Short Version:
Snakey action. Spikes. Mall. Train.
Long Version:
Turning out my pockets before setting out this morning I found the spending money that Lovely Wife had thrown at me as she disappeared off in the tax with all our stuff yesterday. We'd figured that, as we didn't actually know how far it was to the hotel - even assuming I went straight there, which was considered somewhat unlikely - it was probably a good idea for me to have some moneys with which to purchase a tuk-tuk ride, or some delicious foods or a drink, or some lady-boy action.
Luckily, though, I made my way directly and without issue to the hotel. No drinks. No lady-boys. No lady-girls either. Didn't even stop for a massage, soapy with happy ending or otherwise.
And I say "luckily" because when I rediscovered the banknote from my pocket this morning, it turned out to be 100,000 dong. Not baht. Dong. That'd be Vietnamese currency then. Not Thai.
Lovely Wife's sneaky, underhanded way of stopping me getting wayward in a brothel? I don't think so. I think she hoped I WOULD go get some action, then be unable to pay for it, then get beaten up and ejected into a gutter running high with garbage and rotting vegetables and wees. Nasty Lovely Wife!
Anyways, we breakfasted at the hotel. It was... nothing special. Discovered that dried chillies go well with french toast and watermelon. Baked beans were better than the ones in NAmerika.
And then out, to get a jab! Japanese Encephalitis is a mosquito-borne virus that kills something like 30% of the people who contract it, and leaves most of the rest with crippling neurological damage and behavioral issues. [joke about existing behavioral issues goes here] We didn't have enough time to get vaccinated in Canadialand - the Ixiaro vaccine is two shots delivered 28 days apart - but were put on the trail of a single-shot JE vaccine, available in NZ for NZD$700. A few emails later and we were on our way to the Bangkok Nursing Home Hospital, on foot, via the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly compound and Lumphini Park, which was full of schoolgirls and giant swimming lizards*. At BNH we were greeted cordially, refreshed with bottled water, registered as patients, shot up with the Chengdu JE vaccine, charged the equivalent of NZD$100 for both of us, and then set free into the now rather warm day clutching another free bottle of water. It took about 30 minutes total, and would have been even less had we not managed to get ourselves trapped in an elevator with some wheelchair folks and a rude woman. We now have 5-10 years protection from JE, but figure we may as well go back in a couple of months, just before we leave, for the booster that covers us for life. We're also figuring to visit the dentist while here - NZD$2600 savings on the JE vaccine (and it'll be similar for our final rabies jab) is small beans compared to the dentistry cost comparison.
First, though, there was snake-milking to be taken care of. And no, I'm not back to talking about lady-boys. We made our way to the HQ of the Thai Red Cross, which includes within its halls the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute - the world's leading snake anti-venom research and production facility. There we saw some snakes. Most of them - including all of the ENORMOUS ones - were sleepy, but a few were zipping about inside their enclosures, and the ones we watched being milked for their venom were definitely tetchy about the whole thing. Really they should be pleased they're being milked using the new, less snake-wear method. Ungrateful buggers. The venom harvested is injected into horses, which produce antibodies, which are in turn harvested and bottled for use on bitten humans. Having seen some photographs of what happens to bitten humans, I'm OK with that process, at least until we make it back to snake-free NZ, at which point I'm sure I'll find this use of animals for human gain objectionable.
All snaked up, we went to a mall. It was very large, and very full of people. We stayed an unimaginably long time, which probably wasn't very long at all, and then took a series of trains home again. All of the trains were full enough that I was pleased to be the tallest one, as it made me the one with the armpits, not one of the ones with the faces in the armpits.
* = Direct correlation? I think so! Certainly if I was a giant swimming lizard, I'd be hanging out in places where there were lots of schoolgirls.
Snakey action. Spikes. Mall. Train.
Long Version:
Turning out my pockets before setting out this morning I found the spending money that Lovely Wife had thrown at me as she disappeared off in the tax with all our stuff yesterday. We'd figured that, as we didn't actually know how far it was to the hotel - even assuming I went straight there, which was considered somewhat unlikely - it was probably a good idea for me to have some moneys with which to purchase a tuk-tuk ride, or some delicious foods or a drink, or some lady-boy action.
Luckily, though, I made my way directly and without issue to the hotel. No drinks. No lady-boys. No lady-girls either. Didn't even stop for a massage, soapy with happy ending or otherwise.
And I say "luckily" because when I rediscovered the banknote from my pocket this morning, it turned out to be 100,000 dong. Not baht. Dong. That'd be Vietnamese currency then. Not Thai.
Lovely Wife's sneaky, underhanded way of stopping me getting wayward in a brothel? I don't think so. I think she hoped I WOULD go get some action, then be unable to pay for it, then get beaten up and ejected into a gutter running high with garbage and rotting vegetables and wees. Nasty Lovely Wife!
Anyways, we breakfasted at the hotel. It was... nothing special. Discovered that dried chillies go well with french toast and watermelon. Baked beans were better than the ones in NAmerika.
And then out, to get a jab! Japanese Encephalitis is a mosquito-borne virus that kills something like 30% of the people who contract it, and leaves most of the rest with crippling neurological damage and behavioral issues. [joke about existing behavioral issues goes here] We didn't have enough time to get vaccinated in Canadialand - the Ixiaro vaccine is two shots delivered 28 days apart - but were put on the trail of a single-shot JE vaccine, available in NZ for NZD$700. A few emails later and we were on our way to the Bangkok Nursing Home Hospital, on foot, via the Thailand Tobacco Monopoly compound and Lumphini Park, which was full of schoolgirls and giant swimming lizards*. At BNH we were greeted cordially, refreshed with bottled water, registered as patients, shot up with the Chengdu JE vaccine, charged the equivalent of NZD$100 for both of us, and then set free into the now rather warm day clutching another free bottle of water. It took about 30 minutes total, and would have been even less had we not managed to get ourselves trapped in an elevator with some wheelchair folks and a rude woman. We now have 5-10 years protection from JE, but figure we may as well go back in a couple of months, just before we leave, for the booster that covers us for life. We're also figuring to visit the dentist while here - NZD$2600 savings on the JE vaccine (and it'll be similar for our final rabies jab) is small beans compared to the dentistry cost comparison.
First, though, there was snake-milking to be taken care of. And no, I'm not back to talking about lady-boys. We made our way to the HQ of the Thai Red Cross, which includes within its halls the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute - the world's leading snake anti-venom research and production facility. There we saw some snakes. Most of them - including all of the ENORMOUS ones - were sleepy, but a few were zipping about inside their enclosures, and the ones we watched being milked for their venom were definitely tetchy about the whole thing. Really they should be pleased they're being milked using the new, less snake-wear method. Ungrateful buggers. The venom harvested is injected into horses, which produce antibodies, which are in turn harvested and bottled for use on bitten humans. Having seen some photographs of what happens to bitten humans, I'm OK with that process, at least until we make it back to snake-free NZ, at which point I'm sure I'll find this use of animals for human gain objectionable.
All snaked up, we went to a mall. It was very large, and very full of people. We stayed an unimaginably long time, which probably wasn't very long at all, and then took a series of trains home again. All of the trains were full enough that I was pleased to be the tallest one, as it made me the one with the armpits, not one of the ones with the faces in the armpits.
* = Direct correlation? I think so! Certainly if I was a giant swimming lizard, I'd be hanging out in places where there were lots of schoolgirls.
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