It took us days to get all the information we needed to make sure it would work, but we are now definitely going to Laos on May 28th and staying 10 days – my longest Laos run yet.
Because of technology and transport, we probably won’t make it much past Vientiane, but hey, it’s the capitol and some Laos is better than no Laos. Luang Prabang will have to wait for another time when either its Internet is better or we’re not working.
Initially we thought we would have to leave out Laos because we couldn’t figure out a way to get there without breaking the bank. The best priced one-way flights from either Hanoi or Saigon to Vientiane were $250 per person.
The alternative was buses that take more than 18 hours over bumpy roads and which are known to stop randomly and “renegotiate” the fare – demanding more money if you don’t want to be tossed off to the side of the road. Not such a great alternative.
So, we decided to go with the $89 tickets to Bangkok and split our last three weeks before Hong Kong between the beach town of Hua Hin and Bangkok. Then it hit me. Thai domestic flights are cheap and Thai trains are even cheaper. After all, if Thailand had a mission statement, it might well be, “We provide cheap transportation our people can afford to every inch of our country, and we line every road with fantastic and equally cheap food.”
Getting to Laos via Thailand became – at worst – half the price, including the tickets from Hanoi to Bangkok. Given that we settled on an overnight train (trains are decent in Thailand), getting to from Hanoi to Vientiane and back to Bangkok will cost us 40 percent less than had we purchased tickets from Hanoi to Vientiane (which is less than half the distance from Hanoi to Bangkok).
Basically, taking the long way around saves us a chunk of change and gets us to all of our destinations. Once again, thank you, Thailand.
However, I don’t think my mom was saying that when I lived in Bangkok. This morning she mentioned in an email, “You just have a few weeks left to get through so I’m optimistic that you won’t be getting Wyler’s Disease, rabies or a foot infection that goes septic this time. A major improvement!”
All that happened to me in less than six months – and two of those things happened about a week apart. Also, I didn’t actually contract rabies. A week after minor surgery for a septic abscess in my foot, I was just bitten on the back of my leg without warning by a Bangkok street dog, who snuck up from behind, chomped and ran. Since that’s not normal dog behavior and Bangkok has a problem with rabid dogs, it was enough for the ER doctor to have me go through a complete rabies vaccine series.
I am the only person I know who is immune to rabies.
The crazy part was that the most I ever paid for a doctor’s visit in Bangkok – and I went a surprising number of times that year, thanks in part to that five part rabies series – was $7.50. All other visits the BUPA Blue Cross health insurance I had through work covered everything.
Crazier still, my insurance covered up to $22.75 per doctor’s visit and up to $50 for the ER. The $7.50 I paid that one time occurred because of all the wound dressing materials the doctor gave me for the septic abscess and the dog bite that I had to tend at the same time. Same leg too.
You may think, “Yeah, but that’s for a doctor in Thailand and who knows what the hospitals are like there.” Well, I do. And the nice, private hospital I like is modern and sparkly. The doctors who saw me we all educated in the US with one having gone to USC Medical School and another the University of Tennessee. He spoke perfect English with a Tennessee twang – which was bizarre on a Thai doctor.
Thailand has a program where the government gives its most promising medical students full-ride scholarships to attend schools in the US in exchange for their promise to return home and use their skills to benefit the Thai people.
That year, I received fantastic medical care in new, modern facilities from English speaking doctors who gave me the same medicines as home – for no more than $30 a visit.
That’s why in February, when Emily and I were in Bangkok, we had our teeth cleaned. For $33, I got a checkup and cleaning at the dental clinic of Paolo Memorial Hospital. At home, my co-pay is only a few dollars less than that!
The facilities were nicer than my dentist’s office at home and the dentist was fantastic. For $100, she not only cleaned Emily’s teeth, but filled a cavity and replaced two old, cracked fillings.
It’s hard not to experience these things and not wonder how our healthcare costs can be so high. Here we are, getting the same care as home for a fraction of the price.
Then there’s Singapore. Developed, modern, first world Singapore – where people say healthcare costs are rising.
One of our taxi drivers told us how upset he was that for three days in what is arguably Singapore’s best hospital, he paid – via his national health insurance, not from his pocket – S$1000, or $800 USD. If I walked into a Singapore hospital, they would charge me the same $800, only I would pay cash.
That’s the really crazy part – $800 is the total cost for three days in the hospital. Most of Singapore’s hospitals – including National University Hospital where our taxi driver went, – hold Joint Commission accreditations, just like our hospitals. They operate by our standards and are audited by our accrediting bodies. In fact, like Thailand, they have doctors educated in our country too. The last doctor I saw at NUH went to Harvard. The one before that was educated in London.
My highest cost doctor, uninsured, out-of-pocket doctor visit in Singapore was $60 USD.
This is why the phrase “medical tourism” exists – and it’s a sad sign of the times. Americans have reached a point where to get medical care, they’re taking the long way around. They can save more than 40 percent – even with the cost of the flights – by going from LA to Bangkok or New York to Singapore to get the care they need at less than the cost of their annual insurance premiums, if they even have insurance.
It makes going from Hanoi to Vientiane via Bangkok look like like nothing.
Of course, I have no solutions. I’ve worked in healthcare and I understand just how insanely complicated the whole thing is. There are infinite issues, intricacies and complications to consider when trying to untangle the ball of string that is America’s healthcare system. Like my rabies vaccine series, there are no painless solutions.
All I can say is that I hope my mom didn’t jinx us. We’ve been pretty healthy and had no real problems thus far. I’d like to make it to the finish line that way. But if anything were to come up, it would be great if it happened in Thailand and not at home. We can afford to be sick there.
Sent from my iPad
