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Published: March 8th 2011
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We couldn't go too far the following day as we needed to be back at the embassy to pick up our visas. After spending some time around the local markets we caught a much cheaper metered taxi to the embassy. The visa was a lot quicker to pick up than to arrange and we were soon staring at the very impressive looking stamp in our passports.
We had been told that sourcing our malaria tablets while in Bangkok would not be a problem. Since arriving we had been to many places, but couldn't find it anywhere. At a pharmacy near the embassy we were advised to visit the hospital. The pharmacist gave us directions and looked relieved when we left taking off her surgical mask as we closed the door.
The receptionist at the hospital told us that we would need to go to one floor to register then to another to make and appointment to see the doctor. What she couldn't tell us is how much this would cost. Seeing a doctor without knowing the cost could prove to be a pricey mistake and neither of us wanted to waste ages registering only to find it would cost
a fortune. We bypassed the registering and took the lift straight up to the nurse in the hope we could blag some information. We made it past the reception and found the nurses station. We were lucky enough to find someone helpful. However it did take us a while to realise that she had spent the last 10 minutes on the phone trying to book a malaria test for us. After another 10 minutes trying to explain that we didn't have malaria, but wanted to stop ourselves catching it, she made some more phone calls and came back with bad news. The malaria tablets we needed for Andy are not available in Thailand. This could cause a problem. We did the only thing we could think of. We found a bar, ordered a beer and discussed our options.
It took some searching on the internet, phone calls, texts and much help from family and friends but we finally had a solution. My parents found the cheapest place to buy the tablets and arranged for my doctor to print new prescriptions. Andy's dad collected the prescription and tablets and dropped them with Pete who would bring them with him. We
were lucky Pete was coming otherwise our only other option would have been to fly to Kuala Lumpur for them!
That evening we walked around the corner for dinner. Hot and sour seafood soup for me and green curry for Andy which was so good he still hasn't stopped talking about it. As an added bonus we found that it was happy hour from 3-9pm every day meaning cocktails were 120bht (£2.30) but were buy one get one free. The mojito was particularly good. Somehow I had a feeling this wouldn't be the last time we would come here!
After sampling a few cocktails we went back to the hotel for a beer. We got chatting to a Canadian guy who had been living in India for over 20 years. He had a lot of really interesting stories to tell so we ended staying up much later than planned.
At about 3am I could see that Andy was struggling to keep his eyes open, so we excused ourselves and went to bed. At this point I should tell you that Andy was not struggling to keep his eyes open because he was tired. It was because he
was totally legless!
As we walked along the corridor to our room he bashed from wall to wall like a pinball. Back in the room he collapsed on the bed and started to whine. It was mostly gibberish but I managed to figure out he had Mosquito bites on his feet and wanted me to put some tiger balm on them. He pointed to the first bite, then the second. I asked him if there were any more "yesh loadssss" he slurred. But when I asked him to point to them he kept pointing at the same two over and over forgetting where he had last pointed. After going round in circles for quite some time I gave up and went to sleep. Andy was asleep and snoring instantly.
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