Bangkok D2

 The apartment I rented was spacious equipped with air-con and good bed. I had a good sleep and woke up early. I had booked a trip to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market and the rail market for 4 of us.

The van was supposed to pick us up at 9am and We headed to a local food joint around Japan Culture Foundation for a local breakfast. Unfortunately the food joint  was downsized and all the dine-in tables were removed. We had to go further down to another big food court inside a market.

Although we had limited choice due to the early hour; however the food was remarkably delicious. The mixed rice and pork leg rice was awesome; the taste was good and the price was affordable. 

The return journey was rushy and we barely made it. The van and the tour guide arrived earlier than expected. 

It was a 100km trip from Bangkok. Two options were available: road or rail. The rail one is more complicated where one needs to travel to a local train station and one switch would be needed. The road route was much straight forward. I opted for the road trip as I think it would be more comfortable sitting in an air con vehicle rather than a fan ventilated coach. The ride was smooth, guide was professional and we reached the destination without hiccup. 

The first stop was the railway market. I arrived 35 mins before the train arrived. We trolled along the rail and Ving had bought some interesting tote bags and the only things that drawn my attention was drinks….It was dxrn hot and all I needed was fluid, fluid, fluid. 

We were able to secure a nice spot under shed during the pass-by; it was a smooth transition and I noticed the “i can do nothing about it” look over the train driver’s face when the train approached. There were loads of people standing on the rail while taking their selfie with the train approaching as background.

Well, it was an amazing scene though. I headed back to the gathering point where we were greeted by the guide after the event. The guide then took us to our next stop -> the floating market.

Unlike the other floating markets around Bangkok which operate only during weekend. The Damnoen Saduak floating market operates on a daily basis. The package included a hand row boat ride. During the ride, I recalled the ride we had had 10+ years ago along the Sungai Tembeling where the guide let the boat free flown down the river; quiet and peace of mind was a the sweet memory I remembered.

Well, we had our lunch at one of the food stalls; out of expectation, it was tasty and cheap.I had my 4th piece of drinks at the end of the journey….

The trip ended around 4pm and the weather had become rainy when we arrived back to the apartment. We changed to plan of visiting Save one go night market and visited the Emporium just 2 BTS stops away. 

We intended to try out street foods offered by The Emporium at its food court. However, when Yun and Yi saw the Bread Street Kitchen and Bar, they suggested the price was cheaper than other countries and wished to try it out.

So that was it, Wellington beef it was. As we are a group of 4, it was easier to order other dishes…. The verdict → worth every penny; no regret.

We took a small shopping tour around the Emporium and retreated to our apartment later that night.

A familiar place for me as I had been to Bangkok for many times, but yet I had never been to any sight seeing spot in the past. Still a great experience for me….

 

 

I don't know

 

It was a bad week, the ward had been packed and patients got to be retained in the ED waiting for admission. 4 patients waiting for admission and patients had filled out all the beds in our unit.It had been a norm for many hospitals around the island for the past few 1 year. 

It all started from the nursing shortage issue. Hospital expansion and the demand of patient to nursing staff ratio had caused the problem to worsen. The Health and Welfare Ministry had tried their best to increase the wages, giving out subsidies but yet the problems did not resolve.

There are beds in the ward but yet unable to serve due to lack of staff. The fire incident at a regional hospital nearby had led to an investigation and later ended up with fraud during building certification. The involved wing of the hospital was torn apart. ED was packed and crowded since then.

My first patient of the shift was an elderly who presented with a right lower leg cellulitis. The patient’s wife had brought him for help and most of the history was provided by the wife.

The patient was admitted 1 month ago to the hospital mentioned above and he was discharged after 1 week of admission. During the history taking, the wife kept complaining about the poor care that they received. Doctor did not treat them properly and they were forced to be discharged even though the patient did not fully “recover”. 

“You see, my husband was unable to walk when he was discharged, the doctor said we treat only the leg and don’t guarantee you are healed as whole. we had to comply…you see we do not know”

Most of the conversation ended up with “you see we do not know” phrase. 

Well, the story was actually exaggerated; some were true and some were self proclaimed. 

It was a red flag where you heard the patient complaining about their former medical team. I explained politely to the patient that they were properly treated because after discharge the patient had actually recovered after 1 week of discharge; he was able to walk since then. I would be extremely cautious talking to such patients and family. They did not want to bear any responsibilities about their health, they would say you do whatever it was necessary and when things went the other way, they would blame it on the medical team. 

Treating patients is different from what I knew during my childhood. Medical decision making nowadays has to be made by both sides; doctor’s decisions always prevail has long passed. How the doctor manipulates the patient’s and family’s decision is an art that every doctor should learn. Frankly said, reassurance to the family is a very dangerous act; you pacified them, the next thing you know, you had just been served to present to an arbitrary unit.

I don't know, should not be an excuse....

the arrival ...BKK trip

 The flight was scheduled at around 3pm. We headed to the airport by 11+am. The trip was smooth with less traffic noted even though it had been raining heavily for the last one week. I had checked the parking availability of the airport before we headed to the airport. 180+ free parking spots available. I crossed my fingers when I saw the figure. It is summer holiday, it should be full but yet there were still lots available. Parking in the private parking area is a pain in the ass nowadays. In the past, I would opt for private parking as the bank offered free parking to customers who had utilized credit card to pay for the airfare. Free parking now is only limited to top-tier card user(who mostly had to pay a RM1000+ annual fee ). Parking fee however could be tallied with the points gathered from credit card use. The reason I dislike private parking was the waiting time for pick up; you would need to call the operator up once you clear the custom. You would need to walk out of the airport terminal and wait at the car rental area which was 300m away. The waiting time would range from 15-30 minutes and sometimes the shuttle van is full. In the past, all of us could board the van but now they only allow 3 persons to board and priority would be given to single passenger. They encouraged the driver to pick up the car and returned to the airport to fetch the rest of the passengers. It was a 20-30 minutes process in the past but now it would extend another hour before leaving the terminal for good. The price was the same parking in the airport area and the private parking. Choice was obvious and I would prefer parking in the airport.

We were lucky that day;  it was not raining. A spot nearby the entrance of underground passage was available. 

We found the counter in no time and checked in our luggage. We had eaten our brunch late that morning and was not hunting for any food in the airport. Choice was limited and eating at the airport was costly.

Out of my expectation, the CI cost 40% more than the budget airlines however all the seats on board were filled. Most of the passengers were Taiwanese as it was summer holiday. There a few foreign workers on board though. 

Food on board was good and the flight arrived 1 hour earlier than the scheduled time. However due to bad weather, the plane had to hover for a few rounds before it was given a green light for landing. The descent was rough; roughest that I had experienced before. Bumpy as a roller coaster out of control when the plane passed through the heavy cloud. Ving grabbed my hand as tight as possible and I could feel the fear inside her.  

The touching was smooth as it was not windy however it was raining moderately.

It was a long walk from the gate to the immigration as the Survanabhumi Airport has the largest single terminal in southeast asia. The KLIA is bigger though but it has two terminals and one satellite building. 

The immigration passing was fast. All of us get through within 15 mins. No question asked and just thumb print acquiring and face scan. 

We got our luggage 20 mins later. We headed to the taxi stand and picked the wrong lane. As we had 4 persons with 1 big 2 small luggages, we should have choose the large taxi. The driver had reluctantly accepted us; as he driven a Corolla with LPG tank. The taxi could accommodate only 1 big luggage. 2 of the small bags were held by Yun and Yi at the back seat. It was jam, jam, jam as usual in the Bangkok city. We arrived at the 14 Sukhumit place apartment 1+ hours later. I had tipped the driver heavily for his effort…. He had a long way crawling all the way back to the airport at the rush hour.

The apartment was spacious, two ensuite bed-rooms with a living room and kitchen. Best of all, there was a washing machine complimented with washing powder. 

We quickly unloaded our bags and headed to the nearest food joint; the food court at the 5th floor of the Terminal 21 shopping center. The food court offered cheap and up to standard food as we had learnt over the internet. 

It was a short walk from our apartment to Terminal 21, we headed to the 4th floor first and acquired the famous Chatrumue milk tea. I had seen it many times back in Malaysia, I had even bought their tea leaf… but never try to buy any cup of tea from them. Best teh ? definitely was the one from my granny coffee shop…. Next best -> from my kitchen…. Chatrumue from outside Thailand? who knows about the quality.

The verdict after 10 minutes of queuing; worth every penny, nice smooth and thick aroma. However as local Thai milk too, it has too much of ice added and I had no patience waiting for the hot tea melting the ice. Nothing to shout for a NT45 drink.

Food was out standing at the food court; clean kitchen, fast serving and tasty !!!!

We took a short tour around the night market nearby before we retreat to our apartment.

BKK....prelude

 Planning a family trip before Xian’s leaving was on my mind for the last 6 months. However, everything was tied up and the family trip was not feasible. 

The next trip after Xian leaving was Malaysia and later on London. I had noticed a slot on my roster which lasted for 6 days; I had taken a bald move and mastered a trip to Bangkok with Ving. The tour was later expanded and included Yun and her mate. 

It was a 5D4N trip. The planning part was actually filled with struggle. Initially I planned to take a budget airline but their scheduled really sucks; late arrival to DMK and red eye flight back to K city. And there were actually first freedom flight  connecting DMK - KHH - elsewhere in Japan. Delay of flight is actually possible due to involvement of a third destination.

I finally given up the thought and opted for a traditional airline. I opted China Airlines so that we can push off in the afternoon and arrived late in K city on the day of return; maximizing the duration of stay in BKK.

Lodging was a pain as locating a 4 person room was actually very difficult; especially if you want something not that entry level. 

It gotta be transportation hub friendly and could housed up to 4 persons. The difficult part was I don’t know where to start my search. 

I could only tapped into each of the options suggested by Trip.com/Agoda/Booking and see what kind of room they offered…. Only 2 choices left after the 1st round of selection. A room of 4 and a 2 room apartment was left for me to choose from. 

The selection process was simple as an apartment would come with a kitchen and maybe a washing machine. Although it might not have the luxury feel of a 5 star hotel but yet the facilities that it provides would be so convenient for our stay. Our last trip to Beijing was a memorable one.

A list was made out while we started to trolling the youtube for Bangkok tour.

Most of the tour was about shopping centers and foodies, but my focus was museum. It had always been museum for me; those exhibition items were good media for one to learn about another country. 

We had compiled a final list:

water market, railway market, night market, museum (national, art, moca, bangkok) and some shopping center.

Food wise, we had chosen only one signature restaurant: Copper beyond Buffet. The rest of the meal would be walk to where eat to where basis.

The list was revised and revised as Yun would have to attend meetings and online classes as we travel. I had made adjustments to accommodate all the items on the list and the list was finalized 2 days before our journey.

As usual, it was a long course of shifts before the journey begin.

It was a shame that Xian did not make it with us. For him another great journey had begun far far away and all I could do was to pray for him. Maybe next year, we would team up again and walk down a path. 

It was time to let go, and entering a life that I had never imagine….

shortage

 The issue of shortage of staff had emerged since last year. G had asked for a reassignment to OPD and later S left us for his children. Well, 40% down of man power and we started looking for locum. We had a few good hands who came for our rescue. They are competent and physicians of good standing. However we were unable to secure any new staff. Part of it was the salary. EP pay around the rural area at some central part of the island had risen to an unbelievable level; we were closed but yet still a fragment less. 

A few had come to ask but none of them opted for us. After the CNY, our HOD had finally asked for a 10% raise and finally the hospital agreed for it. More pals came for interviews but none of them stayed.

Distance was the main concern as most of the well paid didn’t want to live around rural areas. After some begging and persuasion, we finally got a senior physician to join us; A Sabahan who had worked nearby; the hospital had a crisis and a large part of the staff EP left( we could manage to grab one….)

Well, hopefully I gotta make my trip to London in October….

Visa run...

 The rest of the 70+ days was multitasking; decision, decision, decision and only guides were info over the net.

The most heart pumping session was the VISA application. 

The CAS was issued within days of submission of IELTS result. However the challenging part was the on-line visa submission.

I am not unfamiliar with such online applications but yet the info required to fill in was massive and some of the information needed to submit was massive; eg. travelling record of past 5 years. Exact date of in and out was required. In the past, you just flipped your passport and everything was there for references. However with the e-gate implementation, it would be difficult to trace every single entry and exit. 

A record from the local immigration department had helped with the info gathering mission. Combining with the flight ticket record on my email, we had managed to compile the full travelling record. 

Another issue which disturbed me greatly was about the medical check up needed. 

For visa application, a medical check up was needed for some applicants. As a Malaysian, an Xray will be needed, but for a Taiwanese, medical checkup was exempted. Well what about Malaysians staying in Taiwan ? No relevant info was found over the net….

The worst thing was if an Xray is required, where should the xray be done as there is no authorized clinic in Taiwan.

I had to keep my finger crossed for such issues. We would only know when the biometric was taken.

The other issue was the bank statement about sufficient funding. The fund was banked in since last year but yet the format provided does not fit the requirement of UKVI application. The statement would only state the amount in the account as of bla bla bla date. It was a standard format and it could not show that the account had held such amounts for how long. Luckily the bank could provide a transaction record for any duration. So it was a separate documentation for this proof. Would it satisfy the relevant authority ? Fingers crossed again. Luckily, it was not mandatory for Taiwanese applicants; but again, we were Malaysians living in Taiwan….

Too many uncertainties and I was unable to make it 100% proof and had to live with it. Another round of agony for me; compared to what I had for the past 12 months…it was nothing actually.

This first round of filling up the visa form  ended up in a chilly back situation. It was a post 36 hours shift for me and we started the session at around 11pm and it took us 40 + minutes to complete it and upon completion a strange feeling had haunted my nerves and a quick check had revealed a silly mistake. By that time, I had paid up the process fee and NHS fee which summed up to almost 100k NT. Luckily, withdrawal of application with full refund is available prior to biometric collection. Although many had said that an undercover letter on submission of biometric could pave the error, but we did not want to take the chances. The refund was quick and only took us less than 2 days to get the money back.

We decided to cool ourselves down and proceed with the application 2 weeks later. The rest was actually quite straight forward and mostly focused on gathering information.

The final submission of form was done and we did a don’t know how many times check and recheck before pressing the button. It was smooth but yet it was slightly more than a month before the travelling. The official statement was maximum 3 weeks for approval. Some gotten it within a week and some got delayed.

Xian had gone to Taipei with Ving for the biometric submission. I paid up for premium service so that it could be done on anytime of a Monday. They completed the submission before noon. Later that night, while travelling on the HSR, Xian got an email confirming his visa approval .

So the verdict; those requirements were not nationality dependent; it all depends on the submission of your document. 

TORMENT

 It was a time of despair for me since last July. It all started from Xian acceptance to the UAL; the rest of the journey was filled with agony. 

Xian had a short time frame to meet the language requirement. As he applied late, the  pre-sessional course was closed and the only way was to attain the requirement.

Xian was over confident with his ability and failure had struck him again and again.

Even though the administration had granted a grace period but yet he had to forfeit the acceptance. 

The path was tedious and filled with sweat and tears .. and also lessons beyond money can buy. If money can settle the problem; it would be fine but yet you can’t buy time….

It was a down time for Xian and me as well. I tried to persuade him to give up and maybe get a hit on the local graduate school. However he is firm with his decision and nothing could rock his will. 

No tuition, no agent, no change of destination. No matter what I said, that was his bottom line. It was destined since his birth; my teacher had told me that he might look normal in the future but yet he would still show some features of the spectrum. Well, minor conflict and lots of talking during this period.

Months had passed and I was consistently haunted by what would be coming. Although I had said I would be prepared but yet I was not; I didn’t know what would be heading toward me. It is not up to me to decide, it was Xian that needed to withstand the impact. 

The first question to concur was if he would be accepted into the program since he had forfeited the first offer. Frankly speaking, I had no confidence at all. I had prepared for a premature end for this attempt. Xian had however  focused on the preparation of his portfolio and English. 

Day and night passed and 1 day after CNY,  Xian had gotten what he wanted AGAIN!!!

An offer letter was served to him and he started his next tour of preparation; the ILETS.

It was another warzone to struggle since then. The ILETS was taken late and Xian hit the mark for the 7 weeks pre-sessional english course on campus. The joy was later struck off when we applied for the combined CAS for the pre-sessional english course and the main course.

CAS would be issued only if we had ILETS UKVI Academic. Unfortunately, Xian took the ILETS IDP(not because it was cheaper, but the oral part was done face to face rather than in front of a monitor remotely). 

So we fell into another round of ILETS run. 

At that point, pre-sessional english course was booked and confirmed and we need a combined CAS. If we had applied for an independent CAS,  Xian would have to come back to Taiwan and apply for another CAS and visa again after he passed the pre-sessional course. It would be only 3 weeks to go to apply for a CAS and visa plus one more to and fro ticket. 

Collapse and lose faith was not an option as we had come so far. 

The offer was truly a gift as previous forfeit was definitely a minus point during the 2nd application. 

The first attempt was a disaster as the remote oral session was something new to Xian. The 2nd attempt was much better but yet the result was similar. Xian decided to appeal and finally a +0.5 was awarded 3 days later and he had made the cut.

We had 2.5 months for the final preparation.

The list was not long but traps were noted everywhere. 

1.Booking of 2 lodgings

2.Flight arrangement

3.Arrival Arrangement

4.Money transfer arrangement

5.Luggage preparation

6.CAS and VISA application

The worrying went on and I wandered will it ever end???