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Published: October 6th 2007
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MONKLET
THESE GUYS WERE AT A LITTLE STORE LOOKING TO BUY A FEW PLASTIC ARMY TANKS, HEY THEY'RE LITTLE BOYS TOO! well let me first tell you what happened (Don't worry mom, I am ok). I was walking to get some lunch and in order to cross the street i needed to get to a crosswalk with a traffic light. i was walking on the road because the sidewalk had been demolished (on purpose) the traffic was a little too close for my liking so i stepped onto where the sidewalk used to be and onto a spiked piece of rebar about a 1/4 of an inch thick and luckily maybe 4 inches long. It was too late and as my body weight lowered onto my right foot i felt that spike go deep into the arch of my foot. Great, now i have a hole in my sandal. So what did i do? well i limped across the street and caught a ride to McDonald's. i was hungry! While waiting in McDonald's i called some expats to ask them which hospital i should go to. I choose the most expensive one because if i had to wait a few hours to get treated i ran the risk of getting a staff infection and after talking last night to a guy from
Burma who lost his leg after stepping on a land mine (which unfortunately by the way is a very common thing in Burma, laos, cambodia and viet nam and after how many years?) i went to the most expensive hospital.
I took a tuktuk to the hospital and hobbled into the emergency room and went up to the counter. they took me immediately into an examining room and asked what happened. i asked them if i could show them the bottom of my foot because it ia s no no to show the bottom of your feet (or to point your foot at someone for that matter), kinda like giving the middle finger. no problem, a nurse looked at, cleaned it and took a copy of passport to start the paperwork. The Dr came in and examined it, asked me the right questions and told me what to do, and in addition to take augment an expensive antibiotic, since i had a deep punture wound. They dressed my foot and the nurse came back with my hospital card and i was walked over to the cashier and took a number. I waited a few minutes and when i walked
MONKLET2
THIS YOUNG MONK WAS RIDING PAST ON HIS BIKE WHEN I ASKED HIM FOR A PHOTO up to the cashier she called me by my name had my paperwork and charged me 1,792 baht. Hmm, "does this include the medicine i asked?" It did and the medicine represented about 1,400 of the total. i paid, went to the next window where the woman called me by my name and gave me my medicine. This all took say about a half hour. I paid a huge premium to go to this hospital but i didn't care, because of the weak dollar i paid $52.71 instead of maybe only $15.at another hospital. I wonder what i would have paid in the US? Well come to think of it, this would not have happened in the US because if a sidewalk was broken up it would have been blocked off and the 10 inch long, 1/4 wide spikes (mine was only 4") would not have been left sticking straight up!
So now what? I was going to leave chiang mae tomorrow and go on a short photo shoot before going to Bangkok to take a seminar. I can't walk and I don't think things will be much better in a few days but you never know. In the
MAKE-UP
TYPICAL GOLD BURMESE MAKEUP mean time, i am working on finishing a "program" for a website that i have had for 5 years! I have plenty of time to write and with the help of my friend Kathy who is doing the proofing and editing for me and jon who is doing my computer programming and christine who finished the web design for the site, get the thing rolling soon!
Speaking of rolling, i went to Burma ok mynamr (but they are still Burmese) about a week ago. unfortunately i listed to some paranoid travelers who said it is too dangerous to stay there, which wasn't true at least for a border town. The place was exactly as it was the last time I was there, maybe a little bit more quiet. The people are very friendly there and there is definitely a different feeling in the air. After Burma I went to a little town, very quiet ofer looking the mekong river and facing Laos. I spent a few days there writing and relaxing.
hope all is well
Cheers,
David
F O T O S B Y D A V I D . C O M
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larry
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hey mate
glad to hear you got your health back in order!!..can`t be a pleasant experience!!..lovn your pics..keep it up!!.. all is good in cusco land..got another 5 more weeks..keep in touch dave larry