Bruce In Bangkok wrote in
:

They don't want any lay-abouts so in order to get a resident permit
you need to lodge 800,000 baht in a Thai bank.



Wow....$US23K is kinda steep! I might have to work! Not good.

Sorry about your friend. I hurt my hand in Bahrain, slammed into a door
but didn't break anything. The hotel sent me to the hospital and the
Bahraini doctor, educated at UCLA Medical Center with honors from the
sheepskin proudly displayed on his office wall, fixed me up. He just
filled out some government forms and had a good laugh when I asked how
much. "You are a guest in our kingdom. We'll take care of the bill.", he
mused.

I tried to get him and his wonderful staff to come take over medical
service in Charleston, but he politely refused saying he never understood
greedy American doctors only interested in money, not patients....

Drug stores in Bahrain are a shock. They don't have prescriptions. The
druggist finds out what you need and sells it to you. I had a splitting
headache and tried to buy an aspirin from the hotel who sent me down to the
corner drugstore. The druggist sold me a lifetime supply of Darvon 65. I
don't take drugs, even Tylenol if I don't absolutely have to. One Darvon
put me out for almost a day....headache gone! I think they're still in the
meds cabinet with some colds tablets from 1986. I have a box with about
$US45,000 in pills left over from my hypocondriac father's house after he
died. There's stuff in there I can't even pronounce with dire warning on
them. I think it killed him.