Thursday - Day 2 Bangkok Hospital

After a great nights sleep and coffee in the garden Brett and Maya introduced me to their 'soi'. A soi is a small street off a large multi-laned street. Usually only a car and a half wide and lined with parked cars, street vendor carts, restaurants and shops a soi serves wheeled and foot traffic. Brett and Maya's place was flanked by Soi 4 and Soi 6 off Ratchawiti Road. Soi 6 had all the shops and restaurants on it so that is the one we accessed the main roads from the most often.

This bright and warm morning we strolled the block or so down the soi to their usual breakfast restaurant. It has no name - you just know where it is. After placing our order we settled in the eating area set behind the open air cooking area and watched what Maya assured me is really bad Thai TV until our breakfast was served. I went with the egg and pork omelet which was served over rice to ease myself into Thai cuisine.

True to my promise to Jack and my doctor we set off to get my last of the series of three hepatitis vaccinations I was supposed to get as soon as I got to Bangkok. Our planned destination was the Travelers Clinic next to the nearby hospital. I gamely followed Brett and Maya as they threaded their way through the crowds along the streets and then on the elevated

walkways that allow people to move from the sky train platforms to the various streets without impeding the wheeled traffic on the streets. Since Victory Monument is not a tourist area of Bangkok very few signs are written in English so I had to be told the large white building complex we were entering was the hospital.

In a large reception type area rimmed with windowed offices Maya explained at the information desk that I needed to get my last hepatitis vaccination and I was inducted into the Thai medical system. Moving from station to station went pretty smooth until it was discovered that I'd been mistakenly listed as Mr. Sharen Rea. That got me shuffled back to the records area for a re-do. As I was sitting and waiting to be called for further processing I was amazed at the number and variety of Thai's preparing to travel. There were some very old and some less than healthy folks waiting for their travel shots. When a nurse in a 1950's style nurse uniform beckoned me to come forward I figure they'd take me in the little room and give me my shot so I went in without Brett or Maya. That only lasted a minute. A woman sitting at a small writing table began asking me questions - I think. She looked at me - I looked at her. Then I went to the door and beckoned Brett and Maya to join me.... they were smiling at me when I opened the door - I think they had a bet on how long it would take for be to be back in the doorway.

Maya explained the situation. The two had a nice discussion. We three were directed back out of that closet and directed to go to another window to pay. That done we were directed to go to the Pharmacy window. Brett, Maya and I became a little concerned. Was I going to be given a shot through the pharmacy window? Had there been a misunderstanding and I going to be give the treatment for hepatitis instead of a vaccination? Were hep vaccines self administered in Thailand? I was waived to the window. We were the only farangs in the reception area so I guess they knew who we were and I was handed a small vial with a clear liquid in a plastic bag. Hmmm.

Maya asked a question and the guy at the counter pointed down another hall. So off we went in that direction and there was another nurses station. She had needles! Good! None of us wanted to give me a shot! Two hours had lapsed when we emerged from the clinic. Maya told me I could keep my hospital card as a keepsake - which was when I found out we had not been able to find the Travelers Clinic listed on the internet and went to the regular hospital for my shot. So all those people weren't travelers getting travel vaccinations - they were every day Thai's in the walk-in clinic! This was only the first of many instances where I found myself clueless as to the details of the situation!

With the must-do done we set off to see the Chao Phraya River by water taxi. My second meal in Thailand was at an American restaurant called Rick's which wasn't very exotic but the fish foot spa that followed was! The little fish swarmed one foot and then the other for a ticklish 15 minutes!