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Maybe I can just take care of it myself, I thought.

 

Maybe it isn't that big of a deal.

 

I could just wash it and bandage it and be on my way.

 

Or maybe not. My entire shoe was soaked in blood and I was at least a

20 minute walk from my hotel. I'm in Pattaya, Thailand, en route from

Bangkok to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I was on my typical morning walk

when out-of-nowhere I experienced a brutal assault by one of the many

street dogs of Thailand (typically seen sleeping in the streets and

scavenging for food, NOT attacking fitness-enthusiasts). He (male

assumption) was "ominous black" (is that a Crayola color?) and had

started following me and giving me a menacing, guttural growl. Not

knowing any better I decided that feigning ignorance was my best bet

but before I knew it the mongrel unleashed a sneak-attack from

behind, putting a mighty chomp into the meat of my lower calf just

above the ankle. Now it might have hurt had I seen it coming, but

from behind it was more shock than pain. I let out a loud "Aiiii!!!"

and jerked my foot, causing the dog to retreat instantly. A few

moments later blood was seeping out of the wound, and pouring water

onto it from my water bottle was doing little to help. Being as it

was fairly early (7am) and I wasn't exactly on a main strip, the

streets were fairly empty, save for the omnipresent motodops

(motorcyle taxis) sitting in the shade across the street. They had

witnessed the tragedy and my subsequent futile attempts to remedy it, and seeing as the situation was quickly moving from ouch-status to

potential epic proportions, I decided to get a ride back to my hotel.

I crossed the street and produced a business card from my hotel which

had a small map of its location on the back. Two of the motodops

discussed it while a third offered me a strip of cotton torn from

some random dirty sheetcloth perhaps saved for an occasion such as

this. I bent down and flicked off some fat and coagulated blood from

the wound before tying the rag around it, grimacing at the thought of

what bacteria might be stowing a free ride into my open gash but

eager to stop the flow of blood (hey, my vintage Pony athletic shoes

were at stake here). I hopped on the back of one of the motos and off

we sped to my hotel- a few minutes (and 20 baht / 50 cents) later I

was at the front lobby. I explained the situation to the desk clerk

and she pulled out a nice new first aid kit, complete with......

 

Gauze.

 

Huh?

 

No tape? No antiseptic?

 

"Sorry, no have".

 

Great.

 

Well, ok thanks...

 

Up to my room I hobbled, gauze in hand, now realizing that I might

soon be foaming at the mouth. Upon removal of the rag I realized that

I was definitely not in very good shape; the flesh around the bite

had swollen up a good half inch and it had all sorts of coagulated

gore and tissue hanging out of it. I rinsed it off in the shower and

then used some alcohol pads to perform a half-assed sanitization and

inspection- there were multiple small bite marks on the left side of

my ankle and a large 3 inch by 1/2 inch gash on the right. I covered

it all in gauze and tied it in place with a plastic 7-11 bag.

 

Voila!

 

Ok, I'm fucked.

 

Time to go to the pharmacist- there was one just down the street.

 

"You must go hospital!"

 

The wrinkled Chinese pharmacist held his hand up to the opposite

shoulder and mimed an injection.

 

"Cheed yaa... must get shot!"

 

He told me where the hospital was and I was on my way, again via motodop.

 

I turned down a wheelchair offer at the hospital lobby (but in

hindsight it probably would have been fun), and made my way back to

the emergency room. The place was swarming with good-looking Asian

females in nurse-garb.. a personal porn-fetish come true. After 20

minutes of cleaning, bandaging and injecting (as well as figuring out what the hell they were saying), I was presented with my bill:

 

 

 

Vaccination.................................650 baht

Medication..................................290 baht

Medical Supplies.........................360 baht

General Medical Equipment.........70 baht

Other Medical Service Charges...50 baht

Physician Evaluation.....................300 baht

 

 

 

The gash was to be rebandaged daily, and I was to receive additional

rabies vaccination shots on days 3, 7, 14, 28, etc.. I would also

need stitches in a few days, after any potential contaminants

(thoughts of shit-eating dogs flood my head) had had a chance to rise

to the surface.

 

The nurse that cleaned me up told me that I was "lucky".

 

I gave here a baffled look and she clarified:

 

"Lucky you can have Thai people take care of you."

 

Outwardly I smiled, but inside I furled my brow.

 

Yah, ok lady, I'm real lucky.

 

 

But maybe she was right. The universe often operates in mysterious

ways (or at least sometimes it's reassuring to think so), so maybe

getting bitten by a street dog on my way to Cambodia was part of some

greater cosmic plot that, in the end, would all work out alright

(whatever "in the end" and "alright" means). I counted my blessings

(four) and headed back to my hotel, wondering what the greater cosmic

plot had in store for me next.

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Preowun,

 

Good story. A new guy huh? 1st post and here in the Stories section! Good, new blood! (No pun intended here.) Hope to see you post a few more whenever you have the time and inclination.

 

And yeah, you were lucky. At least this is inexpensive really to do here in Thailand, go to the hospital and get all this done. I have a doctor friend who warned me long ago to be very careful with the dogs in Thailand. Seems rabies is rampant here, and very few of the dogs have ever had a rabies/distemper shot/s. Good thing you went to the hospital and got started on the series of shots. Did this screw up your trip to Cambo?

 

Cent

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Thanks for the input everyone.. I never ended up going to Cambodia, but my stay in Pattaya was very enjoyable nonetheless. Also worth mentioning is that this story was written in a somewhat sarcastic and fictional tone; though it is all true, my reaction was way more relaxed and mai pen rai than the text suggests.

 

As for other stories this is the only one I have written that relates much to Thailand, and I usually do more of a poetry / flash fiction type thing. If anyone is interested in that stuff, I can post it.

 

Cheers,

preowun

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>>Yah, ok lady, I'm real lucky.<<

 

If it was in your karma that you were to be bitten by a potentially rabid dog, it's much better that it happened in Pattaya than Cambo ...

 

Perhaps the cambo trip was not in your karma.

 

OK, now I'm going back to reading my ka®ma sultra ::

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