Sawatdee krup
from Chiang Mai! _/|\_ (::looking like folded hands::)
Traveling
half way across the world has been such a blur, particularly since I am just
finishing up UICU. It took about
three days for the reality of this opportunity to sink in. I am so fortunate to be able to have
two months in which I can experience Thailand both from a medical and cultural
perspective. Upon disembarking the
plane, the pervasive kindness, patience, and helpfulness of the Thai were
apparent. It is always interesting
to me how different the general tone of a population is upon arriving in a
country. They are more than
willing to offer assistance for whatever question or request. There is an overwhelming degree of
politeness in every conversation.
Sometimes it feels as if there is a song of “khaaAAaa” and “kruuupppp”
[a polite way of ending sentences depending on gender] that rings through the
city streets. People are generally
very soft spoken, perhaps not to create offensive loud noises that would invade
someone else’s space. Sometimes
conversation is not louder than the level of a soft whisper. Even if you make a loud noise by
banging into something or moving a chair loudly causing a screech, one may
apologize. The pace of life is
also measured. It is rare to see
someone running. This doesn’t
apply to the speed of motorcycles, tuk-tuks (like Indian autorikshas), and cars
of course, but they still are considerate and will stop for crossing
pedestrians. You actually have to
weave in and out of traffic to cross the street in most cases.
It is difficult for me to feel one step removed based on the language barrier. In my past travels to India, Latin America, and Spain, I’ve been able to use my language skills and interact more personally. Thankfully, people’s English skills are typically more than adequate, and they are as I mentioned extremely patient to entertain the nit-noy amount of Thai I’ve accumulated. Thai, being tonal, is more challenging, but Kristina and I are doing our best to navigate the musical language.
Maharaj Hospital, where we are working, is a towering series of bright white buildings just down the road from our housing accommodations. Walking to work in the morning you find a steady train of students and residents in their pearl white ward shirts with green Thai writing over their pockets, and nurses in their traditional caps. Street vendors are beginning to set up their stalls and preparing various types of meat from pork to chicken on portable skewer sticks. In the hospital, Kristina and I have been rotating on the infectious disease consultation service and seeing very compelling cases (a handful of which will be deidentified and shared upon our return). There are afternoon rounds daily, weekly journal club, and several morning outpatient clinics we attend. Rounding includes an interesting exchange in which our experience in certain cases is shared with theirs, thus there is ongoing team-learning.
For our first weekend’s excursions, Kristina and I sampled three different local markets. The “old city” of Chiang Mai is a square mile surrounded by a moat with scenic periodic trees. The moat was used for the city’s protection in times past, but now the surrounding roads are a major transit area and serve as a great daily running route! There are 4 gates at each of the cardinal directions. We visited the south gate market on Friday where we met Sansanee’s brother, followed by the north gate market on Saturday. On Sunday there is a weekly tradition of a “walking street market” that is an extensive strip of tables selling crafts, paintings, foods, clothes, jewelry, lanterns, etc. It’s full of “phalangs” or foreigners, and sometimes gets so busy the foot traffic comes to a complete stop on the street.
We continue to appreciate and savor the experiences we are having and are looking forward to the following weeks!
