The ship didn't actually go to Bangkok. It docked at a port called Laem Chabang, a 1-2 hour drive from Bangkok. Traffic in Bangkok is legendary. You drive an hour or so and get to the city, then it may take another full hour or even more to get to your hotel. Gridlock. The ship stayed there for 5 days! That gave us all plenty of time to go to Bangkok and stay in a hotel for a few nights.
International Health Care
We've been on the ship for over a year now. We considered flying back to Florida for medical checkups but, even though all the medical costs would be covered by insurance there, the flights and travel time would be quite expensive. We also changed our home location from Fort Lauderdale to Gainesville, so we would need to find new doctors. We hear that this takes many weeks or even months to accomplish these days in the good ole USA. So we investigated getting things done over here.There are several good options in this part of the world for health care, fast, high-quality, and inexpensive. Manila, VietNam, Thailand, and Singapore all came up in our research. On our first visit to Singapore, we signed up for screening packages. In one half-day, we got blood and urine tests, ultrasounds, bone density, mammogram, pap smear/HPV, xrays, and more. Reports with all the results were emailed to us a few days later. All that was fantastic, so efficient and professional. Everyone spoke english. All totaled we spent $2,500 which I do not consider inexpensive. So, we decided to continue with any follow up services in Bangkok.
We heard from a friend on board how wonderful the hospital - Bumrungrad - is, so that's where we booked. The best part is that we could book telemedicine appointments. We did that and somewhere floating in the Gulf of Thailand, we talked to Dr. Vibhakorn. We told her we wanted to book colonoscopy and gastroscopy procedures when we got to Bangkok. After a conversation she said we didn't need those tests for several more years. OK. Jim has some prescriptions he wanted and she said that will be easily handled when we're in Bangkok. Also some vaccinations, and a dermatologist appointment for me. Once again, everything went smoothly and efficiently. We stayed at a hotel that was an easy 10 minute walk to the hospital. All doctors, labs, vaccinations, and pharmacy, was all under one roof. So convenient.
Once again, it was more expensive than I had hoped. We spent about $5,000 there. The majority of that was for Maunjaro for Jim plus a 6 month supply of other meds. He needs to lose the weight that he's gained on the ship! The best part is that Dr. Vibakhorn will be our main doctor, available by telemedicine, wherever we are. She can also interface with the ship's doctor.
Sightseeing in Bangkok
We really loved that our hotel was right beside one of the many canals in Bangkok. There were these long boats that acted as water taxis - getting you where you wanted to go in a fraction of the time required to go by road. Check out the video above - it is NOT speeded up. That is how fast these boats go. What a rush!
One evening we took a water taxi to old town and went up to a rooftop bar called The View. Great view, great food and drinks.
The next day, after a follow up appointment at the hospital for vaccines, we took the water taxi to the end of the canal, then a tuk-tuk to see some temples, then another long boat at the main river to explore the canals on the other side of the river.
The hand positions (mudras?) obviously have meanings. I love this one!
Our tuk-tuk (motorcycle taxi) and driver, Charlie. He would wait for us when we explored the temples
Next, we got on this 'longtail' boat for a ride on the river and across to the canals on the other side
Floating market - you could buy beer, soda, trinkets from her. There are times that there are dozens of them. For us, she was the only one.
Big Buddha
Wat Arun
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