September 30th, 2006, 18:59
I swear somebody asked on one of these forums, and I thought it was Sawatdee, about whether he could buy Metamucil here rather than taking up space in his luggage for an extended stay. I tried forum search on Metamucil and psyllium and couldn't find it but, if he's reading this and not yet in LOS, I can answer his question:
YES.
Psyllium is referred to by another term here: Ispaghula.
Not sure if the terms are 100% interchangeable or if Ispaghula is processed psyllium, but after traipsing all over Pattaya today trying to find psyllium I ended up at a health food store on Pattaya Nua. They hadn't heard of it, and when I showed them the Thai translation เทียนเกล็ดหอย that I found on ThaiVisa.com, they still were stumped. She did a Google in Thai and realized it had something to do with laxatives, so we walked over to a shelf with about 5 different types of Ispaghula, including one whose name caught my eye: "Mucilin" Hmmmm, awfully close to Metamucil. I bought some, came home and googled psyllium +ispaghula, and voila. It's seems to be the same as Metamucil.
More than you wanted to know, I'm sure, but if your drainage canal ever gets sluggish, ask for "Ispaghula" at a Thai drug store.
Regarding the place on Pattaya Nua, to quote a post on ThaiVisa.com: "The very large drug store on Pattaya Nua called Fascino (coming from Sukhumvit, on the left past the first set of traffic lights - has its own parking area)which has an extensive range of health food supplements, vitamins, etc. It's the best I've seen in Thailand - but maybe not what you're looking for. I get my cod liver oil and Omega 3 tablets there, but I can't find glucose tablets anywhere." The staff there was most helpful and resourceful.
YES.
Psyllium is referred to by another term here: Ispaghula.
Not sure if the terms are 100% interchangeable or if Ispaghula is processed psyllium, but after traipsing all over Pattaya today trying to find psyllium I ended up at a health food store on Pattaya Nua. They hadn't heard of it, and when I showed them the Thai translation เทียนเกล็ดหอย that I found on ThaiVisa.com, they still were stumped. She did a Google in Thai and realized it had something to do with laxatives, so we walked over to a shelf with about 5 different types of Ispaghula, including one whose name caught my eye: "Mucilin" Hmmmm, awfully close to Metamucil. I bought some, came home and googled psyllium +ispaghula, and voila. It's seems to be the same as Metamucil.
More than you wanted to know, I'm sure, but if your drainage canal ever gets sluggish, ask for "Ispaghula" at a Thai drug store.
Regarding the place on Pattaya Nua, to quote a post on ThaiVisa.com: "The very large drug store on Pattaya Nua called Fascino (coming from Sukhumvit, on the left past the first set of traffic lights - has its own parking area)which has an extensive range of health food supplements, vitamins, etc. It's the best I've seen in Thailand - but maybe not what you're looking for. I get my cod liver oil and Omega 3 tablets there, but I can't find glucose tablets anywhere." The staff there was most helpful and resourceful.