It was an eventful few days. As I mentioned in the previous post, B had a little mishap while dismounting an elephant and after attempting to sleep it off, she figured a hospital visit was our best bet. At least if it isn’t broken, she can take it a little harder on it. If it is, well... I guess we would have to reconsider ziplining and other super fun times activities. Luckily that wasn’t the case and we are back in action.
Our review of the Thai hospital system? It is pretty great! Some questionable things like filling needles while not wearing gloves and the very flimsy “x-ray proof” door had us a little concerned but the wait times were not bad and they were very helpful. The longest process was dealing with our travel insurance company. Everything ended up being covered but we didn’t want to pay out of pocket and get reimbursed later, we wanted to pay zero dollars. It was surprisingly difficult to even get the hospital to get a call through to Canada. Apparently, foreign area codes are quite confusing to them. Eventually though, B got xrays, treatment, medication, an ankle brace and aluminum crutches. Total cost for her was 1 dollar for the overseas call. The insurance was stuck with the rest, but it was a shockingly low number: $146 Canadian. You couldn’t even get one x-ray for that in Canada.
The final diagnosis was a 2nd degree ligament tear. She was ordered not to walk on it for 6 weeks. We took the crutches for one walk and she hasn’t touched them since. The pavement and sidewalks are so uneven here that it is impossible so she’s goin’ bareback. The owner of our hostel, her name is Nine, is incredibly nice and helpful. She gave B some mystery Thai balm to use. Not sure what is in it but we’re giving it a go!
The next day we went to the Tiger Kingdom where you can pet tigers of varying ages. It is expensive by Thai standards at $42 CAD and for only about 30-60 minutes but it was still very cool. Interacting with the baby tigers that just wanted to play was great. We got to meet tigers of 2 months, 3 months, 4 months and full grown at 2 years. After 2 years of age, the tigers are put into the breeding population and no longer visited by tourists as their instincts are far more powerful after that age.
It wasn’t too scary – I found it a lot scarier on top of the elephants. We were given strict instruction not to touch their heads, which was harder than you’d think. They look so cute and snugly.
Last but not least, we went to the Sunday Market. It is a fantastic market they hold every Sunday which stretches 2km on the streets of Chiang Mai (more specifically, on Walking Street.) There was everything you could imagine and at fantastic prices. This is where I got most of my gifts for family and friends. Fresh food, crafts, books, art, you name it. I wish we were here for one more Sunday!
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