Sarah's Chonburi Pictures, Day 3, Saturday 21st March 2009.

The clinic building in the sun .. it's only open in the morning on a Saturday.




The clinic sign to the left of the front door.




Meet my friend Frankie, she arrived last night and we had a meal together. We are surgery sisters .. she was booked for her SRS and BA in the morning of next Tuesday .. I would be having my BA and upper lip lift the same afternoon. She's a lovely person, and very caring, as I was to find out in my hour of need .. but that's in the future.



Ok, it's me, photo care of Frankie .. I'm small breasted here too .. that top fits so much better now .. << BIG GRIN >>.



This is the eating area of the Big C "hypermarket" about 3 miles towards Pattaya from the clinic. We came here to shop .. but we had to eat, and it was nice to eat as the Thais do .. thanks to Nanda. I paid 100Baht for a credit card token that I took from booth to booth getting what I wanted. In the end I spent about 50 baht ..
 


My lunch .. a Thai chicken curry .. it looks simple, and it is, but oh my goodness .. was it tasty .. this was probably the "hottest" food I had in Thailand, the hotel food is "westernised" and made a lot less hot for sure. The value for money was just stunning .. I wish I could get food like this close to home. That camera filter sitting by my plate ( circular polarising ) would sadly fly out of the window of Nanda's pick up in a couple of hours time in a freak accident .. rendering it useless as the threads will be damaged.



We had just left the Hypermarket and was about to cut across to the coast road when we passed this road side barbecue, this reminds me of France .. a common sight in markets and in village squares on a Sunday .. why roast if you have to.



So we are on the coast road, beyond Dr Suporn's beech house but heading back in that direction. Saturday is Thailand's main day off, so many flock to the beech. Vehicles are parked 2 deep in most of the places, and the beach is a sea of protective umbrella's .. sun safe. Nanda tells us this beech area has few "Farrang", yet the road edge seems to be a market aimed at tourists.



We've gone about two miles along the beech road from the last picture and seen many little traditional Thai buildings like this .. but this is modern day Thailand .. and the satellite dish on the left is a "carbuncle", but I guess a convenience of modern day life. It wasn't till recently that I realised what is visible under the right hand side roof. Yes the white tower block is obvious, but under that is a white pagoda under the trees .. that and the wall is Dr Suporn's beech house .. the smaller tower block to left of the big white tower is Nanda's apartment block .. it sort of puts everything into place.



Ok 3 in a row .. the left one puts the place in perspective .. the white tower block is the one mentioned in the picture above. Dr Suporn patients know this as "Monkey Mountain" .. except this is the other side to where the organised trips normally stop en route to Dr Suporn's beech house, which is really just below us, but in the other pics looking over the top I couldn't find it for the trees and we are just a short walk to Nanda's apartment out of sight to the right.

The centre picture is another fine specimen, don't be fooled by their cute looks, these are wild animals and you should never try to touch one. At the feeding stations like this they congregate and will snatch something offered at arms length, I have seen others scratched and bitten in this exercise.

The right picture shows another specimen .. the blue eye-shadow they wear is permanent and natural, unlike the dog with eyebrows near the clinic .. but more on that another day .. LOL.



On the way back to the hotel Andrea wants to stop to buy a pestle and mortar from the tourist trap area I stopped at last year with the clinic day trip. Nanda, out of shot enough to keep her anonymous as she's requested helps to translate for Andrea, making sure she doesn't get ripped off .. Nanda is one wise cookie here, sadly some of her advice to me a few weeks on from here comes to late to save me a fortune. ext.


As we head back into Chon Buri Nanda takes us past the Aikchol Hospital, and stops ever patient with our requests .. time to get a couple or more decent pictures of the place. In 36 hours Frankie will be whisked off for her SRS, 24 more from then I'll be whisked off my surgery there too .. in the afternoon of Frankie's.  Dr Suporn's floor is on the 9th, out of sight here at the back .. overlooking the sea .. the hair on the back of my neck was perpendicular and my heart was beating heavy just standing here .. I seriously dislike hospitals .. as regular readers here know. The entrance you'll be taken to is in that tunnel to the right of the building, no grand entrance through the front door which is below the big sign behind the tree.


This is the road past the hospital .. it's a dual carriage way and can be very busy. Last year being bought here for my SRS the driver cut across from the opposite side through the central reservation and traffic .. did he see the motorcyclist .. it was close. The hospital is laid back and like the clinic building it stands out for being immaculately kept on the outside, as well as inside.


Thailand is a seriously religious country, so it's fairly common to see Buddhist shrines like this by the side of the road. However you will pass this as you are driven into the entrance, it'll be on your right as you enter and sweep round past the front door as you are taken to the side door close to the admissions area.

Heading back to the hotel from the hospital, we've gone about a mile, but not via the direct route used by the clinic drivers, we head along the coast first. The bay the hospital over looks is used by fishermen for all sorts of fish farming and netting, these look like oyster beds, but I can't be sure.


More to come for sure ..