FARANG LIVES MATTER
- Thread starter Wanderer
- Start date
Wanderer
Surin Dinosaur
Welcome back Wanderer. 7th floor eh. 6 windows probably = 12 curtains + sheets. Now if you tie them all together, you could shimmy down to the ground. Might be a tad difficult getting back up though
Seems a very high 7th floor - this place is like a pencil sticking out of the ground, next to a filling station and alongside one of the new overhead railway station sites.
Good food, but I think the clock has gone back 1 hour here already.
It says 08.00, 11.30 and 17.30 for rations. Today was 07.15, 11.00 and 16.45 - Massaman Curry for afternoon tea.
Yorky
Fullritis Member
Wanderer
Surin Dinosaur
5 breakfasts, 19 main courses, order what you want the previous day. Not a problem but I'll probably be used to them after 15 days.
I will put even more weight on.
Plus I brought things like Tunnocks caramel wafers - as one does....
Wanderer
Surin Dinosaur
That comment was written before I went European.
The spaghetti carbonara was without doubt the worst I had ever seen and witnessed let alone eaten some of.
Back to Thai basics and thankfully they haven't transmogrified.
Had the next Covid test today. I assumed it would be down in the reception area, which is spotless, with receptionist fully togged out in plastic behind a plastic screen and also where the on-site 24/7 nurses provided by the local hospital have their medical station.
(Are they busy little nurses one wonders?).
Nope - go down 2 flights of stairs into the basement where 2 other nurses have set up close by the trunking and pipework etc. But it was clean and only a few flies, which there would be some of with double doors fully open at the far end.
Not as I would have organised things but no problem.
I only saw the Austrian couple and a Chinese lady - and inevitably not seen any other inmates.
I asked at reception if other normal customers could stay at the hotel now - answer no they can't.
I tried to find out how many actually on site now but couldn't.
(Is this viable business one wonders?)
The chairs and sofa are not suiting my back and so I asked my other half to check with them whether taking ibuprofen could cause any reaction with Covid tests. Somewhere I had seen some pseudo expert comment that maybe it could.
Result was nursey phoned me, asked 97 questions about my back, most of which I didn't understand and asked me to grade the hurt from 1 to 5, but I couldn't make out whether 1 was high or low, so said medium. She rang a doctor at the hospital. He prescribed Arcoxia which is a COX-2 analgesic (I looked it up), different from ibuprofen.
7 daily tablets (644 baht) and his consultation (200baht) = 844 THB - cost £20, paid for electronically by my wife before delivery. Necessary???????
This is the Thai Covid way. As herself rightly said, at least any problem is now theirs not ours and they can't say it was because you took your ibuprofen.
I'm thinking there should be new Thai currency for Covid costs. 1000 baht = 1 faht
But I met people today, and that won't happen again for more than a week.
The spaghetti carbonara was without doubt the worst I had ever seen and witnessed let alone eaten some of.
Back to Thai basics and thankfully they haven't transmogrified.
Had the next Covid test today. I assumed it would be down in the reception area, which is spotless, with receptionist fully togged out in plastic behind a plastic screen and also where the on-site 24/7 nurses provided by the local hospital have their medical station.
(Are they busy little nurses one wonders?).
Nope - go down 2 flights of stairs into the basement where 2 other nurses have set up close by the trunking and pipework etc. But it was clean and only a few flies, which there would be some of with double doors fully open at the far end.
Not as I would have organised things but no problem.
I only saw the Austrian couple and a Chinese lady - and inevitably not seen any other inmates.
I asked at reception if other normal customers could stay at the hotel now - answer no they can't.
I tried to find out how many actually on site now but couldn't.
(Is this viable business one wonders?)
The chairs and sofa are not suiting my back and so I asked my other half to check with them whether taking ibuprofen could cause any reaction with Covid tests. Somewhere I had seen some pseudo expert comment that maybe it could.
Result was nursey phoned me, asked 97 questions about my back, most of which I didn't understand and asked me to grade the hurt from 1 to 5, but I couldn't make out whether 1 was high or low, so said medium. She rang a doctor at the hospital. He prescribed Arcoxia which is a COX-2 analgesic (I looked it up), different from ibuprofen.
7 daily tablets (644 baht) and his consultation (200baht) = 844 THB - cost £20, paid for electronically by my wife before delivery. Necessary???????
This is the Thai Covid way. As herself rightly said, at least any problem is now theirs not ours and they can't say it was because you took your ibuprofen.
I'm thinking there should be new Thai currency for Covid costs. 1000 baht = 1 faht
But I met people today, and that won't happen again for more than a week.
Coffee
You chose a custom title
So regarding the question does Ibuprofen effect Covid testing results, what was the response from the medical staff conducting and overseeing your tests , (yes, no, unknown) ?
Wanderer
Surin Dinosaur
I pot a Thai response - in other words, no answer at all.
Nurse brought my Covid test result - much less than 24 hours since sample taken - negative (thank goodness).
To my surprise she told me 73 people currently quarantining in this hotel, including several families.
?? where from ?? - I should have asked if they were Chinese.
This hotel is 23 floors in total, only 4 rooms per floor, some service floors and so nearly full with prisoners.
I'm surprised and curious.
We haven't had strong winds yet but I'm also hoping that the builders didn't cut back on the reinforcing specs for the concrete piling like they did in our village.
A hotel shaped like a pencil wouldn't stay upright for long in India.
11.30 - time for food any minute = is it brunch, or lunch, or dinner, or scoff, or repast. Nosh will do.
Nurse brought my Covid test result - much less than 24 hours since sample taken - negative (thank goodness).
To my surprise she told me 73 people currently quarantining in this hotel, including several families.
?? where from ?? - I should have asked if they were Chinese.
This hotel is 23 floors in total, only 4 rooms per floor, some service floors and so nearly full with prisoners.
I'm surprised and curious.
We haven't had strong winds yet but I'm also hoping that the builders didn't cut back on the reinforcing specs for the concrete piling like they did in our village.
A hotel shaped like a pencil wouldn't stay upright for long in India.
11.30 - time for food any minute = is it brunch, or lunch, or dinner, or scoff, or repast. Nosh will do.
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Coffee
You chose a custom title
So why take the [with unknown side-effects to you] Arcoxia when you could stay with Ibuprofen which doesn't seem to effect the test for Covid ?
Glad to read you're testing negative.
Check out the French tourist on Koh Samui story in the Bangkok Post whom supposedly stayed in a quarantine hotel with her family.
"Worry, who me?" - Alfred E Neuman
Wanderer
Surin Dinosaur
What, me worry? - Nah, not me - I'll sort the bastards out.
Or perhaps I should worry a bit.
9th day in this room. The novelty has worn off. I've had enough now.
It's good that we have new experiences, learn new things, broadens your mind, blah blah
Wrong on the last one - it doesn't broaden your mind. It narrows your mind. Your world is so narrow that little things around you become big ones.
It's quite scary. But you also have to laugh at it
As I write this, my lunch is late, I've looked outside the door 4 times already. Every meal arrives silently and has always been ridiculously early, have they forgotten me?
If I ring up, will it again be the total language barrier of confusion and misunderstanding?
So I won't ring. From experience I try not to pick the phone up.
But there are successes. As of 2 days ago I got a real knife to eat with when necessary. For the first time, I chose a pork steak and chips. It arrived with the usual thin plastic fork and spoon in its plastic bag with paper napkin and toothpick, sealed with cellotape. How was I supposed to eat the pork? Telephone discussions with 3 different people and eventually they brought me a proper knife and fork. I kept them. They are trophies out of sight in the cutlery drawer. That drawer was equipped with 2 forks. 2 spoons, 2 soup spoons and 2 tea spoons, but not a knife to be seen - maybe considered a suicide risk.
Lunch arrived half an hour late today - no problem in that. I prefer lunch at 12 o'clock instead of 11 o'clock. I wonder if the evening meal will still arrive at 4.45pm.
There is no way you could anticipate in advance how things would be in this quarantine scenario.
Remember I'm paying 4000 baht per day for this, and some places were much more expensive.
All your food is delivered outside the door and you usually get a phone call sometime later to tell you it is there.
Everything is in disposable plastic containers and afterwards you put all that remains into a bin outside the door labelled "biohazard waste".
Today's lunch was pork noodles - two bowls, one with noodles and pork, the other "soup", plus little plastic sachets of soy sauce, fish sauce with chili, dried chili and sugar. All the ingredients, no problem.
But inevitably, the noodles are in one lump in the bowl and the bendy plastic fork and spoon won't loosen them.
So get the proper cutlery from the drawer, sort everything out, pour some soup into the noodles, 1 minute in the microwave and it was good to eat.
Luxury!
As usual I assessed what was worth keeping, before taking the stuff outside to the bin. This "hoarding" has become an important part of life.
Apart from spare sachets of ingredients, for when they have forgotten them - things like unused paper napkins, the plastic bags, the plastic coffee cup from breakfast - you keep them.
There are no kitchen towels, j-cloths or things like that. I suppose they are classed as "biohazard" risks by the thought police. The "wet wipes" etc I have are all ones I decided to bring with me, but I didn't think about j-cloths. Cleaning up something like fruit juice spillage from the floor is a challenge.
I have another consignment of the 92 baht per tablet Arcoxia pills for my aching back. (No I still didn't get an answer regarding ibuprofen, despite asking again - just "these are better"". The laugh is that they are packed in really thick foil. It is impossible to tear open. If I hadn't had a pair in my toilet bag, then making the phone call to ask "could I possibly have a small pair of scissors to break into my expensive medicine" would have been interesting.
I can laugh at most of that, but....
I keep reading reports of people testing positive on their final test. I have also read about more than one early positive result for Thai people arriving from Dubai on the same day as I did.
That is something in the back of my mind, because the idea of also having another 2 weeks minimum in the local hospital would not be on my agenda.
What must life be like for a prisoner, in jail, in his cell, in solitary confinement?
Inhumane - and not something I've given more than a fleeting thought to before.
Onwards and ...onwards
Or perhaps I should worry a bit.
9th day in this room. The novelty has worn off. I've had enough now.
It's good that we have new experiences, learn new things, broadens your mind, blah blah
Wrong on the last one - it doesn't broaden your mind. It narrows your mind. Your world is so narrow that little things around you become big ones.
It's quite scary. But you also have to laugh at it
As I write this, my lunch is late, I've looked outside the door 4 times already. Every meal arrives silently and has always been ridiculously early, have they forgotten me?
If I ring up, will it again be the total language barrier of confusion and misunderstanding?
So I won't ring. From experience I try not to pick the phone up.
But there are successes. As of 2 days ago I got a real knife to eat with when necessary. For the first time, I chose a pork steak and chips. It arrived with the usual thin plastic fork and spoon in its plastic bag with paper napkin and toothpick, sealed with cellotape. How was I supposed to eat the pork? Telephone discussions with 3 different people and eventually they brought me a proper knife and fork. I kept them. They are trophies out of sight in the cutlery drawer. That drawer was equipped with 2 forks. 2 spoons, 2 soup spoons and 2 tea spoons, but not a knife to be seen - maybe considered a suicide risk.
Lunch arrived half an hour late today - no problem in that. I prefer lunch at 12 o'clock instead of 11 o'clock. I wonder if the evening meal will still arrive at 4.45pm.
There is no way you could anticipate in advance how things would be in this quarantine scenario.
Remember I'm paying 4000 baht per day for this, and some places were much more expensive.
All your food is delivered outside the door and you usually get a phone call sometime later to tell you it is there.
Everything is in disposable plastic containers and afterwards you put all that remains into a bin outside the door labelled "biohazard waste".
Today's lunch was pork noodles - two bowls, one with noodles and pork, the other "soup", plus little plastic sachets of soy sauce, fish sauce with chili, dried chili and sugar. All the ingredients, no problem.
But inevitably, the noodles are in one lump in the bowl and the bendy plastic fork and spoon won't loosen them.
So get the proper cutlery from the drawer, sort everything out, pour some soup into the noodles, 1 minute in the microwave and it was good to eat.
Luxury!
As usual I assessed what was worth keeping, before taking the stuff outside to the bin. This "hoarding" has become an important part of life.
Apart from spare sachets of ingredients, for when they have forgotten them - things like unused paper napkins, the plastic bags, the plastic coffee cup from breakfast - you keep them.
There are no kitchen towels, j-cloths or things like that. I suppose they are classed as "biohazard" risks by the thought police. The "wet wipes" etc I have are all ones I decided to bring with me, but I didn't think about j-cloths. Cleaning up something like fruit juice spillage from the floor is a challenge.
I have another consignment of the 92 baht per tablet Arcoxia pills for my aching back. (No I still didn't get an answer regarding ibuprofen, despite asking again - just "these are better"". The laugh is that they are packed in really thick foil. It is impossible to tear open. If I hadn't had a pair in my toilet bag, then making the phone call to ask "could I possibly have a small pair of scissors to break into my expensive medicine" would have been interesting.
I can laugh at most of that, but....
I keep reading reports of people testing positive on their final test. I have also read about more than one early positive result for Thai people arriving from Dubai on the same day as I did.
That is something in the back of my mind, because the idea of also having another 2 weeks minimum in the local hospital would not be on my agenda.
What must life be like for a prisoner, in jail, in his cell, in solitary confinement?
Inhumane - and not something I've given more than a fleeting thought to before.
Onwards and ...onwards
Coffee
You chose a custom title
No worries @Wanderer as BJ has basically effected a national lockdown for Blighty.
You'd be f-ck'd either way....except you'd have better cider and cutlery in the UK.
Truth is one should worry about being exposed to the virus while staying in a hotel that is designated Ground Zero for arrivals.
Imagine being the housekeeper.
Ivor the Engine
Nowhere man
Does anyone clean your room or replace bathroom bits, like toilet paper?
Prakhonchai Nick
You chose a custom title
Do you really expect these additional luxury services, Ivor, for a mere 4,000bt/day?
With just 1 person, nailed up windows, and only occasional opening of the door to bring in food, the room should remain spotless. And as for toilet paper....1 roll should suffice for 14 days...especially if one makes use of both sides!
.Not long to go Wanderer. You're doing fine. Keep your spirits up. The flags will be flying in Surin when you return.
Wanderer
Surin Dinosaur
yes - exciting.
2 little plastic women with brush and mops - first time they showed up was day 6, then to my surprise yesterday as well.
I've only seen their eyes.
First time they left the door open - I was like a dog getting out the front gate - nobody else about and that's how I knew there were only 4 rooms but 2 fire escapes.
(And today's evening meal came at 4.36pm, schedule is 5.30pm)
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nomad97
Resident Geek
@Wanderer, I take Indomethacin for my Reactive Arthritis. A few years ago, while staying in the General Hospital for a hernia operation, I told the doc I needed indomethacin daily and he prescribed Arcoxia instead. Now apart from the price, Arcoxia, a Cox 2 inhibitor drug, is supposed to be kinder on the stomach than the non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS). I did not find the highest dose available to be in quite the same league as Indomethacin. I was still left in pain in the hospital and augmented the prescribed medication with a few Indomethacin capsules of my own (naughty boy!). The main difference, from what I can see, other than the method of operation is the price. You are being charged 92 baht a tablet for Arcoxia whereas Indomethacin costs some 220 baht/1,000 capsules, or, slightly less than 25 Satang per 25 mg capsule. I need 6 capsules a day, or roughly 1.50 baht/day. I have tried Cox 2 inhibitors before, under medical supervision, but both the very significant price difference and the effectiveness of the pain medication have led me back to Indomethacin every time.
Ivor the Engine
Nowhere man
Pleased to hear that. I was thinking more about your predicament of not having anything to mop up spilt juice.
Yorky
Fullritis Member
Do you get an adequate beer delivery?
Prakhonchai Nick
You chose a custom title
I am led to believe that some of the Muslim women hiding beneath their burquas, are to put it bluntly "a bit of alright" You, Wanderer, only saw the eyes of your cleaning ladies. Did you not wonder, with all the time on your hands, what may lie beneath the plastic?, I am sure I would have done.
Yorky
Fullritis Member
I am led to believe that some of the Muslim women hiding beneath their burquas, are to put it bluntly "a bit of alright" You, Wanderer, only saw the eyes of your cleaning ladies. Did you not wonder, with all the time on your hands, what may lie beneath the plastic?, I am sure I would have done.
I met some exceptionally "bit of alright" Muslim women in Malaysia. Easy to spot though as they don't wear face covering.