Surgery and Shopping
Trip Start
Nov 26, 2007
1
29
44
Trip End
Apr 17, 2008
Bangkok,
Thailand
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
On the next leg of the journey I was befriended by some English hippie girl who had just bought herself a canal boat to live in a commune somewhere in Yorkshire. I have no idea why it is always this kind of girl who seems to fancy me but it ain't happening....I had a brief moment of panic when I thought I had overstayed my Lao visa next but found a stamp on a following page with a different exit date on it and sailed through effortlessly. Then at the Thai side I got called from the queue into an office by some Raybanned up cop and thought I was in for a grilling but instead he just smiled, said 'VIP treatment' today and stamped my passport without even looking at it (this is a concern in Thailand as they now have a 3 strikes policy of only allowing people 3 visas in one year to try and stop people working illegally).
Coming across the border was amazing. There really can't be many borders like this one in the world. You go from shanty bamboo hut land of Laos to gleaming metal and glass of Bangkok in 100 metres. I had used 2 cashpoints my whole time in Laos but as soon as we entered Thailand there was a bank of 5 (I have to say that Thailand and Bangkok and particular has the highest concentration of ATM's that I have ever seen).
We then had to change bus in Udon Ratchathani and as I had paid for a VIP, sleeping bus ticket it was the perfect opportunity to shake everyone (I find it kinda nice to be alone after being with so many people after a bit) so I set off into town. Originally I set off for an internet café so I could try and book myself into the same place that Karen (of smashed in front teeth fame) was staying in Bangkok but in the end I just wandered and in the space of an hour ate at the market with a selection of 3 different Thai curries, got invited to have a beer with some local lads (once again when you are off the beaten tourist track people can be so friendly) and watched some of the Liverpool Arsenal game with some other locals. The town seemed to be a really busy market town with pretty much anything on sale; the most amazing bit for me was watching all these guys in little sweat shops repairing mobile phones that we would probably just chuck in the bin at home. After my little adventure around town I just got onto the bus and passed out till I got woke up at 4am.
Then the mission began. I knew I had to get to a hotel/hostel in Sukhumvit but didn't have the full name or address. Initially I spent an hour trying to find if I could get a bus or sky train there but in the end had to sack it in and get a taxi. Obviously the taxi driver said he knew where he was going but in the end he didn't have a clue and instead just dropped me at a mall...I can hardly blame him as I had no idea either and he did try his best. I then had to try find an internet café that was open at 6am on a Sunday morning...after that it all became easy. Karen was staying in a nice hostel come hotel place and it was a good choice. But I didn't have time to enjoy the facilities as I had an operation to get so off set to the hospital.
I have to say I have never seen anything like this kind of hospital in our wonderful world of the NHS back home. I walked into the lobby (i.e. a lobby like you would get in the poshest hotel in New York) gave my details over, within 10 minutes I was undergoing a basic medical with a nurse and within 20 minutes was sitting down with a surgeon. He explained to me, in perfect English, that it was possible that there was nothing in my hand and that it could just be scar tissue but the choice was mine. I went for him opening it up solely for my piece of mind so 20 minutes later I was in the operating theatre and was under local anesthetic. In the end all he could find was a scar tissue growth around the termination of the nerves that I had sliced through called a nurole. So credit to nurse Kim is due for getting everything out of there, in fact he was pretty surprised to hear that the wound had never been stitched up in the 1st place. The nurole was about 2mm in diameter so he cut it out and stitched me up and I was off to collect my antibiotics from the hospital pharmacy. Even that was amazing - when you first register they ask you which language you speak and when they call your number up for the pharmacy they use the language you told then at the beginning. Obviously I had to pay but even that was surprising. I was totally expecting a bill of over 500 pounds but in the end it was 120 (and would have been 20 less if they had just told me to go buy the drugs at the pharmacy!!) which with my insurance excess sitting at 100 means there is no point even putting in a claim (just as well really as 2 days previously I had told them I had no pre-existing medical conditions when renewing my insurance).
So I was all home by lunchtime and then found a note from Tintin to say he was in the same hotel as well (he had had to go to hospital as well as he had a stomach ulcer playing up meaning that he had to get an endoscopy) so we went out around town. The side of Bangkok I saw this time is totally different to the Koh San Road end of things where all the travelers hang out, this end of town is all gleaming shopping malls (and I mean gleaming, like with Ferraris and Lamborghinis on the 5th floor and IMAX cinemas on the 6th floor), businessmen and sex tourists.
It is totally sickening watching these old men walk around the malls with their little Thai sex slaves but not quite as sickening as watching them prowl the streets and alleys in the evening looking for their purchase. It is also very surprising how many young men you see with them as well. In fact it is extremely surprising how many western people you see all in all in Bangkok - you never once get on a train or bus without 10% minimum of the people being western.
Anyway, so there I am whacked out on pain killers talking incessantly to Tintin and telling him not to let me buy anything stupid today as I'm not with it...so what does he do...he takes me to Pantip Plaza; the electronics mecca of Bangkok. It truly is amazing with anything on sale - 1st I started off buying a combined LED torch and laser pointer for 75p but by the end I had bought myself a new laptop. I bought one of these little Asus things that is not much bigger than a paperback book but has wifi and everything installed. It is truly amazing, I can now take advantage of free internet and write my blog etc whenever I want. I then spent the majority of the next 2 days sat in various free wifi spots getting everything working. All for less than 200 quid.
It was fun having Karen and Tintin around. On our 1st night we went to a place called Cabbages and Condoms where all proceeds go towards sex education and AIDS prevention programs (though it would probably be better if they went towards the eliminating sleazy old sex tourists from Thailand program). The food was great and the decoration amazing - everything from light shades to placemats are made from condoms!! Then we were walking home and just decided to by a beer to walk home with...no sooner had we done that than we were sat with a bunch of street sellers having a right good knees up. They were a great bunch (Karen took all the photos - hopefully they'll be on Facebook soon) and included a husband and wife and the security guard who was supposed to be watching the office block but instead was drinking Samsung and opening the gate so we could go to the toilet every hour or so. In the end I had to call it a day at 1sh as I had been up since 4am, had had an operation ad bought a new laptop all in one day. I left the others to it and walked home taking great care around Soi 19 (all the streets that go off Sukhumvit have Soi names) where our Thai friends had told us gangs of ladyboys hang out to prey on Westerners.
I stayed a couple of days in Bangkok and could have stayed much longer (especially as Tintin was staying there till 13 April till his Vietnam visa kicks in) but it was expensive and I felt the need to get on with my traveling so I booked a ticket to China. I couldn't get a ticket to Chengdu where I was hoping to meet up with Dave who I'd met in Vietnam but I did manage to get a ticket to Kunming where I'm hoping I can hook up with Sami and Nicola that I met a few times in Vietnam and hopefully we can do Tiger Leaping Gorge together before I then hook up with Dave in Xian.
So after a last relaxing day surfing the free internet in one of the Bangkok mega malls I set off nice and early to catch the bus to the airport (my 1st flight in 4.5 months of traveling). I got to bus stop and the 1st bus drove right past me despite me waving my hands like a madman!! I was assured by the guy in the hotel that there would be another bus in 30 mins but after waiting 45 I gave up and got a load of money from the ATM for a taxi. In the end the taxi only cost 50 bhat more than the bus anyway, was getting myself stressed tho as was in rush hour and was quite late...only to find out that I was delayed 3.5 hours anyway due to weather in Shanghai....
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