Siam safari with a medical twist

Few months back, a dog near my villa mistook my foot for a hamburger and pierced its front teeth quite firmly. Though  it went back calmly, I was left bedazzled as to what next I would do, as it was late evening and no known hospitals close by. Luckily, a colleague came to my rescue and took me to Phuket International Hospital. While the admin staff and nurses were busy dealing with my wound, I saw many foreign nationals in the hospital. I was pondering as to how come so many nationals from other countries cud get sick in one time and descend upon the hospital though back in the mind I knew that Phuket being popular tourist destination might have its own share of tourist accidents and sickness. My colleague reading my thoughts intervened and said they are here on a medicinal picnic. I shot back at him – medicinal what ? picnic in hospital ? I was so engrossed with physical pain in leg and mental pain about my medical bill, that I dismissed that as some kinda jargon scheme either floated for westerns or for medical/doctors fraternity to benefit.

Later one day at our hotel, one of the guests at breakfast was asking me direction to one of the famous hospital. He was also inquiring about the general hygiene and other local stuffs. I told him about the relative safety of hospitals here and asked him citing at the cheerfulness of the morning hour, as to shouldn’t he be planning trips to Phi-Phi island or James Bond island instead. I was taken by surprise when he said that he has come to Phuket to get a hip replacement operation.

I was amazed as to why one would come to Phuket ignoring its lovely beaches and superb atmosphere, to get into certain complex surgery. I repeated this incident to the same colleague who had taken me to hospital the other day. To which he explained that this is called medicinal picnic by tourists or rather more famous  and  known term coined by economists as medical tourism. I learnt that due to high cost of medical treatments in ones own country, with waiting time and all, people from other countries visit nations which cud provide same treatment with same or better quality and importantly being lighter on wallet. 

With continuous work on computers, few weeks back, I had developed soar eyes and my HR dept took me to the Bangkok Hospital in Phuket town. The lobby of the hospital was so beautiful that I have never seen such a reception in my entire hotel professional life. Back in India, when one visits a hospital, the first thing that strikes you is the typical odour of medicines. Here it was so clean and tidy. For my return trip back home, my driver was struck up somewhere in traffic, running him late to pick me up. So I took this opportunity to talk to the lady at the counter about the touring community from different countries coming to their hospital for treatments. She answered my queries.

She told me that since medical facilities and infrastructure in Thailand are with par with any developed nation and costs are quite affordable, many foreigners come to get themselves treated here. These medical tourists do their homework beforehand by checking the various accreditation earned by hospitals like from JCI (Joint Commission International), ISO to name a few. Due to huge influx of patients from other nations, most of the big hospitals have a department or team who handle such exquisite foreign national patients. This core team handles transportation arrangements including ground or air ambulance, coordinates the admissions, scheduling appointments, hospital stay, assisting in financial arrangements including dealing with third party insurance companies and smooth discharge back to home country.

 

Compared with neighboring countries like Singapore, the healthcare cost over here is half and one-third compared with Hong Kong. So its not a wonder why Europeans and US nationals come to Thailand since the cost here its about 10-15 times more cheaper. People come here for wide range of treatments apart from the normal dental and cosmetic surgeries like face and forehead lift, liposuction, nose correction and neck lifts, the affordable price with professional services for hip or knee replacement surgeries, infertility treatments, drug rehabs are also high in demand.

Though Thailand is a developing country, hygiene and safety in prime hospitals are not compromised. Though there are no major viral threats, there is also no special vaccinations which are  recommended before coming here. Getting a treatment in such a gorgeous tropical environment, with lovely beaches, luxurious spas, entertainment options would surely be a dream for many.

Anyone ever imagined why Bollywood actress don’t get tired of twists n turns dancing routines in every alternate typical Bollywood movie songs, well the answer is many of them frequently visit the kingdom of Thailand for their cosmetic needs and rejuvenate themselves in various health spas here. So if somebody next time says that medical tourism at Thailand is a blessing in disguise to keep Bollywood ticking in world scenario, it should not be taken as flippant or frivolous enuf !

Eat Pray Pierce

That wud have been the title if Julia Roberts had come to Phuket instead of Bali after praying in India. The Phuket Vegeterian Festival has ended yesterday with the final farewell to Gods in various Chinese temples over here. First I thot Phuket Veg Fest was all about not having non-veg food for 10 days giving countless species a sigh of relief. I was wrong, there was more to it. I was shaken out of my myths when I saw the procession by devotees with the ultimate self mortification on the penultimate day. The cavalcade started from Kathu went towards the marine pier at town and back. Myself, my wife n kid with other local residents were on the street corner early morning to see the march close to our building on the main road.

In my childhood, I was zapped to see for first time, the aesthetic display of ppl piercing vels and trishuls in tounges or cheeks at a temple in Vikhroli-Bombay built by erstwhile Vardharajan Mudaliyar in an annual Thaipusam festival. Later in our native, saw devotees being hung from tractors with thier back stucked with hooks in the local Mariamman Pandigai (festival). Lately, when a friend from Malaysia sent snaps and web links of the Thaipusam festival at Batu Caves Karthikeyan Temple, I was surprised to know ppl there being more adventures then their counterparts in India. But what I saw with my open eyes over here in Phuket was bewildering and very puzzling.

As said earlier, In India had seen simple vels and trishuls (iron rods) been pierced in body, but devotees here were a step ahead, apart from regular spears, one cud see baseball bats, test-tubes, guns, sickles, umbrellas, knives and even bicycles pierced in and around ones mouth, face being the favourite part for piercing. Every alternate devotee was trying out different material to puncture himself with. Adding to the fervour was the continous shower of fire crackers, to wade away evil spirits. Though same concept of hindus, but here Diwali is mixed with Holi. Back in India, where we normally toss them away after igniting to a safer distance, here fire crackers are lit and thrown on each other as if playing holi with colors.

Li'l brief history, way back in 1825, when Phuket was thick with forests (it is still so), one touring opera company from China got seriously sick. They underwent veggy diet and worshipped their Gods to cure them from the unknown fever. The disappearance of the sickness made them put full faith on the powers of their diety and from then on with various modifications and cultures binding it thru the years it has come to the present state of festivity. This is primarily done to keep the evil spirits at bay and bring good luck to community.

One thing that caught me dumbfound was a little team of govt workers/sweepers who kept on cleaning the trail lane, as each unit of devotees passed by throwing flowers among other things and igniting fire crackers resulting in huge paper trashes on the road. After an hour or two, none of the craps were noticed and the road was as clean as always. Had some Indian municipal officer seen this, his face wud have succumbed down with shame, where the wastages are left to take its natural course of dispersal and scatter.

And from the various Chinese dieties that were taken on palkis in the procession, one that was distinguished was a goddess very similar to our own Lord Kaali. Since this happens here same time every year, when in India ppl are celebrating Durga Pooja and Navrathri, with only Bay of Bengal in between, was wondering whether there was some kinship or connection??

JAI MATA DI !

One Cuckoo flew over Bollywood nest

For past few weeks, gone thru many news n articles on Rajnikant after release of his Endhiran (tamil) dubbed Robo (hindi) movie, some speculating that a new box office records is on its way, how SRK & Hrithik are expanding their budget for RA1 and Krishh2 to match the sfx of this movie and some other waggish stories. But the thing I am waiting for is, the new Rajni jokes in the famous - What Rajni cant’ nobody can series. Some like - The Bermuda Triangle used to be the Bermuda Square, until Rajnikanth kicked one of the corners off. Rajnikanth's every step creates a mini whirlwind, Hurricane Katrina was the result of a morning jog. Superb ! I guess, only Santa Singh-Banta Singh surpass him in that field and it’s a moot point to even discuss the comparison though some of it may be bemoaned by Rajni’s die-hard fans, still the sheer genius of ppl coming up with such soaring imagination is admirable.

There are certain items in print that I don’t agree with. Thru my days in Tamilnadu and whatever part of the state I’ve toured, I’ve never seen any temple for Rajnikant. I know and have met many die-hard fans of his, but no one has time or are brain-sick enuf to construct a temple. The huge garlands and aarthi to his cut-outs on movie release is south-indian style of welcoming home a hero from a long stay away, since he accepts a movie once in 2-3 yrs or so. It’s surely an idiocy to even comment that people in general treat him like real God and worship and other craps.

When western media made whimsical comments on Aamir Khan being 45 yr old  enacting as a fresh 18-yr Engg student in 3 Idiots or memory loss hero in Ghajani, no wonder why their counterparts in India wud spare 60-yr Shivaji Rao Gaikwad flexing his mannerism. Last time, with the same charm, he took the NDTV entertainer of the year award, apparently given by the same media. Wud he, this year too ??

Contrary to the funny series, there are many things which Rajni can and others cant apart from his unrivaled fees, having 60 shows of his movie in one single day in all the screens of a multiplex, the most striking which cant be matched with any actor anywhere in world is his ability to refund back his fees to producers and distributors if his movie is not a blockbuster let alone a hit.

When a friend from Dubai struggling in queue for first show at 7:30 am morning at  Grand Cinema - Hyatt Galleria tweeted that car parking collections from the theatres featuring Endihiran wud surpass the box office collections of Anjana-Anjani, I cud not stop laughing on the capitalist at heart to take notice of Superstar. Unfortunately, in Phuket there are no theatres which show Indian movies, neither Hindi nor Tamil. Thru an acquaintance, I’ve got a DVD of the movie dubbed in Thai. No clue how much I wud understand the lingo, but quite eager to know what exactly he says in Thai while bashing the villains like fruitcakes. Maybe, I cud steamroll some of it in my office on my staff with a piqued intolerance oozing from my gaze and ending the dialogue with the Thai equivalent of ‘Mind it’ !