Chon Buri

Local time: Saturday 3.32pm

Phew, just woke from a sorely needed nap. We met D as we were checking in at Melbourne, and A appeared out of nowhere with some friends to say goodbye and wish me the best, handing me an adorable little angel bear. Now I have two soft toys to guard me.

The flight here was about as uncomfortable as you can expect a nine-hour flight to be. I drifted in and out of sleep as I usually do on planes, and though it didn't feel like I'd slept much, it didn't feel like nine hours either. The turbulence we hit as we approached Bangkok did leave me rather nauseous though. There's something about the slightly stale, overbrewed aroma of airplane tea that always makes me a little queasy.

Met D again as we tiredly disembarked, and trudge through to customs, then the baggage claim, then out into the arrival place (chamber? hall?). Not once was I addressed as Sir or Mister despite the M in my passport - makes you wonder at the usefulness of gendered ID documents (are people really that interested in what's in each other's pants?).

We spotted the exit gates, labelled from 1 to about 10 or 12, and wheeled our baggage over to gate 9 where we'd been told clinic staff would greet us. Lots of people holding up signs with names on them. None was us. So mum dug up one of the phone numbers we'd been given and made a call, to which she was told they were arriving at the airport and would be looking for us. Much standing around, and about 30 minutes later my stomach is doing some kind of acrobatics between hunger and plain (plane? geddit?) exhaustion. Then I spot a woman walking toward where we stood holding a blue sign upon which was written "Dr Suporn's Clinic" and "Amanda [Surname]". We approached her and were greeted very warmly, and told that her name was something pronounced like "Sien" (if not spelled that way). "You look so tired!" she exclaimed. Helpfully, they didn't mind giving D a lift to Chon Buri too.

She led us out to the driveways in front of the airport, where a man - the driver - enthusiastically welcomed us and dragged our luggage into a van, upon which was also labelled prominently, "Dr Suporn's Clinic" (not much discretion here then, although I'd guess it's not a big deal to be outed anyway).

And now here we are, after an hour's drive to Chon Buri! The landscape of Thailand is very similar to Malaysia - lots of undeveloped green tropical wetlands nestled between clumps of bare concrete buildings and high-rise apartments, large many-laned highways crisscrossing with unsealed roads, and the smog of industry which makes the sunrise a vivid orange-red and the moon a cheese-yellow.

Here's a view from our hotel room:


Much less English text than Malaysia though, and as we were finding out taking a short walk around the hotel street later, less English in general. While Sien spoke quite well, it took a bit of time to get across what we wanted to the hotel staff and to a 7-Eleven shopkeeper.

We're mostly settled in now, and I'm a bit peckish and more alert having caught up on some sleep (though clearly jetlagged - meal times and my sense of day/night are hopelessly muddled). Sien left us with a little welcome note and schedule of things as well as a very warm hug; it seems on Monday at 11am, I get collected from the hotel lobby and taken to the clinic (which is only a few minutes walk around the corner), and presumably shown around. At 4.30pm, I have my pre-operative consultation with Dr Suporn, then admitted to hospital that evening for all the preliminary preparations. Until then, we have this afternoon (since the morning somehow disappeared when we all took a nap) and tomorrow to ourselves.