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Thailand/Narathiwat Round the world trip 2007
8/29/07
Still in Kanchanburi. Judee’s bleeding eye is almost healed and her sciatica is also improving – slowly. We figure the Thai masseuse inflicted both injuries. So much for assurance of professionals by booking through a hotel.
We have stayed close to town, venturing each day by walking, by motor scooter and today on bicycle into the countryside to see a few sights. We met interesting travelers: Shane and a couple Kevin and Chris, all who shared their Asian adventures with us. We will be cutting short our current bicycle travels northward until we return November 26. We have about 12 days until we return to Bangkok for Art’s dental appointment and to get Bici ready to send back to Co-Motion for needed repairs. We still have a day more here to enjoy the pool and relax a bit more. Not a bad idea before two months of America, which we figure will be anything but relaxing!!
A note on our changing weather: Each day the Bangkok Post’s weather report is the same: 24-34 degrees Celsius with widely scattered thunder showers. By showers they mean down pours where for about an hour the skies turn black, thunder rolls in and huge drops of rain pour out of the heavens. You don’t just get wet, you are beaten to death! Traffic stops and everyone runs for cover. Shop owners offer those standing out of the deluge stools and chairs to wait out the passing storm. It is quite a sight to watch the water falls off the roof tops, filling gutters and downspouts, shooting fire hose streams of water over the sidewalks way out into the streets. The winds always accompany these daily storms blowing the rain and mist far into our covered hiding places. It does cool things down a bit until the sun once again comes out to boil things dry.
What fun the motor scooter is. We have rented an automatic, bright pink one to zoom around the highways and byways, concrete and gravel. Judee sits side saddle for awhile, then front, then on the other side trying to get comfortable with her sciatica angered bottom. We stop every few kilometers to let her stretch and walk off the pain, then roll off down the farm lanes, never going very fast since you don’t know what is around the corner: a herd of cows, goats blocking the road or the road just ended. The limestone hills look like a green blanket has been plopped down on them: steep cliff faces surrounded by green mantles. The countryside is filled with caves: water through limestone. The caves are filled with Buddhist statues and shrines. How interesting to see the flowstone, stalagtites and stalagmites, even a bit of box work. These are living caves. We are continuously surprised by the number of Buddhist temples and shrines that seem to be around every bend in the road.
The follow up visit to the public hospital to see the eye doctor for Judee’s bloody eye was very much different from our first hospital encounter. We were directed from pillar to post finally getting a piece of paper with a number on it: Room 22. Up stairs into a large waiting area with numbers over the office door areas. The area was full of waiting people. We don’t know what to do so Judee goes to the nurse’s desk to let them know we were here for our 8am appointment. Ho Ho Ho. The nurse waved us to take a seat in the crowd. Names called in the local language so who knows. Nine o’clock passes by. People are coming and going from the examination rooms. Judee goes back to the desk to show her face to the nurse and is waved back into the hoard. I go out to get us something to eat and drink. By 9:30 Judee has had her blood pressure and eye pressure checked and is back waiting. Close to 10am Judee sees the doctor and is given the “thumbs up”. Nothing to worry about: just keep using the eye drops, no need for the patch. A breath of relief now we are working on the sciatica problem: rest and relaxing with lots of good Thai food mixed with a few beers.
September 01 Thailand Weltreise 2007 >
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August 20 Thailand/Kachananburi Weltreise 2007
Still in Kanchanburi. Judee’s bleeding eye is almost healed and her sciatica is also improving – slowly. We figure the Thai masseuse inflicted both injuries. So much for assurance of professionals by booking through a hotel.
We have stayed close to town, venturing each day by walking, by motor scooter and today on bicycle into the countryside to see a few sights. We met interesting travelers: Shane and a couple Kevin and Chris, all who shared their Asian adventures with us. We will be cutting short our current bicycle travels northward until we return November 26. We have about 12 days until we return to Bangkok for Art’s dental appointment and to get Bici ready to send back to Co-Motion for needed repairs. We still have a day more here to enjoy the pool and relax a bit more. Not a bad idea before two months of America, which we figure will be anything but relaxing!!
A note on our changing weather: Each day the Bangkok Post’s weather report is the same: 24-34 degrees Celsius with widely scattered thunder showers. By showers they mean down pours where for about an hour the skies turn black, thunder rolls in and huge drops of rain pour out of the heavens. You don’t just get wet, you are beaten to death! Traffic stops and everyone runs for cover. Shop owners offer those standing out of the deluge stools and chairs to wait out the passing storm. It is quite a sight to watch the water falls off the roof tops, filling gutters and downspouts, shooting fire hose streams of water over the sidewalks way out into the streets. The winds always accompany these daily storms blowing the rain and mist far into our covered hiding places. It does cool things down a bit until the sun once again comes out to boil things dry.
What fun the motor scooter is. We have rented an automatic, bright pink one to zoom around the highways and byways, concrete and gravel. Judee sits side saddle for awhile, then front, then on the other side trying to get comfortable with her sciatica angered bottom. We stop every few kilometers to let her stretch and walk off the pain, then roll off down the farm lanes, never going very fast since you don’t know what is around the corner: a herd of cows, goats blocking the road or the road just ended. The limestone hills look like a green blanket has been plopped down on them: steep cliff faces surrounded by green mantles. The countryside is filled with caves: water through limestone. The caves are filled with Buddhist statues and shrines. How interesting to see the flowstone, stalagtites and stalagmites, even a bit of box work. These are living caves. We are continuously surprised by the number of Buddhist temples and shrines that seem to be around every bend in the road.
The follow up visit to the public hospital to see the eye doctor for Judee’s bloody eye was very much different from our first hospital encounter. We were directed from pillar to post finally getting a piece of paper with a number on it: Room 22. Up stairs into a large waiting area with numbers over the office door areas. The area was full of waiting people. We don’t know what to do so Judee goes to the nurse’s desk to let them know we were here for our 8am appointment. Ho Ho Ho. The nurse waved us to take a seat in the crowd. Names called in the local language so who knows. Nine o’clock passes by. People are coming and going from the examination rooms. Judee goes back to the desk to show her face to the nurse and is waved back into the hoard. I go out to get us something to eat and drink. By 9:30 Judee has had her blood pressure and eye pressure checked and is back waiting. Close to 10am Judee sees the doctor and is given the “thumbs up”. Nothing to worry about: just keep using the eye drops, no need for the patch. A breath of relief now we are working on the sciatica problem: rest and relaxing with lots of good Thai food mixed with a few beers.
