64 SLICES

Wednesday, 20 January, 2010

Phil is going for his 64-slice MRI this afternoon and has to fast for 4 hours.   Since we're not due at the hospital till 11:00 AM, I will have to wait with going to the Indonesian Embassy  for our visas when it reopens after lunch.  Meanwhile I get myself a tasty dish of yellow rice, fried mackerel and fresh veggies at the hospital's food court.  The lobby is being set up for a show of Great Bangkok Chefs, complete with a stage and a floor show of someone carving ice sculptures.  The mood is festive with lots of people milling around watching the preparations and lots of music.  This is how hospitals should be!  I'm whiling my time away by lounging in one of the Starbucks' and watching the parade of people.  No opportunity to get bored, there's just too much entertainment.

At 1:00 PM I hail a cab to get to the Indonesian Embassy.  It's a 20-minute ride through stop 'n go traffic.  When I finally arrive, I'm told that the embassy is open for visas in the mornings only.  Okay, I'll try again tomorrow.

When we get back home, Kajorn takes us to his favorite street stall for dinner.  It's a pretty funky place, like a converted garage.  The food is delicious.   We have seafood soup, fried fish with vegetables, a huge omelette, and water mimosa with salted fish.

Afterward we visit a French bakery.  We buy some croissants for breakfast.  Then we stop by a 7-11 to pick up eggs and fill up our Thai cell phones.  On impulse we visit  E & K's barber because Phil needs a haircut badly.  His brightly-lit shop is located at the far end of a narrow alleyway.  Very funky too.   I love it.  Phil almost fell asleep in the chair.  I was sorry I did not bring my camera.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

First thing this morning I'm off to the Indonesian Embassy.  I don't know if Phil has to apply personally or if I can apply for him.   He has the whole day scheduled with appointments with one medical specialist after another.  I go ahead and fill out an application form for him anyway.  The guy ahead of me carries a whole stack of application forms and passports.  I figure he either has multiple personalities or he's dealing in visas wholesale.  He tells me they're his company's visas.  Well, if that's the case I should have no problem at all taking care of Phil's visa.  Sure enough, when it's my turn, no questions are asked and both our papers are processed without a hitch. I love it when things go so smooth and so easy.   All that's left to do now is to...  what?  Pay the cashier.  Oh right.   Visas cost money.  I knew that.   You want how much?   $200  in US dollar bills.   Uh... I don't have US dollars on me, only Thai baht.  You don't take credit cards?   Ah, US dollars only and no bills dated before 2000.  Right.  Of course.  Well, off I go then.  Don't close for lunch before I get back, okay?  Leave embassy, look for a bank.  Aha, there is one.  But they have only $80.  So sorry, madame.  Second bank has none.  Very sorry, madame.  I finally find a money exchange at a Western Union branch and, thank heavens, they have exactly two $100 bills left, crisp ones too.   I can kiss the clerk but I bow and thank him instead, profusely -- meaning: I repeat the phrase "Kab kum ka" over and over.  That's the female form of Thank you.   I tell him he has done his job so well, he can now take the rest of the day off.  He looks at me deeply puzzled.  I rush back to the embassy and finish the transaction.  Done.  Visas will be ready for pick up on Monday.

I decide to walk around a bit.  There's a computer mall. Wonder if it is the same one where we bought my little Acer Baby.  Farther down is another mall.  It's called Platinum and it's all about clothes.  That's putting it mildly.  After seeing the first floor of clothes, I feel like I'm going to get drowned in a tsunami of clothes.  It is literally stall after stall and floor after floor of clothes upon mind-numbing clothes.   The worst part is that they're all geared toward a size 2 Thai teeny bopper.  When I finally find something that interests me and may even fit me, the clerk yells at me from across the store, "No try! No try!"  Well, then forget it.  I'm outta here.  I pick up a crepe with egg and tuna (not bad) and leave.

I meet Phil back at the hospital.  He tells me some sobering news.  The results from his 64-slice cat scan are in and his heart turns out to be less healthy than he thought.  His cardiologist advises installing a stent.  Phil is taking it pretty much in stride and talks about waiting till he talks with his cardiologist in Denpasar.  I cannot believe my ears. What the hell?  We're here now in the best hospital in Asia, he likes the cardiologist he has been seeing here,  and he wants to wait until he's back in Indonesia!!!  I don't get it.  I practically shout at him to come to his senses.  Get it done NOW and get it done HERE!  It takes him a while, but he finally agrees.  We'll see how soon we can get the procedure scheduled.  We may have to postpone our return to Bali.