A couple weeks before I left the U.S., I had a cavity filled in one of my back teeth. My dentist said it would be sensitive for a while, which it was. But I noticed a week or two ago that it had gotten a little bit more sensitive and I suspected something was up with the filling but I didn’t worry too much. Then at the boxing match the night before, I had some popcorn and it REALLY hurt. So when I got back to my hotel, with the help of a flashlight and a toothpick and the mirror, I realized that the filling was completely gone and there was a gaping hole in my tooth. Damn!
So I was either going to have to chew only on the left side of my mouth for the next month and not drink anything hot or cold, or I would have to take advantage of being in one of the healthcare capitols of the world and find a dentist on my last day in Bangkok.
Luckily, there are 5 dentists on every block here. I only had to turn the corner on Soi 19 to find “19 Dental Clinic”. A sign said “closed” but I rang the bell anyway and a young thai girl came to the door in a surgical mask. She seemed super busy. I asked if they had any appointments for today but she said they were full. Crap. On to the next one, the Bangkok Dental Spa, in an upstairs office in a nice building which also said “closed”. I rang the bell and a smiling receptionist opened it. I asked if they had any emergency appointments and she seemed happy and eager to sign me up for a slot at 1:30 that day. I asked how much a new filling would cost and she said 1500 Baht ($45). I looked around their fancy suite and saw marble, built-in fountains, posh furniture, stylish decor and thought that Id probably be able to do better price-wise somewhere else, so I took the 1:30 appointment but decided to keep looking.
I forget the name of the next place I went to, but it just had a plain wooden door street-side with a sign that said “dentist” on it. I rang the bell and a middle-aged thai woman came out, happy to greet me. A new filling would be 1000 baht ($30), providing it was one surface and not two; she’d have to look at it and see.
I knew it was only one surface, so I said ok. She took me down a short dimly-lit hallway to a back room that seemed less like a patients room in a dental office and more like a regular office (with a desk, papers, etc) that happened to have a dentists chair and equipment on one side of it. I didn’t have a chance to look around much though. She sat me down and had a look in my mouth. Yep, one surface. I asked if she took credit cards. No, just cash. I said Id have to go to an atm. She said I could go later. I said ok, lets do it (i figured nothing could go too wrong, right? She’s just sticking a filling in the hole. I could always get it re-done later). She seemed very pleased with my decision and started talking and giggling with her assistant in thai.
Drill-like tool in hand, she told me to open up again. I said, wait, you’re not going to use anesthetic?? She said, “no, not necessary”. I said, “so its not going to hurt?”. She said “no”. I thought for a second. How could that be? It hurt even when no one was touching it. I distinctly remembered getting not just one, but two shots of anesthetic in the U.S. and not being able to control one side of my face for 4 hours afterwards due to the numbness. Getting very nervous, I said, “are you SURE its not going to hurt?” She paused for a moment, considering the question. Then she said, “I try”.
Before I could jump up and run away, they had my mouth open and had started. And of course, it hurt like a m.f., but never to the point where I had to call it off. It was actually fairly do-able. I dont think I’d ever had dental work done without anesthetic before. Not the worst experience of my life.
The procedure, aside from no anesthetic, seemed legit. They did basically the same stuff that they do in the US. When she was done it was sore for the next few hours, but by evening seemed good as new and an unintended adventure was successfully in the bag! (knock on wood)
On my way back to the hotel I stopped at the Bangkok Dental Spa and cancelled my 1:30 appointment. I then spent the mid part of the day hand washing laundry and figuring out how to dry it. They of course had laundry services at the hotel, but it took more than 24 hours to get it back and I didn’t have that kind of time. There was a small ledge with the air conditioner motor on it outside my 7th floor window and I was able to stick a chair on the ledge and put my clothes on hangers and hang them off the chair. With my luck it then got overcast, the first overcast day of the trip (Ive only had 2 days on this entire trip that had rain, and then only a quick downpour followed by sun). So the rest of the day I had to spend monitoring the clothes and flipping them constantly, lest I have a backpack full of wet clothes for india.
I went out a few times though, once to unsuccessfully try to find the Pad Thai vendor on Soi 33 that Nomadic Matt seems to think is the best in the city. And another time to go back to May’s Veggie House for another salad and a pineapple + holy basil smoothie which was the best smoothie in thailand so far. Penny, take note! (Penny is the smoothie queen at home).
On another outing I went to the Continent hotel, a giant, new tower (actually most towers around here seem built within the past 20 years— thats when the skytrain was put in in 1999). I went there because there was something at the top that I was almost certain could not be just a penthouse/residence. It had to be something else. Sure enough, there was the Axis bar on the 38th floor (which sounds like it should be a rotating bar, but it isn’t) and the windows of the bar were at a 45 degree angle that encouraged people to look down onto a pool that was on the 37th floor below. I didn’t bring my swimsuit so I couldn’t really do much about it, but it was a cool find.
On my last outing of the day, I planned to go check out a “Little Bangkok Sangha” meeting (a meditation group open to the public) at a “boutique” hotel at the end of Soi 1. The boutique hotel was SO nice. It wasn’t a tower, it was like an old wooden mansion surrounded by lush gardens. Everything inside was made of wood and seemingly antique. I went to the front desk and asked them where the library was because I was there for the meditation group meeting. “Oh, we’re sorry”, they said, “the meditation group is on Sundays.” As usual, the information I got was wrong, as it seems to be about 90% of the time here. However, after a week of having these disappointing experiences, I had a plan B this time. I had my swimsuit with me and was going to go back to the Continent hotel. The front desk people seemed sympathetic to my disappoint though, and told me I could still check out the library and the meditation room, which I did. It was super nice and I had both rooms all to myself. Their library wasn’t that extensive, but the meditation room was really architecturally beautiful with lots of wood. I did a token meditation there for 10 minutes and then I was off for the Continent hotel.
First I went up to the 38th floor, the Axis bar, and surveyed the sights. It was a small bar with several small couches situated perpendicular to the angled windows. There weren’t that many people there, so I wouldn’t have to feel too self-conscious during my swim. I went straight down to the 37th floor which had a small stylish bar poolside and then the pool was out in the open air on the edge of the tower with a very narrow (1”) walkway around the edge and a transparent chin-height plexiglass fence being the only thing between you and the 37-floor drop. There was no one manning the bar and only one other person on that floor (a woman camped out in the water at the pool bar doing something on her cellphone). So I pretty much had the run of the place and it was free (I was assuming Id have to at least buy a drink to be able to use the pool).
It was truly an awesome swim! I’d swum on rooftops before, but never on the 37th floor in the open air surrounded by the tops of skyscrapers. Every now and then I’d get out and go right up to the plexiglass, stick my head over the top and look down. It was an unsettling experience to say the least and I couldn’t take it for more than 5 seconds at a time. Nothing like being less than half an inch from certain death (that was the thickness of the glass). I thought it was kind of funny that the plexiglass had “please do not lean on glass” printed on each panel.
After a good amount of time floating around in the pool (it was a pretty small “boutique” pool so actual swimming wasn’t really what it was intended for), I got out, used one of the turquoise hotel towels to dry off and was on my way down the elevator to go have a Skype conversation with Penny (we were both flying out the next morning).
