Medan Kota

Eat… Sleep… Play…  = Holidays

these are blackberry casing I found around Thailand… it was cute.. cheap.. stylish.. and funny..  If you walked around Medan trying to get hold of the typical casing sold… apart from the plain silicon cover that cost Rp 25,000 or more… whatever else found will cost a lot more … and most times… selling at ridiculous price… what you saw above.. for all the silicon ones cost less that Rp 50.000…

The Devil

some of you may or may not feel the same way as me… but the red fruit with hairy skin – Rambutan… well.. it’s sweet and nice.. cheap and nutritious… but it’s when you pop it in your mouth trying to bite out the edible parts… the grey covering over the seed will often get in the way and make the whole eating experience unpleasant… and we Thais.. especially my house… my mum knowing how both the kids and me love it … she will often use a really small sharp knife and craft out the seed and what you see above its like a box of gems… do try

2 days… my son Jadon mastered his Roller Blading and yes… knees.. palms.. elbows.. legs.. are filled with plasters covering all the wounds… but kids.. you just have to let them go through it and learnt things… and it was definitely fun..

Mango… many of us consume mango in the soft ripe standard way… but do try those ones that are 1/2 ripe… it’s still sweet and I personally prefer it this way… and you can find it in Medan supermarket… it comes in the hard green unripe look… choose one that’s slightly turning yellow…

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being back home to bangkok is the only time that I total let go of all the stressful stuff in life….

as such, we have all gain weights, we kind of…. eat,sleep,massage, play…   and I have since turned into a medical nerd like the local Medan…    hubby gone full health check up and seem having problem with his heart …. seeing a cardiologist on wednesday, as well as dental checkup which he refused to see one for as long as I can remember …. after which … he walked off the room giving us all …. the biggest smile…..  , the boys!!  Jadon saw dentist in Medan before came back to BKK, and somehow he did not detect that Jadon has a crack on his back tooth …  ended both boys have their teeth fixed and totally clean out ….  the problem with my family is that… we never have the time to see doctors when we are in Medan… it’s always, ….. timing is not right, …..out of town or ….that the doctor is not available…

the new building

Lounge offering complimentary breakfast for healthcheck patients…. including the familiy members…

the hospital, Bumrungrad Hospital, is one of the best all round in Thailand…  more than 50% of the patients are foreigner and very popular with the Arabian…  I know the International Marketing Director (IMD) as I was supposed to be their representative in Medan, but due to time limitation, I could not take up the offer… anyway…  IMD is a Singaporean who used to work for the Parkway group i.e Mount Elisabeth and Gleneagles hospitals…. the 2 most popular with Indonesians….  what I was gonna write is not some made up stories but ones that she told us and I have personally experienced so myself….

IMD told me that Singapore doctors often OVER treat their foreign patients…  and that many times, the diagnose that the doctors gave to the patients are many times not the best for them… e.g, a cancer patient, there are many ways of treatment, but many times these doctors ….. will choose the treatment that they know of the doctors that they have good relationship with….  service level?… I don’t think I have to say… many of us would have experienced it all I supposed…

as for my own experienced, it was on the same day as 911 … and it was the first time for me in a Singapore hospital …  we were in the country for a business trip, and I suddenly came down with urinary tract infections… it was so bad that I could not walk … so we went straight to emergency room at Mount E…  I was put on bed rest from 5am to about 9.30 am …. while I wait for the specialist to arrive….  and somehow… cant exactly remember well..  my husband went to ask for a pushchair to push me up to the medical centre, he sort of politely asked for one and asked if he will be pushing himself or that there will be a nurse to do it… the whoever he was replied to him that “lending you one is good enough!!!”..  that was the first %$@*&……  next, when we saw the doctor… we were young.. about 27… the first question that he asked was… “where we are from, what is my husband occupation!”…..  my hubby was a bit pissed by then…  next, he diagnosed me, and listed a list of tests including CT SCAN !!!!!…  darn…  I knew all along that I was not well, but I was quite positive that I do not need to go through CT SCAN… ended I pay S$1200 for a simple diagnose for a mulfuction to one of my organ….. and obviously, the CT scan prove nothing wrong with my other parts….

and that was about the last time that we ever walked into one…. and it had been a long while since my in laws stopped going over to Singapore for treatments as well….  the only one doctor that my father in law still see is his cardiologist and he was reluctant to see the one in Bangkok… but last December, he needed a sinus operation and needed a cardiologist to make sure that he is up for the operation….  hahah.. ended… he sort of fell in love with the doctor and havent been back to the cardiologist in Singapore….  and it’s the same thing… OVER treat him… asking him to see him every 1/2 year while the Thai doctor said that he is doing fine and check up every 2 years is good enough…..

and when we found out that my father in law has Parkinson Disease, he sort of saw like 3 doctors in Mount E, all of them said that there is nothing that they could do, except gave him medication…. I didnt feel right and managed to find this amazing neurologist whom pointed out to us that Parkinson disease cannot be cured but is treatable.… and true to his words, my FIL is doing well….  its not cured but he is doing better….

pricing… it is a little slightly lower compared to Singapore… but it’s the service and the politeness of the doctor that my in law feel comfortable about the place…. although I have to warn that… you may still face with the same silly doctors in Thailand… but the hospital provide a rather detailed information of each doctor individual background before you choose to see one….. @ www.bumrungrad.com

for Medanese to get treatment in Bangkok is not easy…. cant argue with that…

and here’s Jadon being turned into some Japanese cartoon character by his cousin …….   my nieces love the Cosplay… some Japanese cartoon …..

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I am into my 2nd week in Thailand… another week to go and back again to Medan…

we spent a week at Krabi… the place is just too impressive for me to write, so here are some photos ..

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Here are some of the more interesting stuff you can do in Thailand apart from the well known cheap shopping of Bangkok.. This is one of the two annual family trip to Thailand.. we were in luck that the International Airport opened in time before we flew out of Medan.

First stop was at the HuaHin Hyatt Regency Hotel, about 2.5 hrs drive from Bangkok.. it’s a small and quiet beach seaside resort where the Thai King reside at the moment…  The hotel was having a bargain promotion so, we took up the offer and spent a week there…

This is the view that we looked out to when we lied down on one of the swimming beach chair… My front view is the kid’s swimming pool and the back view is this gorgeous clear blue sea that just took your breath away…

The swimming pool of this hotel has the lagoon style.. big and long winding, while at the kids pool is surrounded by sand.. sort of like mini beach on the side of shallow kids pool… It’s very child friendly and its one of those pool where I just put on the right gear for the boys and they will just have fun on their own while the parents can relaxed the beautiful days…

but the main attractive and one of the main reason why we keep going back to this resort is for this wild water slide…  we all love it.. anyone.. and literally.. young and old… have a blast with this slide… Jadon got so used to it that he practically slided down in different styles.. head down, flat down, side up, etc .. and he often screamed … “to the infinity and .. beyond !!!“… everytime that he was up there…

The hotel also provide a wide range of other interesting activities that kids, adults or families can participate… above is the morning fish feeding time…

as Christmas was near.. we were among the few guests that participate in the Christmas tree light up… and what I like is that.. on the tree, the hotel organised for several of the underprivilege kids to write what they wish for Christmas on a card which were then being placed on the tree…. and us the guests can contribute… the wishes are of mostly school stuff… so my family fulfilled 2 wishes… giving a set of new school bag and Doraemon stationary…

Next… we then went up North to ChiangMei to celebrate the Old and New Celebration 08/09…

I took the kids for elephant trekking… this is their second time and they are still amused and excited with the whole experienced…  looking at the photos is not as exciting as the real experience… the ride was wobbly… we trekked up the mountain and across small rivers… going down hills was the scariest of all… my in-laws just loved it… and it just made me so happy to see all the family members have the glowing big smile on their face….

after about 45 mins of the trekking, we then watched the elephant shows… the highlight was to see these elephants draw and after which, they sell off the painting to support the elephant foundations… though I doubt about it…

wonder how these cute big elephants did it?, actually the caretaker hold on to the Tusk and guide the elephants with the painting… I was poking fun at my 2 boys since the elephants seem to have better drawing skills than both of them… both boys turned around to give me their small angry looking face….

next we then went on the bamboo rafting down a small river… its was a nice tone down of the body adreline before we finished the whole 4 hours tour …

what you see above is the paper lantern that the Thais light up on special occasion.. which in this case is to celebrate the New Year…  We stayed at one of the mountain resort and we asked the hotel to arrange for these… we lighted up about 50 of them (cost about 80 baht = Rp 30.000 each).. making hard wish for the coming New Year… It was very beautiful… my younger son Elson loved it so much… so much so that he ran to each one to hold and let go before they flew off into the beautiful night sky….

ChiangMei is best experienced in Nov / Dec / Jan.. when the temperature is nice and cooling.. so taking the elephant rides or doing any of the activities are not as tiring compared to other times of the year… The temperature drop down to about 18C while we were there… though not as cold as after we left which fell to about 12C…

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We are due to fly out to Bangkok on the 7 Dec which is some 5 days away.  With airport still undersieged, I may have to reroute our ticket to Chiang Mai instead…  but on the bright side.. Chiang Mai is in the winter season where temperature in the morning is in the 10-15 C so.. that’s nice for a change..  should that happen, my boys will have those wild adventure again.. will probably take them and hubby for the rafting and more elephant rides… and stay overnight in one of those bamboo floating house for fun…

My hubby am quite worried of the situation and is trying to psycho me to abort the whole trip… but my dad has been keeping me well informed of the situation.. and its all safe and well to go… apart from the airport situation…  but to all foreigners, I would still advise against travelling…

My mum, who is now in India on some religious tour, will probably have to either extend her stay in India or we have to repurchase her ticket – India-Jakarta-Sinagpore-ChiangMai…  I am imagining my mum cursing the PAD so badly at the moment…

The reason we chose to land at Chiang Mai instead of Phuket is simply that the airport will be less crowded and that the road trip to Bangkok will be about 4 hrs shorter compared to the south of Thailand… but also, we have holiday house there so… that’s why

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