Asian Walkabout

If there’s one ideal place in Asia to spend gobs of money on pirated goods, hospital treatments, handmade gifts, and T-shirts, it’s Bangkok. This thriving metropolis was the last stop on our journey, and boy, did it provide. Like a fertile mother, Bangkok gifted us DVDs (pirated), music (pirated), Lacoste shirts (fake), Diesel jeans (fake), and delectable street food (real), enough to bulge our bags to the seams.

I even tried my hand at medical tourism, visiting the gleaming, ultrasuave Bangkok Hospital to get a wart removed. This would cost a cool $200 in the States. Here, arguably under better conditions, it cost $50. They had an Arabic Hospital, a Japanese Hospital, an International Hospital, a Beauty Hospital (read: cheap facelifts), a Heart Recovery Hospital, and all kinds of other divisions. It’s a big industry, and thousands of people a year come for affordable, quality medical care.

The next time I catch something, I’m flying to Bangkok.

And then it was over. On May 19th, at 5 am, we found ourselves in the check-in line at Bangkok Airport. 27 hours later, at 9 pm on May 19th, we were standing around the baggage claim at DIA. Time to replace taxi bargaining with bids for assignments; $6 gourmet meals for bean soup and other recession-friendly meals.
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