We might have called this section 'Urban Renewal' but the double-entendre would have undoubtedly gone over everybody's head. By 'urban renewal' we mean that since we first got to Bangkok we have more or less put ourselves back together. We not only bought two computers to replace our stolen ones but we also had health checkups, dental cleaning, and got new sandals. Gerry also got new glasses just where he did five year ago. It was a very profitable stay in Bangkok. Profitable that is for Bangkok merchants!

During our first three day stay in Bangkok we went to MBK center and Pantip Plaza to look for notebook computers. We found that it was hard to get a bargain in the sense that everybody sold at list price; there was no (not a dime or baht) difference in price between one merchant and another. The biggest potential difference was that some places offered tax refund but to get that you have to fly out and we weren't planning to. The biggest real difference was the actual models that a merchant had in stock. There are so many permutations and combinations of features that you really have to search hard to find THE machine that has everything you want. Lots of machines were tempting but it was pretty clear that Acer gave the most for your money. This was almost certainly due to the fact that Acer was attempting in a serious way (as we read in the Bangkok Post) to build market share. Gerry finally managed to settle on an Acer Aspire 14" notebook with 1 GB of memory and a 100 GB hard drive. These figures are 25-30% bigger and better than his stolen VAIO. His new processor, a Centrino M 760 (2.0 MHz) is about the same speed as his old Pentium 4 (3.04 MHz) as measured by Mike Eddy's 100 factorial test. In only one respect is the Acer less than Sony: size. The Acer is 14 inches rather than 15 and considerably lighter and easier to carry around. Jan now gets the Compaq all to herself. We bought that the night before leaving for Kanchanaburi and shared it all through our stay there. That was almost worse than waiting in line to use the bathroom.

Another part of our urban renewal was new glasses for Gerry. He's now seeing clearly for the first time since about a month ago when he broke the arm of the glasses he bought in Phayao, Thailand back in 2001. Since the break he's been wearing his 1999 Paris glasses which he had been carrying as an emergency pair. Because the lens of his Thailand glasses came from a place in the MBK center he went back there and found an optical shop. During the examination the tester assured Gerry that the 1999 Paris prescription was better for him than the 2001 Bangkok prescription. Gerry assured him otherwise and had him make a set of lenses that pleased Gerry rather than what some strange measurement said. In fact, it seems to Gerry that he should not have let the tester measure his glasses and then the tester would not have been misled. Four hours after he'd placed the order Gerry had new frames with new lenses that matched the 2001 prescription. He felt vindicated as his vision immediately seemed much better than with the Paris prescription. After wearing the new glasses 24 hours Gerry came back and ordered replacement lenses for the Paris frames — the new lenses would have the same prescription as the 2001 Bangkok ones. When these were ready Gerry was even more pleased. Some slight variation in cutting made them even better than the full frames and lenses he had bought the day before.

At the end of the day in walking around another shopping center, the Siam Paragon center, Gerry discovered the smart looking Siam Center Dental Clinic. He made appointments for the next evening. It happened that the Dental Clinic was on a floor that was 80% filled with restaurants. One of them was the US chain Sizzler and we came back and had dinner there before having our teeth cleaned. The meal was good but it wasn't really the usual Sizzler. Around our table were several others filled with teenagers in the standard Thai school uniform, white shirt over black skirt or trousers. We knew that for 95% of Thais this was a very expensive restaurant. We wondered and wondered what elite this was that could afford to eat here. After our meal we went and had our teeth cleaned. The job seemed very professional but very fast compared to the cleaning we'd had done in Athens. Afterwards we talked to the dentist who did the work. She told us that she'd had a clinic there 17 years. In the early days her floor was not filled with restaurants and the pedestrian patterns were such that people easily saw her sign. About five years ago all changed and now some partitions for a restaurant block the view of her place; she was amazed that Gerry had managed to find it.

Let's end this section with what happened first: the retrieval of Gerry's new passport. His old one would have expired in February, 2007. Many countries require at least six months remaining validity and that would have been August, 2006. In other words, it was safest to get a new passport now rather than waiting a few months. So in our first three days we went to the American embassy, filled in the forms, paid $67, and were told to wait two weeks. That is partly why we lingered in Kanchanaburi. On our first day back we went to the Embassy and quickly got the new one. Gerry's photograph is digitally printed directly on the passport; that is certainly for security reasons but the end result is that the photograph is not glossy, fades into the background, and it is hard to recognize Gerry.

And last but not least, we thought we got a great deal at the First Hotel on Petchburi Road. We originally booked it over the internet for three nights and paid 1050B/night. When they wouldn't renew at that price we went back to the internet and booked it with another site for another three days and paid 950B/night. We got a pretty good buffet breakfast, a decent swimming pool, and a spacious room with all mod cons. Everything here feels very cheap after Greece and Turkey.

Wednesday, June 28 —
Health Checkups

For months before our arrival in Thailand we'd been looking forward to getting health checkups. Our last comprehensive ones were in Guatemala City in February, 2004. Before that we'd had check-ups at a hospital in Cheng Mai in northern Thailand in June, 2001. Then we'd been very impressed with the modern hospital and the way everything was well organized for foreigners. So our first day, even before the trip to MBK, we went to Bumrungrad Hospital and made inquiries. They, like Cheng Mai, have a package and we would have taken it if we hadn't later passed by the St Louis hospital, closer to our hotel. Their package was pretty much the same and half the price. On return to Bangkok from Kanchanaburi we immediately made appointments.

Perhaps the hardest part was having to skip the good buffet breakfast provided by our hotel, the First Hotel. We got to St Louis hospital by walking to the Skytrain, took it about six stops, and then walked to the hospital. In the next two hours we followed each other through the Stations of the Checkup: here the martyrs had their weights (too much) and blood pressures (okay) checked; at another station blood samples were taken; at still another we had chest x-rays. When all the standard, included tests were over we saw a dermatogologist. That, like the general tests, was for us precautionary: make sure that the little colors and growths were benign. We got the dermatologist's report right away: everything fine. We had to wait several hours for the other reports to come back from the radiologist and chemical labs.

All were as expected (i.e. we were in good health and no signs of that most dreaded item, cancer), except one thing: the consulting doctor reported to Gerry that the radiologist saw, and she agreed, possible signs of tuberculosis. Tuberculosis? The kid in us wanted to scream "Impossible. I can't be sick." The adult in Gerry thought about it and came up with the rationalization that the "possible signs" were misreadings. He can't have tuberculosis. The adult in Jan worried about Gerry and worried that if he had it, she could hardly avoid getting it.

We don't know why but the consulting doctor did not suggest any tests. Gerry did — that samples from his lung be examined. That idea was accepted and they gave him three small plastic jars to collect three sputum samples. Two days later we came back to the hospital with two jars empty: Gerry couldn't produce any sputum. This suggested to him that any TB he had was pretty minor and in early stages, if it existed. Since he had no sputum to test Gerry was sent to see a lung specialist. The specialist re-examined the xrays and guessed that the spots were very old scars from earlier illnesses. He said that if he had an old xray he could confirm it by seeing the scars in the same spots; lacking that he recommended another chest xray in six months. We'll do that.

We noticed quite a bit of difference between the four doctors we saw and have some speculations why they were like that. Before her tests and afterwards to get the results Jan saw a male doctor, about her age. She didn't hit it off with him, finding him brusque. The story was almost exacly the same for Gerry: he first saw a female doctor who quickly took his medical history and afterwards gave him the news about TB. Her manner didn't please him. We both saw the same dermitologist and he was the opposite of brusque and took all the time we wanted to answer our questions. The chest specialist was even more patient. Why? We guess that the consulting doctors see foreigners everyday for check ups and are bored with it. Nothing new and certainly not exciting for them. On the other hand to the dermatologist and chest specialist we were not just the same old cogs to be processed. So they had a personal reason to take an interest in us.