Sarah's Chonburi Pictures, Day 4, 22nd March 2009.

Through these doors you'll walk, nervously I suspect, to the dawn of the new you, your life will be different when you exit via the back doors of the hospital. Admission for SRS or major FFS is usually the day before your surgery, for me it'll be in the morning of the day I get my work done .. Tuesday afternoon.



This is the view from the 9th floor ( Dr Suporn's floor ) lift lobby, looking away from the town out to sea .. if you lucky you'll get an even numbered room number so you can see the sea, but probably on the other side of the building. The view from the beds in odd numbered rooms isn't so nice .. the sun sets on the sea are just amazing.



Swing round 90 degrees and zoom in .. there's the "BIG BUDDAH" that over looks Chon Buri .. the clinic often will arrange a quicky trip for patients to go and see that close up .. you wait .. it is BIG !!!



13.45 .. ish the three of us return to the hotel by Tuc Tuc .. girls .. if your doing SRS you will not enjoy a ride like this after your surgery .. doughnut cushion or not .. I did it last year on my last day .. OUCH !!! .. LOL. So that's Andrea on the left, Frankie in the middle and me .. aargh .. my teeth, I hate mine.



Back at the hotel .. gosh that was fun this time ..



Sunday afternoon .. en route to the massage place past the clinic by the foot of the bridge across the main road .. meet the infamous "dog with eyebrows" .. clearly drawn on. It lives in a unit between the road into the hotel and the clinic .. make sure you go down the main road rather than the "short cut" into the back of the clinic that most use, or you'll not see it in the flesh..



This is inside the room they do the full body massages in. This picture was care of Andrea who was waiting to be started on .. Jit is working on Frankie, "Anon" is working on me, gosh aren't I flat chested here .. << grimace >>. For the full body you have to at least change your bottom layer clothes, if your top is wrong they'll give you another .. if your small enough .. LOL. They lend you a pair of very baggy non-restrictive shorts so they can bend your legs around .. this is bliss .. and for 150 Baht for an hour they work hard for their money .. I always paid 200. Spot the picture of a young king on the calendar by the door .. that picture must be 30 years old at least. When you go in and set you up to work on you they will point at your crutch to check if your freshly post op SRS .. they will be extra gentle when they manipulate your legs studying your face for the slightest sign of discomfort .. been there seen it .. so don't worry. When I was post op AM/BA they put extra cushions on the floor to lift my chest and breasts off the floor .. when they told me to roll over so they could do my back .. they really do know how to make sure we are comfortable and never in danger of hurting anything.



"Maam" the person we think owns the place starts work on Andrea .. the manipulation looks looks painful .. it really isn't .. but they do loosen you up. The white and woven screen in the corner behind "Maam" is where you can go and change .. if your that shy or can't get the long shorts on easily .. I just pulled them up under my skirt then stepped out of that.



An hour later Frankie and I decide to join Andrea and have a foot massage .. this is done with oils and involves them exercising the reflexology points on your feet .. this might reveal some problems you don't know about. They stick a rounded implement into your feet and calves .. if you yelp or flinch they may look at you and ask "jib" .. "jib" is Thai for pain. This really is very relaxing, despite the little pains they found on me.



One very smiley Thai lady, "Anon" .. putting an even bigger smile on my face. My feet are a little ticklish .. "cheeky cheek" .. is what I think they say .. Frankie will put me write so expect a V2 of this soon .. LOL. Note after oiling my feet, she covered the foot she wasn't working on .. the Thais have a thing about pointing the soles of your feet at them .. it's a polite thing to wear socks in bed in the hospital .. especially post SRS.



"Maan" .. who I believe is the owner of the shop .. these Thai smiles are infective.



Jit .. she did most of my massages .. and will more than likely be at Dr Suporn's beech house when you go on visits there.



What to look for from the outside, this is actually the left hand of the two units where the foot massages are done, you always enter via that door. With hind sight, I wish I'd tried the full body oil massage at least once, but I didn't .. oh .. and note the shoe rack outside, this is one of those Thai establishments where shoes stay outside.



Do you read Thai .. reflexology points explained .. and they do seem to test them all.

After the massage experience we returned briefly to the hotel, then went out exploring as a group again ..



As Frankie, Andrea and I wandered around Chonburi we stumbled across this "college" .. the complex can be found a few hundred metres up the street opposite the clinic ( with MacDonald's on the corner ) , on the left hand side. The architecture was beautiful original Thai style .. it's just a shame about the power cables.



An unspoilt view of one of the buildings at the end of "compound". Andrea wanted something to drink and approached what we thought was a street trader, with us speaking little Thai, it was a pleasant surprise when a Thai lady came across to help this group of "Farrang". She invited us to join her group but we declined.



It struck me that this was some sort of religious establishment when I found this bell tower. The tree in the foreground was interesting, with some sort of fruit growing on it, like nothing I've seen before.



In my final mad rush to pack and leave home I left two things out of my handbag, my sunglasses that I replaced at the duty free at Heathrow .. and as I discovered yesterday my Thai phrase book .. major problem. However, as we wandered back from the "religious establishment back towards "The Forum" "mall" and MacDonald's I found this bookshop. An assistant came to my rescue in the end and guided me up to the 2nd floor where I found a Thai / English phrase book.


More to come for sure ..