system [not very scientific but beats the telephone directory] where all of the good reviews and the bad reviews are noted and the particular facility is rated to give some sort of average for that particular facility/business/clinic/office. 

Insurance is another item all should have. Many have from their home country but if they don't they should buy something locally that will cover them in the event of a sickness or accident. I have no clue as to what's good and bad nor do most expats living in Thailand but this could be a start. Maybe! 

Serendipity2


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## Acid_Crow

What S2 is talking about is a good idea, in theory. I don't think it will work though, because it will just be free advertising and we will never really know if we can trust the ratings. 

I noticed on another thread, were someone asked if a certain bar in Pattaya had closed. 2 new accounts were made, saying "It's still open, and it's still the best bar.." etc.
Most likely the barowner had googled the name and got some free adspace because of it.

I bet I could make som money spamming forums about a new dental clinic or whatever. The only way to avoid those kind of spammers is to not allow it.


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## Serendipity2

frogblogger said:


> Yes, and it goes without saying - or though perhaps I should have pointed it out in the first place - that recommendations for individual businesses etc are borderline without respect to forum rules on advertising. This may or may not be manageable, we'll see how it goes.



frogblogger,

Why would it be borderline? All we would be doing is posting the names of clinics, hospitals etc that we recommend - and why we recommend them. I doubt any expat owns a clinic or hospital and you can tell pretty quickly by how long they've been a member of this forum. I seriously doubt a hospital, dental office or clinic would go to the trouble to pose as an expat and recommend their own business. If they did they would lose much face when found out. 

Forum rules should be about US promoting businesses that WE have a financial interest in. We regularly post comments about restaurants and many other businesses here without a second thought and I'll bet some of those are owned by expats. Who cares - we all benefit from information and information is about selling us a good or service, isn't it? Heck, even recommendations on massage parlors should be welcome. Just my humble opinion of course! 

Serendipity2


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## Guest

Yep, but the problem is anyone can join the forum as Acid Crow notes above, and with a bit of common sense can make it look as if they are ordinary punters with no direct interest, especially in a thread such as this. Private clinics are as vulnerable as anything else to this kind of manipulation.

Even if we don't go as far as the likes of a bar section, private commercial businesses (legal, health, education, whatever) will have their professional promoters looking for the opportunity to plug their names. We see it on these forums every day. On the Thai forum alone three or four such posts have to be deleted every 24 hours. 

Anyway, we'll play it by ear for the time being. See how it goes...


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## Serendipity2

frogblogger said:


> Yep, but the problem is anyone can join the forum as Acid Crow notes above, and with a bit of common sense can make it look as if they are ordinary punters with no direct interest, especially in a thread such as this. Private clinics are as vulnerable as anything else to this kind of manipulation.
> 
> Even if we don't go as far as the likes of a bar section, private commercial businesses (legal, health, education, whatever) will have their professional promoters looking for the opportunity to plug their names. We see it on these forums every day. On the Thai forum alone three or four such posts have to be deleted every 24 hours.
> 
> Anyway, we'll play it by ear for the time being. See how it goes...



frogblogger,

I agree that that is possible. That said, how much credence do you or I put in any post of someone who has no track record? If someone has been an expat in Thailand and has been a contributor to this forum then they are pretty much a known quantity but those who recently join may or may not be believable. I would find it hard to believe a Thai [they will own the clinics, hospitals etc not expats] would come onto this forum, try to convince us that a particular clinic, hospital or medical practitioner is good. Nothing is perfect in life and many people DO have agendas but I doubt someone would hype a medical or dental facility. I have a lot more faith in the integrity of those in the medical and dental field than that or I wouldn't go into one of their offices. IF, on the other hand, we ARE fooled we will soon find out as others would avail themselves of that business and report very much different results - and that would be the end of that clinic or hospital.

The only medical facility I can speak to is Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok. The first time I went there - fabulous. I was literally walked to the head of every line and my experience was outstanding. I'm sure I paid way more than a Thai but what I paid was very modest. Several months later I had the reverse experience. By then I think Thailand had become known as an inexpensive place for medical procedures. My needs were very modest but this time I ended up waiting a fair bit of time and was not impressed with the quality of care. I saw two docs and the second didn't seem to be interested in what I told him and why I was there. The fees had increased fairly substantially by then and I never had a reason to return. If you do a Google search of Bumrungrad Hospital it will describe itself as a World Class Hospital in Bangkok and I'm sure there are many fine docs there - but they've elevated their game and now it's about the money. Farang money! Without some kind of insurance we get bent over and hosed, make no mistake. But that's true anywhere in the world so I can't blame them for being greedy.

Serendipity2


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## Acid_Crow

Since this still beeing a sticky, about usefull links, could we add links to other forums that handle Thailand as a subject? I know those forums will be competetive to this one, but they are still a source of information that might be usefull to most expats, even though I believe that most expats and consider'ees already know them..
So if it's against forum policy, then forget it..

Also, there must be some more-or-less official sites about the most tourist-oriented citys across LoS.. like 3xw.thaicity.com or something like that.. just to add to the links.. could be usefull, if any of the mod's have time do a little research, ehh, FB?


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## greenstudio

I am looking for visa information website..


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## 4thRight

This is my first time through this forum on Thailand. There are numerous issues in which I am interested and have entered comments in those I just could not pass by. Health Care is a HUGE interest and I will continue looking (or do a search) for an appropriate thread. If the US has Veteran health care somewhere .... I am looking for that in particular. I also wonder if I should stay stealthy in regard to any military history. I don't intend to be a voting member of the Thai community.


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## Dazzal

*Good idea goes nowhere . . .*

:focus:


4thRight said:


> This is my first time through this forum on Thailand. There are numerous issues in which I am interested and have entered comments in those I just could not pass by. Health Care is a HUGE interest and I will continue looking (or do a search) for an appropriate thread. If the US has Veteran health care somewhere .... I am looking for that in particular. I also wonder if I should stay stealthy in regard to any military history. I don't intend to be a voting member of the Thai community.


This thread started with a good idea, but only one or two contributed useful information. I will add my experience at Bumrungrad. After the initial ear exam, I feel that I was sent to one other unneccessay exam - not too bad, cost wise. But I paid quite a bit extra using their pharmacy. I recommend asking for the prescription and having it filled elsewher at a smaller pharmacy.


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## cnx_bruce

Problematic topic for many online forums:

* lot of interest from readers in both recommendation threads and in name/shame discussions
* can be manipulated easily for positive (spamming) or negative (cranks, competitors -> defamation risk) motivation - with usually no right of reply for those who get slighted/slammed
* one person's meat is another's poison - many reviews are personal and subjective
* web sites, email addresses and key staff change so even valid feedback become out of date quite quickly yet material stays on the web forever
* regular forum users who contribute to the value of a forum (and hence site traffic) should be allowed to promote their products/services at least a little/within reason - especially when those products/services are reputable and fulfill a need for the target audience BUT at the same time respecting the rights/interest of paying advertisers

I think the balance in this forum is about right, for example they allow members to list their web site addresses whilst drawing the line at "look at me, look at me" self promotion


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## stednick

Quick comment: 

A "Useful Links" List would be a good tool to have. However, any list or database requires significant maintenance. Also, as pointed out by other posters, some formal rules and regulations must be established. Remember, "you get what you pay for" and this would equate to free advice. 

From my experience, the list would remain "current" for about one week before web addresses would change, links become disabled, invalid and/or stolen. An additional concern would be the large amount of misinformation that would invariably be posted.


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## 4thRight

My personal situation is that I am not "set up" anywhere yet, having to wait work for the end of this divorce process. I am somewhat active on Survival (magazine) site and this site - very limited activity. My patience level is pretty limited so I do searches and find (this) a forum tht looks good and bump abound. to the point ...
Assuming I move to Chiang Mai I would hire a helper to assist me with shopping, cleaning and negotiating the community. As I discover places of business like Dentists, Health Clinics, Bars, restaurants, bars and so on, I gain some experience and knowledge of these places. I might make it sort of a hobby to keep myself busy doing something that is of some value to others kind of like enlisting. I might even have a near death experience to make note of. What seems cool to me is if others in my neck of the hedge row drop in and maybe sort of check things out and add their own comments, everything being really short.
I'm envisioning everyone focusing on their TAOR and giving a sitrep that get checked out.
I've read back and recognize some of the problems but I think that as a group, with specific area knowledge, the pack can sort out the chaff from the kernels.


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