We had organized breakfast last night already, with chocolate croissants waiting for us in the morning. Thus, we were ready to go to the hospital before 8am. Flo called both possible hospitals beforehand, ruled out the one where the people on the phone didn’t speak English and decided that we would take a tuk-tuk taxi to the McCormick hospital.

Arriving there, we were flabbergasted by the difference: This was a proper hospital. Gigantic compared to anything facility we had been to lately. However, size and professionalism of a hospital come with another western achievement…bureaucracy. Thus, the first thing to do was register as a patient. Which turned out to be not that straight-forward without a Thai insurance. Despite having our Insurance Certificate with us and despite having our insurance give the hospital a guarantee of payment via email, it was not enough. A THAI insurance needs to give this guarantee, not an international one. So we ended up paying for the treatment upfront and will claim back the expenses.

With all the bureaucracy b******t out of the way, Flo had a first examination. The doctor spoke English quite well, wrote an accident report and proceeded to test Flo’s arm. The elbow was much better already but the rotation of the arm resulted in screaming and Flo giving it a 9 out of 10 on a pain scala. Just to be absolutely sure, the doctor ordered another x-ray, this time of the forearm. The x-ray was digital this time, of a much better quality and ready in no time. Still, nothing is broken. The doctor suggested about another week for recovery and recommended physical therapy to help the process. So I hung around the hospital some more while Flo had physical therapy. I have to say, he was not quite convinced afterwards which bugged me a bit as I know how effective it can be. I haven’t worked in a physio therapy office for four years without picking up one or two things. At least, the therapist was able to give a slightly better diagnosis: The elbow is sprained while the muscle between the two forearm bones is strained.

Afterwards, we had lunch and relaxed for a while before having some cake and coffee in the late afternoon. Then, we met up with Leonie and Peter of Amsterdam to Anywhere. They had contacted us a while back but we hadn’t managed to actually meet yet. So we had this lovely evening with food from a local market and then a drink at the Rider’s corner. Flo tells me that the Rider’s Corner in Chiang Mai is one of THE places to meet overlanders, so that was fitting. We clicked pretty straight away so that great conversation ensued. All of us are going to be in town for a while longer so we made tomorrow evening another date. 🙂