Experiencing Bangkok, Part 2

Maybe I just don't have enough to do, but I am really enjoying the view from our hotel room window. The things I see are fascinating. I have especially enjoyed watching the construction site next door, and most specifically, the backhoe operator. He is very skilled and can do things with his backhoe that I would never have imagined possible. Today I watched him pick up pieces of the metal flooring with the shovel and place them very neatly in other locations. When he deposits a load of mud into a dump truck he always does it very neatly. It is almost as if the shovel was an extension of his hand.

The other thing I saw here, early this morning, is that the guys who work on the construction site bathe on the site before starting work. The one I could see clearly was wearing a Speedo.

On the site across the street where they placed the pumps yesterday, today they built a guard rail and painted it with wide red and white diagonal stripes. All freehand, and at least from a distance, quite nicely done. One guy had the red paint, the other the white. I didn't get to see exactly how they did the whole thing, because something else required my attention, but I did see the guy with the white paint start the project.

On my walk home from the hospital today I had the opportunity to observe that push carts come in three styles: moped powered, bicycle powered, and pedestrian powered. The push carts and street food stands are everywhere.

I also had the interesting experience today of finding a pharmacy so I could buy something we needed. At first I wasn't sure I could find the place, but I did. I was also able to communicate with the pharmacist, even though I think he did not speak much English. The last part of this adventure was discovering that all the dogs that run loose here pay absolutely no attention to people like me who are walking by. That is a relief, because they are numerous.

This has been a difficult day because Tina has been sick & we had to get her admitted to the hospital. At least there was a little entertainment along the way. I'll try to get pictures posted when I get them uploaded from the camera.

Experiencing Bangkok

Yesterday I started a narrative about our experience with traveling to Thailand and our initial hospital experience. I digress a little from that today, because I've found so much of interest in the slice of life that we see occurring outside our hotel-room window and all around us.

A couple of days ago we noticed a raised garden area near the entrance to the hospital. This morning we saw that it was a worship center, and as we arrived the morning offering of incense was in progress. For us it was an unusual sight, and it made me consider how seriously I treat the worship part of my life.

Viewing life through our hotel room window is fascinating. We get to watch the water taxis on the canal that is next to our hotel. We have a construction site next door. There is always colorful traffic. We see street vendors, either passing by or set up to do business across the street. And today we got to watch a public works project.

The water taxi is a high speed vehicle that leaves a strong wake, and lots of water sloshing up the sides of the canal. It is a very popular form of transportation. In watching people enter and exit the boat, it appears to be a bit precarious, although the men who tie the boat to the dock are very sure-footed and make the transition look easy.

In Bangkok most private vehicles are white, silver, or tan. Occasionally there will be a red car or a dark green pickup or black SUV. However, the only routinely colorful vehicles are the taxis, which come in every bright color imaginable: hot pink, bright purple, orange, copper, red, royal blue, bright yellow, bright green, or yellow top with blue or green bottom. There is no mistaking a taxi for anything else, and the bright colors make them very easy to find. If you watch traffic at times like 1 AM, you will see that it consists almost solely of taxis, either regular or tuktuks. And today, while walking back to the hotel from the hospital, it was almost a case of "Grandma got run over by a tuktuk"! You take your life in your hands when you try to negotiate traffic as a pedestrian. It is very important to remain on full alert while crossing the street here.

The public works project was to put pump motors in the vertical orange cylinder and next to the lower pipe connection. They also built a wood cover for the large hole in the sidewalk, using handsaws to shape the wood. Unfortunately I didn't see how they used the most interesting of their tools: a long bamboo pole with a large wire basket on the end, that looked like a giant version of the cooking implement Asians use to fish food out of a wok, usually when deep-frying. The crane lowered the pump into the cylinder, and afterward lowered a man into the cylinder to finish connecting the pump. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the project was the fact that all of the men working on it were wearing flip-flops! Not what Americans consider usual foot attire for that kind of work. (The footwear shows in photo #4, if you click on it to enlarge it.)

The street vendors are also interesting. The woman who sets up directly across from our window, by the orange pipes, can be seen every day. I'm not sure how she transports everything to and from the site. Most of her wares seem to fit into a carton that is not very big. She sits on a square stool that can only be about six inches high, and she has a large umbrella with a stand. Many times we can see vendors with push carts walking down the road, even at odd hours of the night. The last variety of street vendors we see carry their wares in baskets hanging off the end of a flexible bamboo pole. We are working our way toward trying some of what they offer, but we need to solidify the advice we've received about what is safe to try, and also to get our health back to normal.

We had a follow-up visit with our surgeon today, and with each visit the time is more enjoyable. He is very knowledgeable about this part of the world and is full of interesting information. We learn a lot about culture and politics as well as medical things during these visits.

At breakfast this morning we ended up talking to a man who had recently had a face lift. It turned out that it was done by our surgeon. This ended up being very funny. I mentioned to the doctor that we'd met another one of his patients. From our description, he figured out who the patient was, & showed us a picture. We easily identified the patient as the one we had met, which our doctor found very interesting, because he did not know the patient was staying at our hotel, and had been unable to find him. He took time out from our visit to call the patient at the hotel number. The poor man probably wondered how the doctor found him. We'll never tell! Actually, we were glad we could help out in that way, because we had previously learned from one of the plastic surgery nurses that our surgeon had tried to call us at our hotel to check on our well-being three times on the day after we were discharged, but the hotel kept telling him we weren't there. Apparently it is not always easy to keep up with patients who have been discharged from the hospital.

One thing about the doctors here that is very nice is that they do not see themselves as being "M-Dieties" (a term coined by Linus in the Peanuts comic strip). If you look at the name on their white coats, it is always Dr. ________ (fill in the blank with his or her first name). Kind of like the southern style of address. I don't know how it would be with any of the other doctors at the hospital, but we have been developing a friendship with our surgeon. It has been really nice to get to know him as a person as well as experiencing his medical skill and expertise. That has added meaning to our time here.

Next time I'll return to the narrative of our experience.

Change of Pace for New Adventure

We are now in Bangkok, Thailand, where we are getting our bodies refurbished at Bumrungrad International Hospital. Getting here was an adventure in and of itself. From the start we had to deal with delayed flights, but even that resulted in blessings. Sitting in Richmond for 2 hours 10 minutes after our flight should have left, we met a wonderful woman named Phyllis. The conversation with her was great, and we encountered her again in the baggage claim area at JFK. We met her boyfriend, Jack, who was equally nice. The two of them helped get us to the air train so we could catch our next flight. They helped ease the stress of a difficult situation, and we owe them a debt of gratittude.

Being late had advantages, too. There was no line when we finally found the China Air counter, so check in was easy. Even the line through the TSA checkpoint moved swiftly. Overnight flights are another story, however. On the two longest legs of the journey - JFK to Anchorage, and Anchorage to Taipei - we had a couple of babies who spent their considerable waking hours crying loudly. That made the flight less than comfortable, but toward the end of the second one, we started a "spite and malice" card tournament, which helped pass the time pleasantly.

On the flight to Taipei we got into a conversation with Mr. Huang, who is from Taipei. He was sitting next to Tina & she got the brilliant idea to see if he could help us with some Chinese phrases. I think he was surprised that we would take an interest in learning a little of his language, but he was also clearly quite pleased with our interest, and persuaded Tina to try out some of the phrases on the woman sitting in front of us. That was definitely a fun encounter.

Taipei airport was confusing, but we did eventually find our gate, in plenty of time, and ended up in a conversation with a couple from the San Francisco area, who were also great to talk to. On the last leg of the flight, going from Taipei to Bangkok, we finally got to truly enjoy the wonderful service on China Air. The flight attendants were all beautiful, and the service great. It was a peaceful time because there were no babies on board. The "spite and malice" tournament continued, and at the end of the flight, Tina was ahead, four games to three.

The building at Bangkok airport is a huge and beautiful contemporary structure done in steel, glass and white canvas. We were pleased to see the directional signs in English as well as Thai. By then we were pretty tired, though our day had just begun. Fortunately for us, Bumrungrad International Hospital has a representative stationed at the airport. The hostess welcomed us with cool moist face-cloths and cold water to drink. She took charge of our luggage, and got us a reasonably priced taxi to the hospital. The highways here look very much like those in any major city, with the green and white signs, written in Thai and English.

Once we got to the hospital, we proceded to the international center to check in. That was accomplished easily, with the exception of getting my birth date corrected. They had me with a birthdate of February 22, 1928, age 79. I don't think so! That did get resolved, and then we were on our way to meet our surgeon. Tina had evaluated all the surgeons & had chosen him for me. Her original first choice for herself didn't work out, so we both have the same surgeon, Dr. Preeyaphas Nilubol, who is absolutely delightful and has great sense of humor. He is also a highly skilled surgeon with a great esthetic sense. He truly enjoys what he does. We weren't sure where we were to spend the night, and he had his assistant arrange a hotel room for us.

Following our consultations, we went through the pre-admission lab tests & x-rays. I had a cardiac stress test also, due to my age - even the real one required that. Fortunately, I passed with flying colors. The day ended with the most stressful event: trying to get a cab to take us to our hotel. Most of them refused to go there, probably because they had no clue where it was. The one that finally did agree to take us did a lot of driving before asking a friend he saw; the friend knew where the hotel was, and we were soon there, despite the incredible traffic. The irony of all this is that the hotel is only 3 blocks from the hospital. It is a longer drive than that to get to the hotel because it is located almost all the way around a loop with one-way traffic from the hospital.

Our first dinner was wonderful. We ate in the hotel restaurant and among other things had a wonderful chicken satay, with perfectly done peanut sauce. Then it was time for sleep in a real bed, in preparation for my surgery the next morning. The beds were very welcome and we were soon enveloped in sweet sleep.

So much happened in getting here, but all of it was only a prelude to the adventure to come, which will be elaborated on in future episodes.