With Monday morning and a whole week in Singapore laid out
before us, Colleen and I had our sights set on getting out and about in one of
Asia's most esteemed metropolises. Not
surprisingly my ear had other plans, as I was still in a large amount of discomfort
from my presumed scuba diving accident.
I was not sure of the exact moment that I injured my ear as I was
constantly having problems with my ears while diving (I assumed this was normal
after talking to other divers). That
morning I awoke again with a large amount of ooze on my pillow and a
"blocked" feeling in my ear. After some goading from Colleen and her
mother who we spoke to on the phone that morning, I was convinced told
that I had to go and make a visit to the nearest medical clinic.
I was afraid to go to the doctor's because I realized that
everything in Singapore is extremely expensive and I'm sure their medical bills
were no exception. While I did have
travel insurance, I would have to pay any expenses up front out of pocket and
then hope that they reimbursed me. On a
more positive note there was a large medical facility located within walking
distance of our hotel. It looked to be
quite classy and after filling out some initial paperwork I was whisked in to
see a doctor who promptly told me that it appeared I had an ear infection. For this he charged me $80 (literally a one
minute consultation) and told me I would have to go and see a specialist to get
further help. All I could hear was the
sound of a cash register going off in my head.
Once I settled up the tab for my initial consultation and explained to
the secretary that I did not live in Singapore and therefore could not really
wait to see the specialist I was eventually told that they could look at me
right away. Funny how that works.
Fearing the worst, Colleen and I headed over to the adjacent
medical building and made our way over to the Head and Neck Specialists
office. We were greeted by four
administrators/assistants, one doctor, and a patient count of exactly
zero. With that there was no discussion
of price and I was quickly whisked away into the doctor's office and invited to
sit in his big, comfy chair. This was
quickly followed by having cameras inserted up both my sinuses/nose and my
ears. As all this was going on, I was
able to watch it all unfold on a flat screen TV right in front of me and I
could only imagine what kind of bill I was going to be getting for this
invasive procedure. The doc concluded
what I pretty well already knew: that I had an ear infection and had popped an ear
drum. He quickly wrote me up a
prescription for three different types of medications and sent me on way. Twenty minutes after first arriving it was
all said and done and I was presented with a lovely bill of $750! As the timid Chinese secretaries presented me
with the bill I proclaimed something to the effect of "HOLY SHIT
BALLS!!!" and I could tell I kind of embarrassed the staff members. Immediately after this happened, one of the
girls went back into the doctor's office and she came back out a minute later
and told me that the doc had decided to give me a discount to $650. I never intended to try and get a discount,
but if that's all it takes to save a hundred bucks, I am going to have to try
it more often. With the bill paid I
quickly scooped as many complimentary candies as I could fit into my pocket
(got to get my monies worth) and we headed back to the hotel. Colleen informed me that she was going to pay
the bill for me as a surprise until she found out how much it was. I think she was truly more upset about the
whole ordeal then I was, but as Confucius once said, "shit happens". I would call the insurance company the next
day and work out the details. We had
more pressing issues to confront!
My wallet was now significantly lighter, so it only seemed
appropriate that our feature destination that afternoon was the TigerBrewery. I was in need of some sorrow
drowning and I felt that a tour at the facility of one of Singapore's most
famous exports would do just the trick.
The tour itself was pretty standard stuff (I've done a shit ton of
brewery tours over the last ten years) and there was only Colleen, myself and
three other people on the tour. The
highlight of the $16 tour was definitely the end where we were welcome to take
a seat at the in-house bar and sample power drink for an hour. After a couple of drinks we started to talk
to the other people on our tour and it turned out that they were from
Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory and were in Singapore visiting their friend
who made like a gazillion dollars a year as a banker. The world can sure seem to be a small place
sometimes! The tour was excellent value,
as for the cost of one pint in a bar in Singapore we were able to not only get
the tour but we each had five or six pints in an hour. The downside of this was that we had planned
to go to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo that evening.
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| Tough morning. Beer will most definitely cure my problems. |
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| Tourist shot number one. |
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| Tourist shot number two. |
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| Good idea to let me operate the tap: not! |
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| "Bus ride after this is gonna suck!" |
The worst part of taking public transit after consuming
large amounts of alcohol is definitely the lack of bathroom facilities. To get to the Night Safari, we had to take a
bus, then a subway, then another bus. No
doubt there were numerous bathroom breaks involved and some regret on my part
for trying to maximize my drinking time at the brewery. Colleen and I finally arrived at the world-renowned
zoo around 9pm (a couple of hours after leaving the brewery) and before we knew
it we were on a guided tram ride around the zoo to presumably see what it is that
animals do after dark. For the most
part, it looked like they did same things as most people; you know surf the
net, watch some telly, eat dinner, take
big craps, sniff each other's butts, the usual.
One thing I must say that was unique about the night safari/tram ride
was that for most of the animal habitats they used moats instead of fences to
keep the animals and humanoids separated.
This led Colleen to believe that something was going to attack her, but
I assured her that most of the animals were not fans of white meat. Since we arrived at the park a little later
then we had originally intended to, we were in a mad scramble to do as much as
we could in as little time possible.
Once we hopped off the tram, we rushed over to catch the last animal
show of the night. The highlight for me
was seeing an otter that had been trained how to recycle. Shit, I still haven't figured how to do
that. I also thoroughly enjoyed when one
of the show hosts left some random dude on stage with a huge boa constrictor
snake wrapped around his neck while he paraded through the audience - and right
beside us - with some weird black creature on his shoulder (picture below, no
idea what it is). Our last stop before the park closed was something called the
"Wallaby Trail", where I ended up being used mostly as a human shield
in case some of the bats decided to break out of their enclosure and entangle
themselves in Colleen's hair.
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| Best part of the Night Safari? Oversized and overpriced jumbo slushies of course. |
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| The otter is recycling. Mind blown. |
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| Colleen approves of the Night Safari. What a tourist. |
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| "Get away from us dude!" |
Since we had arrived at the zoo so late, we ended up
catching the last bus of the night back into the city, which was naturally
packed to the point of near suffocation.
And to think I used to pay for this
kind of environment at rock concerts in my youth. Clearly judging by their calmness, the
law-aiding citizens of Singapore were much more used to these types of crowds
that Colleen and I who live in a town with a population roughly equal to that
of the bus.
~Brentski~
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| Tough day not only for the wallet but the old lady as well.
|
Note: This was the
first vacation in my life that I had ever purchased travel insurance for, and
as I write this now, I am sure glad that I did.
Upon my return to Canada i started to go through the process of
retrieving the funds I had shelled out for my visit to the medical
facilities. It took a couple of months,
a ton of paper work, phone calls, and emails, but in the end I was given the
full amount of my expenses. It was a big
pain in the ass, so let this be a lesson people: don't go scuba diving if you
have a history of ear problems!
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