Adventures in Thailand, Part 3

Checking Out

The time finally came when the surgery was done, the blood clot was under control, and everything looked good.  We were ready to go, but first we had to gather some documents for our insurance company.  You may ask why didn’t our insurance talk directly to Chiang Mai Ram’s insurance department, which they did have, and they could sort everything out that way.  Well, apparently my insurance company prefers their customers to handle the paperwork then give it to them, rather than getting it directly from the hospital, which would obviously be more accurate and efficient.  They prefer for us to go around hospital, search for, and gather said documents, carry them a thousand miles away back to the U.A. E. and hand the documents to someone in Abu Dhabi, who will in turn send them off to the same people the insurance department at Chiang Mia Ram would have talked to originally.  But it’s okay because this method is perfectly consistent with everything I know about the U.A.E.  But I digress.

One of the documents we had to get was police report.  This is where JJ comes back into the picture. Remember how she helped us right after the accident.  Well, she had been more than helpful throughout the whole process, some of which I didn’t even mention, from suggesting the hospital to driving us around town as we searched for the best orthopedic surgeon we could find.  It was so strange, but in a good way.  I know this may make me sound sentimental, but it was like she was an angel there helping us.

While we gathered all of the necessary documents, we saw we needed a police report of the accident.  We weren’t exactly familiar with the local law enforcement ourselves, so we called JJ.  She ended up driving to 3 different police stations one evening to look for this police report.  It was amazing.  We didn’t even have to go with her she just did it on her own time.  She finally found a police station that would give it to her (interesting note: she had to buy them a bottle of liquor to get it; we reimbursed her).  And speaking of reimbursement, when we gave her the money for the whiskey, we put a little extra in there for her, but she would not take it.  We tried repeatedly on several occasions to give this lady extra money for helping us so much but she just would not take it.  It sounds nice that she would do that but I was starting to feel some serious guilt with her going above and beyond so much and us not giving back.  An interesting thing about JJ was that she lives in the Texas, and she visits her family here in Chiang Mai every summer for a couple of months.  Around the time that we were leaving the hospital, she was headed back to Texas, and it tore us up that she had to go because we had grown so close to her.  I regret we didn't get a picture with her. Ultimately, we vowed one day we will look her up when we got back to the States.

 Back to Dozy

I didn’t know I had missed Dozy House as much as I had until we returned there from leaving the hospital.  We had only stayed there about 16 hours before we had our accident (though we did have a few days here while we were planning our trip back to Abu Dhabi).  But coming back did spark a sense of coming home, and I know it had all to do with the people.  Gina was really sweet to us, and even visited us in the hospital.  She changed our room to the lowest floor so it was easier for me to get around.  Her husband was always very helpful to me, helping me up the stairs, and carrying our ridiculously heavy luggage into the room.  I’m always embarrassed when someone tries to get our luggage because I know I can’t do it and that they have to.  To be honest, there should be no reason our luggage weighs as much as it does.  I swear I will catch an ever so brief glance over our way after the anyone's first attempt to pick it up, an expression that says “really?”  He got it up the stairs though, and into our room.

We had a pleasant surprise that night.  The day I checked out was Natova's birthday (I guess you could say that my checking out the hospital was my birthday present to her...I was limited in my gift selection).  We did go out to dinner at a great resteraunt on the river.  Gina and her husband dropped us off then picked us up later.  When we got back to Dozy, we hung out downstairs for a minute talking with one of the other guests and a couple of Gina's friends.  The next thing we know we hear the birthday song strike up and out comes a small Winnie the Pooh cake with candles and all for Natova.  This is kind of what I mean when I say the people were like family.  We were touched and thanked them for considering us.  We talked and laughed, ate cake, and had a great ending to a great day.

Playfully frowning at my small portion of cake, one of my favorite foods

So here we were back at Dozy, creating the sequel to our first attempts at planning our trip back to AD.  We figured we would stay a couple days, do a few things that we wanted to do in the first place, then head back to the desert.  Though the hospital stay was probably our most memorable time in Chiang Mai, I think we had our most enjoyable time during this week.  The next night we went to the same dinner show we were supposed to attend the night of the accident.  It was nice, though I have to admit that I thought the show would be more breathtaking, but it was good.  We ate at one of the many low tables around this tradition Thai Style building (which means it is lifted off the ground on beams, all wood, open space, etc.).   The stage was in the center of the room and while we ate (the food was okay, not spectacular) different acts would come out such as the six ladies doing a tea dance, or friendship dance, or something to that effect.  The girls were dressed head to toe in traditional Thai ceremonial garb.  In fact the one and only memento we got from the place was a picture of each of us at the table, with two Thai girls behind us.  We both really liked how the pictures came out.

The best day of all was when we went to the mall.  The malls in the Thailand are not that much different from Abu Dhabi or the United States.  There are nice shops, most basic, some upscale (though in Abu Dhabi at least half of the shops at the mall are too expensive to shop).   In this particular mall there we about 5 levels.   It was refreshing being out and about.  I was on my crutches so it was a bit of work but I’m used to it, so it wasn’t that bad.  We made our way over to the Movie theater and made sure that the movie we were going to see was in English (we made one trip out to see a movie while we were in the hospital, and ended up at a theatre that was all Thai).  We saw a couple of movies back to back, both action flicks which suited me fine.  Interesting note about Thai theatres: at the beginning of every movie, there is a brief presentation of the national anthem accompanied by a short film montage of their King doing his humanitarian thing in villages and helping to build the communities.  Everyone has to stand during the duration of the presentation, only about 3 minutes.  It kind of caught us off guard at first; you don’t usually see everyone get up at the same time in a movie theatre after the lights have dimmed unless there was something seriously wrong.  I half took off for the door before I realized 1.) I couldn’t run if I wanted to anyway (broken leg and all) and 2.) It was just their national anthem.  I will say they have hands down the best national anthem I have ever heard.  With the montage, the pictures of smiling faces on the screen, and the angelic voices of the people singing that pretty melody filling the theater; it was all so beautiful. I may or may not have had thoughts of defecting to Thailand for split second.

When the movie let out we grabbed a bite at McDonald’s before trying to leave.  Interesting note about McDonald’s:  Natova and I have deduced the food at McDonald’s pretty much tastes the same all over the world.  Granted we are only working knowledge of 3 countries, but we feel comfortable with our assessment and conclusion.  Not many fast food places say that.  Burger King in America is our favorite burger; Burger King in Abu Dhabi, we intentionally avoid.

As we stood outside waiting for a ride, the rain came down in buckets.  It had rained before while we were in the hospital, but this was my first time being out in it while it was coming down so hard.  A good solid thunderstorm was something I actually was looking forward to experiencing when I got back to Florida, but this was close enough.  We had seen two sprinkles over the last 12 months so this was a welcome sight.  Only now it kept us from getting back to Dozy because we couldn’t find a taxi to save our lives.  Gina’s husband had to pick us up.

The last highlight we had was our Thai massages on our last day in Chiang Mai.  Our flight left later that night and I was determined to have one last massage before we left.  It turns out they make house calls too.  Two ladies came over to do the massage right there in the room.  As I mentioned before weren’t originally interested in Thai massage because it didn’t seem like it would be that good.  It can be done while you are in whatever clothes you are wearing, and involves a bunch of stretching.  My first thoughts were, “I could do that myself at home.”   But of course they were obviously trained and they seemed to know every relieving stretch there is to have on the body.  It’s like a cross between WWE wrestling and assisted yoga.  The way they use their elbows, knees, and forearms to dig into your muscles to release the tension is both painful and euphoric. 

So that was it.  A couple of flights and a few hours layovers later and we were back in the good 'ol U.A.E.  A week after that I was back in the classroom.  Can't say it was the best vacation but we did get to go see another part of the world, and the two or so weeks where I was not in the hospital were great.  We enjoyed the people and the vibe and we plan to go back to complete our tour of Southeast Asia.  Our next big trip though will definitely be back to the U.S.A.  and that will come in December.  Hopefully it will be less eventful than it was Chiang Mai!  Till next time...