Bangkok - sorta a holiday

Written by Elmo

Bangkok

Elmo missed out on Bangkok and Elmo is still unhappy about this. Not Joanna’s fault but Elmo was unlucky. Elmo chose not to go to the retreat with Joanna – getting up at 4am and not eating for half of every day for 10 days is not for little monsters.

But after the retreat Joanna was flown to Bangkok to an international resort, ehem, I mean hospital and a cyst was removed. It was benign but there was a bit of a fuss about it all and in total Joanna was in Bangkok two weeks. Mostly as an outpatient. In Aust such a visit would have meant a few days in hospital and none of you would have even really known about it. But when in a developing nation, flying over to the world class facilities in Thailand is how health insurance looks after expats

Joanna is fine now. Her favourite description about the trip is, “except for the surgery and stitches it was a great adventure!”

Which just goes to show she is rather silly. Monsters know that going to hospital is meant to be scary but instead Elmo is jealous as Joanna, once able to move about okay got to be a tourist and see temples, the palace and national museum and about a million art galleries. Elmo thinks Joanna might have exaggerated but the point is that Joanna did lots of arts and cultural things in the last few days when her wound was getting treatment but she lived as an outpatient so had freedom to explore. Elmo would have liked to see the artwork. Being Joanna’s travel mate for over 10 years now, Elmo has learnt to love art nearly as much as she does.

Elmo also has seen the dress and shoes she bought so as to go to the Thailand Cultural Centre for a orchestral concert that played traditional Thai music but with western instruments. Joanna would have looked real pretty in the outfit. Pity not much need to wear pretty shoes and dresses with sequins here in our dusty town.

So Elmo happy to hear Joanna’s travel stories but glad that next real holiday when Joanna plans to explore our northern neighbourhoods in Laos that Elmo gets to go. No staying at home ever again for Buddhist retreats either, just in case Joanna ducks over to have additional holiday time like she did in Bangkok!