The Rough Life

Monday, June 25, 2007

Meet Mimi

As should be expected by now, but is always pleasantly welcomed, we had an amazing day on Ko Samet playing volleyball with a bunch of locals who had some time off in between shifts. Our approach to volleyball is somewhat unorganized--we play together, one-on-one across the net at times (reserved only for the most dedicated) and practice hitting drills where Keeks pummels the ball at Mac, who dives all over the place to dig it up. Really, you should see us. Fortunately, many people take notice and there is always a small audience, cameras and recording devices poised and operating. These are what you may have heard referred to as "Superstar" moments. We are currently holding bets on how long it will take before we get an email that begins, "So, I was surfing the internet and I came across these pictures of you/video on YouTube/website dedicated to your names..." Let us know if you want in- minimum bid is 100 baht, which is about 3 bucks, so don't be stingy. Proceeds go to a new bag, because we both need one. Like a beach needs more sand.
The Rough Life is probably at it's roughest on the island because we have so many people to please and so little time to do so. After a full day of volleyball, we head to where everybody knows our name, our favorite dinner spot- Jep's. The menus there are the size of a small novella but we have been able to narrow it down to our favorites: satay gai (chicken skewers with peanut dipping sauce), som tom jay (spicy papaya salad) with Kao Neow (sticky rice, and also the nickname of a friend dear to the Jep's staff.) Sometimes we like to switch it up and order gang keow wan (sweet green curry) or tom yum goong (hot and sour shrimp soup), but that's only if Say is visiting and he is trying to eat the entire restaurant.
The boys at Jep's always beg us to meet them at the Muay Thai training center/bar called Naga's and, if we have enough energy to be social, we try to oblige. So begins our impromptu party last weekend, where the consequence for doing fifty twirls at the bar was a bucket of gin and tonic.
"Keeks, you're my hero."
After a questionable exit from the pool tournament, Mimi headed out for a final hurrah at Silver Sands bar for dancing and...noodles - sure, they are twice as expensive as in Sriracha (which makes them almost two dollars!) but they're green, so we're willing to pay extra for the novelty.

Health Care, Thai style

You can't expect us to have been here eight months without encountering medical maladies. (Keeks has actually grown attached to the parasites living in her stomach and has recently allowed Mac to name a few of them. How does "Spidey" sound?) After three months of trying to replace her contacts locally ("These eyes same as bat.")Mac thought she was finished with health care professionals for a while. Little did she know, there is an unspoken code when traveling to Chiang Mai that at least one person in the group will be admitted to the hospital. Such was the case when Keeks gashed her leg on a rusty seat lever on the bus ride to the airport. At first, it just bled. A lot. We would have diagnosed her with hemophilia, had it not then scabbed over. And turned green. We were worried that playing water for Songkran wouldn't be the best way to heal it, but we played anyways. After several days of pus draining, and when her leg began cramping and she had trouble breathing, we did what any intuitive travellers would do--we called Say.
"Hey honey, how are you?"
"Huge."
"Uh huh. Could you do me a favor and Google the symptoms for tetanus?"
About twenty minutes later, we hailed a tuk-tuk bound for the nearest hospital. The resident doctor saw us within minutes, after performing the completely irrelevant, but fascinating, task of weighing Keeks in the middle of the waiting room and shouting out the information.
"Hello? How can I help you."
"I cut my leg on some metal and I need a tetanus shot." (Imagine these words spoken slowly, enunciated, and with plenty of miming.)
"Hmm? Are you sick."
"Uhhh...I think I need a new tetanus shot. You know--tetanus." (Keeks jabs her arm with a fake needle.)
"Hmmm? Uh huh. I don't understand."
"You know.. tetanus... when you get a cut... on metal...you need a shot...for tetanus."
"Ohhh!!! Tet-a-nus!"
"Yeeeees."
"Okay, I will send for to the vaccine."
Minutes later a nurse walks in, ready to save the day...except she heads right for Mac, whose dramatic obsession with needles sends her squealing behind Keeks. The doctor chides her in Thai, saying, "No, it's the other one."
"They look the same to me," she replied. (To be fair, it was Monday, and we were both wearing our yellow King shirts.)
Tetanus shot renewed and armed with plenty of antibiotics in a nicely decorated shopping bag, we were ready to pay...nothing. It turns out our health insurance provided by the school is nothing short of amazing and we walked out of there with only the taxi home to pay.
Fast forward to last week when Keeks and Mac visited the dental clinic for their bi-annual check-ups. The cleaning was quick and relatively painless, and everyone was excited to see the farang out and about and speaking Thai. The cost? Twenty US dollars. That's right folks. And that's without dental insurance.
In summary (and for those of you who write the VISA ads, we are copyrighting the following):
Trip to the emergency room in Chiang Mai: 75 cents
Vaccination and prescription: 0
Dental cleaning: 20 dollars
The satisfaction of great medical services for a fraction of the cost: priceless.

Technical Difficulties

It's been a while since out last post. Sure there's been a lot going on over here that we would have loved to update you on but, along with prohibiting us from viewing YouTube, our school server has decided to change blogger.com into a Thai language format- without giving us the option to view it in English. Really, we've spent the past three months translating. The YouTube thing is a totally different bunch of rambutan- some months ago some ding-dongs decided to post video clips featuring the King's image overshadowed by derogatory comments. Speaking ill of any members of the royal family, especially our King who has cared for this country for sixty years and is soon to turn 80, is illegal and not tolerated in Thailand. So, now more YouTube for any of us until we grow up and understand how to use it maturely. Enjoy the updates and don't expect any pictures for at least another month or two (image vocabulary is much more technical, of course.)