Thaksin (Pheu Thai/Yingluck) won the elections and will most likely return to Thailand from his exile sooner or later.
I started to get “involved” with Thaksin around end of 2008. On April 4th, 2009 I indicated on this blog the upcoming class war in Thailand which about 1 year later got named “war against the elite”. To the time of this post http://www.globalnanpa.com/blog/?p=582
and the video “Big Bunda Land” (original upload got deleted from Vimeo) no fucking ass worldwide had posted anything or believed that buildings would soon be burning in Thailand.
First I correctly predicted the Jakarta bombings, then I indicated the upcoming class war in Thailand.
Very interesting is that Wikipedia (and everyone else) state that it were the red shirts who burned down the Central World shopping mall, the largest mall of South East Asia. Thaksin always refused to take responsability for that being done by the red shirts. He was talking of a 3rd group who had been active there, a professional group who could plan and execute such a thing. It should be pretty clear that a handful of amateur fires won’t let Central World completely burn out. I don’t think they will ever find out the truth and really investigate on that.
Anyways, I am glad that a bit more truth, justice and democracy is finally returning to Thailand. This will bring a lot of change along. Congratulations Mr. Thaksin !
The idea for this video was to show the hospital in a neutral, authentic perspective of a touristic outsider.
You will see people walking towards and away from the camera, strange and “unwanted” things are not getting cut out. Of the 1 hour walk I originally was planning to cut a 30min video but I liked all so much that I actually only cut out 10min of some longer walks. This just shows how authentic the whole video is.
My motivation for this is : I simply love Thailand, if I can help a little a good place like this one, it makes me happy. I am not doing this for everyone, only if I really consider something to be worthy to be portayed.
The staff I encountered at the Bangkok Hospital Pattaya is extremely friendly and helpful. I had the opportunity to have Dr. Ian Corness as a guide. He is a very knowledgeable person, an excellent communicator and he got a great sense of humor. Thanks to him, this whole walk doesn’t appear sterile and boring.
Video 1 explains general things about the hospital : They have 400 beds, are accredited by the Joint Commission International, their international service speaks 22 languages. They are even a little more international orientated than Bumrungrad in Bangkok making 60% of their revenues with foreign patients.
Dr. Corness shows a standard room which costs something around THB 5000 / day. Rates in Pattaya and cost of living in general are cheaper in Pattaya than in Bangkok. Dr. Corness liked to stress that Bangkok is considered as a transit for most people (not me !) whereas Pattaya is a destination. Traffic in Bangkok moreover can be so bad that the transport from Bangkok Suvarnabhumi airport to Sukhumvit can take sometimes almost same time (usually around 40 min) like driving down all the way to Pattaya (usually around 2 hours).
Dr. Corness explained in a great way why people should not be worried about the standard of the hospital although the city being best known as the world’s largest sex destination.
Nowhere in the world except in Thailand you will find the hospitals being constructed like a hotel. The main reason for the medical tourist coming is still the very lower price which can be around 25% of what you would pay in the USA or Germany.
In video 2 we see the dental cosmetic & implant center where 28 dentists work. We learn about the efficiancy of the health promotion center : for example you get your blood test results only 45 minutes later after the blood was taken. Some befriended MDs in Germany might get mad when they read it here. Things in Thailand just work easier, heavy beaurocracy like in Europe helps creating extra jobs but it won’t get more efficient…
The hospital employs 12 cardiologists who all have extensive experience and are fully accredited specialists. I have a quite high trust that hospitals like Bangkok hospital and Bumrungrad employ physicians that really work on a very high level. Local universities like Chulalongkorn or Chiang Mai university for example have reached a standard that appears really good to me.
Because they are a private hospital they are able to pay higher salaries to their physicians than a public hospital could pay. This is clearly an advantage to get and maintain some of the best doctors of Thailand.
Dr. Corness already works 12 years for the hospital. He explained in a funny way that he came to Thailand 14 years ago like many other foreigners who had been through a lot of shit in their home country. I bet he really could write a best-selling book about life in Thailand from the expats point-of-view. He is a great character. He got re-married 10 years ago with a Thai and got a son and a daughter with her.
In video 3 we see at first the Arabic reception area and Intensive Care. They are the only hospital in Pattaya that has an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) scanner.
Dr. Somchai who studied medicine in Munich, Germany, introduces his supersight surgery which isn’t LASIK. He brought a lot of technology and knowledge from Germany to Thailand. He works together with Carl-Zeiss from Jena for the lenses he uses. Dr. Somchai works since 15 years for the hospital, he developed his technology in 2002 and had 205.000 operations being done with it. Dr. Corness refered to him as one of the leading lights of the hospital. He was also responsible for getting the Icelab from the German company Zimmer to the hospital.
In total the hospital employs 100 full-time physicians and 100 part-time.
In video 4 you see the brand-new, cutting-edge Icelab, a cryo therapy spa, which is the only one across whole Asia. You can heal all kinds of conditions with it at minus 110 degrees, especially pro sports men like to use it for healing faster. I should inform Mr. Rainer Calmund about it to send his football injured pro-players down there for a little fun rehabilitation time. It costs only around THB 1000 per session, around 10 you should do depending on what you use it for. You walk through 2 chambers with different temperatures and try to last in the 3rd chamber around 3 minutes. Next time I come to Pattaya I want to try it. You get a big boost of endorphines and oxygen from it because of the density of the air. After all the heavy partying and drinking in Pattaya that I am used to : this is just what I need. In case they don’t like my video portray, they won me at least for the Icelab already. LOL.
Later you see the cantine and the dermatology & cosmetic surgery center. They employ 5 cosmetic surgeons. The most popular surgery there for forgeigners is breast augmentation (enlargement) and for locals a nose operation from flat to more western looking. A big part of the medical tourism happens within beauty surgery. Pattaya as a nice, touristic beach destination is clearly scoring in convincing patients to stay for a longer time if the operation demands it.
Bangkok Hospital Pattaya is a fully digital hospital. All your data (for example blood tests, diagnosis, X-rays, prescriptions, etc…) is electronically stored and you get identified with a barcode you carry along. Moreover they share data with hospitals abroad, so let’s say you want your doctor in the USA to have all the info on what you did in Pattaya : no problem, they are very cooperative. I am very impressed of it.
In video 5 you see the MRI scanner. The hospital got their own busses and can arrange picking up international patients from Suvarnabhumi airport. The International Service Department can also take care of visa and other issues.
The hospital got 11 ambulances, the majority of ambulances run in Pattaya are public, run by various foundations. Their own ambulances go out with a doctor on board and treatment could already start there.
The Emergency Medical Service got 16 beds. Pattaya, let me assure you, is so much safer than any place in the USA I know of.
We make some jokes about the large amount of public holidays in Thailand : Dr. Corness wants to produce a small pocket calendar for Thais which lists the days when Thais are actually supposed to work. LOL.
The International Service Department will also help you with your insurance, trying to figure out if your insurance abroad will cover fully or partially costs of your stay at this hospital. What I learned about insurances is : they really don’t give a shit about people, of course we all work in the monetary system. The insurance looks at the numbers like everyone does : as long as they don’t have to pay more, it is very likely that they agree to a stay/treatment at the hospital. That’s why price matters so much. Plastic/beauty surgery however is nowhere covered anyway.
I want to say many thanks again to the entire Bangkok Hospital Pattaya staff, especially to Dr. Ian Corness taking the time and guiding me around that spontaneously. I am always shocked and impressed how helpful people in general are towards me in Thailand, like giving me permission for such video tours. Taking into account my aggressive logo and sometimes controversial website content : When they give me their trust, I am all the more willing to help.
Red in the Land : Red shirts bang it again, Bangkok
The protests today shall remember the army crackdown and its victims from May, 19th last year.
On May 9th the king approved the prime ministers request to dissolve the lower chamber of the parliament. New elections will be held on July 3rd.
Thaksin recently said that this election will become a “brutal fight”.
Thaksin’s youngest sister Yingluck will lead the opposition party, Pheu Thai. She got a good chance to beat the current, non-elected, prime minister Abhisit.
Because of the rain my footage isn’t as good as the two previous ones of the redshirts I did in the past. The vibe also wasn’t so good, moreover not as much people around as I saw in the protest in January. The rain simply made it chaotic, so this time I actually didn’t stick around for too long. The humidity and slight rain spoiled something which could have been a good opposition start promo action for the elections.
News flash : Steve Halim @X2, 18th ASEAN summit and some crazy bule entrepreneurs
Here is some news from the big durian. Traffic is terrible like usual here, maybe even a bit worse right now because of the ASEAN summit which started here today. Lots of people around, lots of security everywhere and helicopters flying around. From my window, royal suite, Mulia hotel, I am actually looking down on a field with a few military helicopters, more video stuff about that later.
I met some really cool people in a very short time-frame. Even though it is a Saturday, I took a break today.
Sexy and sweet girls are around plenty in Jakarta. I would just wish that stuff would feel more open and free here. I just love the easy-going way in Bangkok, where things are just not only happening behind closed doors. Going from one location to the next is always a hassle. In Bangkok I go full speed all the time with motorbikes. It just doesn’t work here. Going from one place to the next mostly means first waiting in line for a taxi and then waiting often another 30min being stuck somewhere in traffic. That annoyed me already almost as much as some situations in the Philippines. Some hotels are excellent in Indonesia but Thailand is simply the very best in terms of hospitality. Lots of updates are coming up for Indonesia.
The people in Jakarta you meet are mostly not tourists like in Bangkok. Sometimes it is good, sometimes not. Because the people work here, they are holding themselves more back and just don’t go for pure fun around. You rarely meet some free spirits.
But on the other hand, the expats are very friendly and behave open circle-wise where you can easily join in.
Stephan is a really cool German entrepreneur I met yesterday at Immigrant. His previous role was being the SEA regional head for Siemens. He is now having some sort of IT security company which is highly profitable. He just bought a house in Munich and wants to buy a house for his girl-friend in Jakarta too. Not bad, I think he is 36 or 38, cannot remember it anymore.
Below you see Steve Halim, he is supposed to be known among Indonesians from TV entertainment. I cannot really tell, but he seemed to get treated very special at X2 yesterday. He was very polite and friendly, let me join his crew and offered me whiskey.
Pretty cool so far everything. Check the X2 video from yesterday :
It is time to take a break from the blog for a while. On the last trip I had to prove something and I also had responsability for other people as well. We accomplished what we wanted to do and I am happy with the result. Now I am on my own again. A tight schedule I have again, but I won’t force myself into anything anymore. I also think that I overdid it a bit with the video shooting last time, it was too much stress.
I am very much looking forward now experiencing new adventures.There is still some unreleased material from the last trip stored for later.
This Big Mango in my eyes is the world’s best city. When I visited Bangkok for the first time in 2005, I already had the feeling that this would become a love-affair. It just felt right to be there and things didn’t change since that.
When we explored the city by helicopter I recognized how little I know of the city. I don’t think it is really important to know every angel there, but there is plenty I still want to learn and explore. The heart of Bangkok are its natural friendly, Buddhistic people who are strongly connected with the king. I don’t think it is correct/fair to say that everything went downhill and that it just became a touristic, idiot hub. It depends on the areas and tell me any other place that’s better taking it all together. Jakarta has more diverse characters, it feels more grown-up, but they don’t have that open, free feeling : too much is happening just inside buildings there.
One of the most frequented questions I get is how much money you need to enjoy it the way I present it in my videos. I thought a long time about it and experienced the very luxury but also the budget end. I didn’t start staying in Bangkok at the Jim Thompson suite. My first hotel was the President Solitaire. I payed for my first room and first stay THB 2200/day. Let me tell you what : I was so extremely happy with this room, I could not believe that I was now able to afford a room that has such a nice marble bathroom. I was blasted away from the Thai hospitality and got the chills when I entered my room. I think the first time Jim Thompson didn’t make me happier, although I still consider it to be the best room of a hotel in Bangkok and Bangkok is No.1 worldwide in my eyes.
The point is that at a certain level, the extra luxury doesn’t bring you proportional extra fun.
Interesting is that according to the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the normal, average tourist spends around THB 4000 per day, a little more than USD 100. And I believe that this for a tourist is just about right to do everything without real limitations if you are smart. Of course there always is no open end. But I would never go in below THB 4000 per day, it won’t be fun. As an expat or resident the budget could be decreased a lot. Beware that taken into assumption that your currency might inflate at a rate of 2.5%, your fixed money value will decrease by half after 2 decades.
Honestly speaking you can basically fuck all my guides if you search there for eventually having the ultimate day. They can help you for getting an impression, give you ideas and a better overview. Everyone has a different taste, I prefer to structure here everything as an authority because in first priority I am doing this site for myself, it is a collection database of my own travel memories.
Do you really need to pay THB 5000 for having the best massage experience of Thailand ? Hell no, you only pay that if you want to be secluded/safe from the real world, housing in pure luxury while getting the treatment. Some of my most memorable massages were THB 250, 90 min Thai massages in some dingy parlors, located in small Sois.
The picture is very similar for Thai food. My best Tom Yum Goong I also didn’t had a 5-star Thai restaurant. Does this now all mean that I reverse back and only stay at the budget places ? No, I will continue visiting the whole spectrum because I think I experience most that way. The point I want to explain is that even if you cannot afford the luxury places, just be happy with what you have and that you found Bangkok instead of dieing in ignorance without knowing heaven.
I want to thank a few people who helped and supported me on the last trip to make this video and following happening : Jakob, Thomas, Vann, Em, Twopee, Michael, Jah, Tar, Cherry, Fai, Nadia, Kat, Dream, Ann, Lookpad, Michaela, Patrick, Advance Aviation, Peninsula hotel Bangkok, Four Seasons hotel Bangkok, Dusit D2, BKcoolclub, The Pent, Funky Villa, Bangkok Pattaya hospital, Baccara, Rainbow 4. Many thanks for letting me keep the memories inside this video and I hope it enjoys/motivates/inspires other people as well :
This evening by chance I met “Calli”, probably one of Germany’s most prominent and certainly one of the friendliest German football functionaries. His track record is very impressive. Like in TV this guy is a very friendly, outspoken and easy-going person. We chatted around 20 minutes, about his and my travels, medical tourism and herbal medicine. He was surprised that I knew that it is his second time at the Dhara Devi because I had read it a year ago somewhere. He calls Thailand his second home and he will stay here in Chiang Mai until Jan.20th, chilling out.
I didn’t wanted to push things here too far with the video. It simply didn’t feel appropiate to videotape the whole chat although we got smooth around the end when we started talking about Bumrungrad and Bangkok Pattaya hospital. He had been to Bangkok Pattaya hospital and was also impressed of the quality: of the facilities and the physicians’ academic/practical trainings. He told me that they even have a certain cancer diagnostic system that only exists twice in Germany if I understood it correctly. I told him about my recent Bumrungrad visit/experience: the advanced useage of electronic data (doctors run around with USB sticks/CDs with your medical data, screens are in almost every patient room…) totally blasted me away. Even in Germany this is mostly unmatched. You can get a balcony room with view at Bumrungrad and 24h nurse service for THB 12k and you can take walks at a beautiful terrace area or chill out at the restaurant areas. They even have lounges and they do Visa services as well. It’s a 5-star hotel…Crazy shit ! I have a really cool video guide of Bumrungrad but that’s coming much later.
Back to Calli : He really likes Laos, at least he talked about it. I recommended him to go to the Four Seasons Tented Camps (“Golden Triangle”). I bet he loves it from what I know about his preferences and he wants to google it. I will be there later this year as well. Sweet, Mr. Calmund impressed me, moreover he is probably Europe’s most prominent, self-declared Thailand-lover. Of course he won’t share and like all the stuff that I am doing on this site, officially that’s impossible in his position anyway, but I guess he has no general problem with it. You can also follow him on Twitter : http://twitter.com/calmund
Check my crappy video :
Thanks for the picture and hope to meet again. I won’t stay here long, but villa 21, the whole complex is absolutely spectacular. This place would be perfect for re-energizing, but as you know me, I cannot stop working…at least at very, very nice places now…
News flash : Bangkok red shirts rally again, peacefully – January 9th, Bangkok
By chance I was able to videotape and report on the “Red Shirts Big Bang” on March 14th, 2010 where there had been 100 to 150k people according to Economist. From that day on the rallies really started and around end of April the protests turned violent and were finally bloodily crushed by the army later on May 19th.
Things went quiet afterwards. Everyone seemed to be very surprised with that rally today. I saw maybe 3000 or 5000 red shirts. I was very bad at guessing numbers last time, so don’t trust the number for the moment. But don’t worry at all, it is very peaceful and everything is fine except traffic jams. But right now (8pm), things look almost alright again. Motorbike is the way to go for me anyway…
Special thanks to the friendly Four Seasons hotel management+staff and the new general manager Mr. A. Haksar, a cool guy who just came from L.A. You see him at the beginning of the video. Ok, I didn’t plan to post for longer time but this was an unexpected “news story”, so I thought it would be interesting and gives some more insights about the situation. .
Don’t forget to come to the Pattaya pool party at Dusit D2, Twopee from Southside Phuket will be there too….will be fun and entertaining….
Global Nanpa Pool Party @ Dusit D2 Pattaya : Friday, February 4th – 12 to 6pm
Global Nanpa and the Dusit D2 Baraquda Pattaya invite you to join a sexy pool party with cool music. Entrance is free and drink prices are as usual ! Enjoy an uncommon, rare event at Pattaya’s most stylish pool area. Check it out if you are in the area that time…
I have produced more than 200 videos in 3 years that will take you around 1000 minutes (16.6h) to watch entirely. So here is the yearly list of my currently best videos, personal choice.
