Thailand by way of the emergency room...

March 6, 2025

"Falling down is an accident. Staying down is a choice." ~ Seen on Pinterest

The night before we arrived at Puket, Thailand, we stayed in the cabin and watched Anna and the King with Jody Foster & Chow Yung Fat. Beautiful movie with an achingly lovely country as a canvas for this tale that's based on actual people. I was looking forward to venturing into the heart of that magical country in search of my own mythical "white elephant." 

We had a long walk from the tender pier to where our tour bus awaited us. Unfortunately, we had to follow our guide through narrow street lined with weed shops alternating with massage parlors. A distinct whiff of open sewer wafted around us. 

It was then I remembered that Thailand has become famous for sex tourism, but it was still a shock after being in the more tightly regulated Muslim and Hindu/Buddhist cultures we've recently been in. 

I'd broken one of the first rules of travel. Don't have a pre-conceived notion of what a place will be like. You'll almost always be disappointed.  

But we boarded our bus and set off to our first stop--another temple, this one with hundreds of elephant statutes draped with flowers. 

Which we didn't actually get to see.

We'd just gotten off the bus and I was fiddling with my O2 concentrator, getting it settled on my shoulders for a change--it was high time to give the DH a rest! There was a long set of stairs for us to climb to the temple and many of the group were already half way up. I saw our friend Susan (She and her husband Cecile went to the Sydney Opera with us) disembarking. There was a higher than usual curb. Her first foot made it, but her second didn't. She lost her balance and fell backward between the curb and the bus, going down hard, and smacking the back of her head on the hubcap.  

It was like watching it in slow motion. I was too far away to do anything, and if I had been close enough to try, we likely both would have gone down. Susan was bleeding. Profusely, as head wounds tend to do. Fortunately, there was both a doctor and a nurse among our fellow tourists and they sprang into action. Another fellow dashed to a nearby food stall and brought back a plastic bag filled with ice. Susan remained conscious and talking, which was a blessing, while she was helped to a bench to lie down.

Our tour guide called their company, Sea Tours, and reported the accident. The company jumped into action and called for an ambulance to take her to the hospital. I called the ship and let them know what had happened and that we would be staying with her. (Cecil was on another excursion snorkeling and was unreachable.)

By the time the ambulance arrived, Susan's wound was not bleeding as much, thanks to the administrations of our fellow passengers with medical training. The ambulance drivers put a fresh bandage on her head, moved some of their equipment to make room for the DH and me to travel with Susan, and off we went. 

I didn't think of it at the time, but they really should have put a cervical collar on her to protect her neck. But we kept Susan talking and prayed with her as the siren wailed and the traffic parted as if we were Moses before the Red Sea. Susan was glad to have us with her since the actual event had been scrubbed from her mind and we could tell the doctors what had happened.

As we pulled in to the hospital, Susan asked softly, "How does it look?"

Needing medical care in a foreign country is a nightmare scenario for world travelers. I was glad to tell her the hospital looked okay, kind of like a hospital in a small town, sort of modern and (dare I say?) western-looking.   

We were all relieved to be met by Chai, the representative of Sea Tours, the company Viking had contracted with to provide our excursion. He immediately took charge, letting Susan know he would take care of the details and she wasn't to worry. 

Chai had arranged for Susan to be taken to Dibuk Hospital, a private facility. If she'd been taken to the state hospital, her care would have been free, but the ER there is open air, not in an air conditioned building. And they are not likely to have the CT scan she needed to be sure there was no internal damage.

Chai stayed with us all day, checking with the medical professionals, translating and providing us with updates and the hospital with assurance of insurance.  

Of course, Susan has travel insurance. We all had to submit our insurance info to Viking--carrier, policy number and a contact phone number for the company. But Sea Tours buys insurance for every person who tours with them. Up to a certain amount, Susan would owe nothing. 

Note to fellow cruisers: There's a reason that tours sponsored by the cruise ship are more expensive than say, picking a tour from the hawkers with a van on the pier. If all does not go well, the sponsored tours are much more likely to take care of you in an emergency.   

In the meantime, we learned more about Thailand from Chai. He'd been in Phuket during the tsunami that devastated the area in 2004. Over 5000 people died. Nearly 4000 went missing. Some of those were tourists. 

Obviously Chai lost his job as a guide, since no one could visit his country in the wake of the disaster. So he volunteered to man the phones to help people try to locate their loved ones. Since he spoke several languages, he worked with families looking for their traveling family members. Sometimes, he found the lost alive and could report joyful news. Sometimes, he wept with the families when he called to say their loved one had been found deceased. 

Susan received a good CT scan and was given a "fit to travel" letter to present to the doctor on board the Sky. Chai arranged a private van to take us back to the tender terminal and see that we all made it back on board before the last tender sailed. He even managed to connect with the tour guide of Cecil's dive boat and let Susan talk to her husband so he'd know she was okay. 

Well, I didn't see any more temples. I didn't find the idyllic Thailand countryside I'd loved in last night's movie. But I did meet a real person who was compassionate and kind and sincerely interested in helping others.  

Chai was a good deal better than a "white elephant."