After having been thoroughly impressed with Bumrungrad Hospital at my first visit to Bangkok I decided that it would be a good idea to have myself checked out there at the end of my trip of Asia and maybe get a few more, well, less neccessary things done. After all it's cheap here, right? But jez - why didn't anyone tell me before that it could hurt!

Basically I wanted to do three things:

1. Make sure that I didn't catch any tropical or other diseases.


2. Go to a dentist and see whether he can do something about food getting stuck between four of my teeth the whole time.


3. Get some moles removed which I don't find pleasing to the eye (yeah, I know. It's vain alright!)

Fortuantely the blood and stool-tests revealed that I probably did not catch anything nasty. I think the doctor thought I was a bit daft to have these tests run when I don't feel ill but at least now I know that the Hepatitis A/B-vaccacines did worked for me (yeah - antibodies - yahoo!) and after 30 years I've finally found out what blood group I belong to: 0. So I can give blood to everyone but only receive blood from people who also have 0. Somehow that seems to be rather typical of my whole life.

The trip to the dentist was a bit disappointing. He basically told me that there was nothing wrong with my inlays and that I'd simply have to floss after every single meal and live with it. Bummer.

Having some (six) moles removed was a bit more then I had bargained for, though. I mean, I didn't actually expect them to stitch me! And now I have all those huge plasters on my neck and throat! Well, at least it deters people from emptying their water-buckets over me - they are going for my abdomen, crotch and legs instead. And it actually does hurt! Not a lot but it's still rather unpleasant.

What really surprised me was that I got a huge pack of antibiotics that would ordinarily last me for two years after the operation (yes, operation as in surgery. Jez, what did I get myself into for the sake of vanity) and a massive supply of strong painkillers (Tylenol 500 mg) that I could probably commit suicide with if I wanted. When I left the hospital the fact that the doctor obviously thought I would need these painkillers was the scariest part of all.

Well, in the end I decided to take only one of the Tylenols befor going to bed last night (and not two every two to six hours as I should) and none of the antibiotics. Taking antibiotics to prevent an infection just runs completely against my nature and since I have to go there again tomorrow to have the bandages changed and to another hospital in five days to get the stiches removed I'm, figuring that the risk of them becoming seriously infected is actually not that big.

But at least I was right about one thing: It was really cheap :-).