Woke up on Friday with Earache. I don’t think it is on account of the kids this time.  I used to have the same problem occasionally in the UK where a couple of nights with some eardrops and a visit to the nurse at the local doctor for a rinse had me sorted – gratis. Hoorah for the National Health.

Of course there is no National Health system here in Phuket so you are advised to have good medical insurance to cover these eventualities or worse. That is a no brainer really.

Thais do have some form of National Health system where they pay 30 baht to go to the local hospital. That is not the International Hospital though of course so not quite the same thing. This scheme was one of the good things brought in by Mr Thaksin – I am not a great supporter of his but he did do a lot of things that were good amongst the things that were apparently not so good.

Anyway a trip to Bangkok Phuket Hospital came out costing me 1500 baht for a ten minute auditory service. A bit steep really but at least the pain has gone. I have to say I like Bangkok Phuket Hospital. It looks like a hospital, is spotlessly clean, is very quick (usually) to get attended to and the doctors are very well trained and competent, as far as I can tell, though I have no medical skills whatsoever on which to base that opinion .

Bangkok Phuket Bill

However a doctor’s fee of 1200 baht for 10 minutes is still over the top in my opinion. Compared with an appendix operation I had a few years back which I think cost 56,000 baht or thereabouts, an hour or so in surgery, and several days in hospital, left me pondering the relative costs of the two experiences.

I wonder what the same procedure would cost in a London Hospital – to be comparative it would have to be one of the better ones and not say Barnet General, least not as I remember it. However I am pretty sure if I had to pay for it in a Western Hospital it would be around the same cost or maybe more. Then again the average Jim here earns about 220 Euros a month which is somewhat less than your average European and I bet the doctors are paid substantially less than their European or American counterparts too. I have no axe to grind against the doctors or the nurses by the way – they are wonderful and do a great service to their country and their patients.

I think next time I succumb to a non life threatening malady, though, I might pay a visit to the local clinic rather than to the International Hospital. I am sure it will work out a bit cheaper. I’m off to the chemist for some ear drops to avoid the whole shebang next time.

Only the ancient among you will remember that tune but it describes my day today.  As I said yesterday, today I am in charge of my Monkeys numbers 1 & 2, my wife being in transit to Nakon Si Thammarat.  Thankfully the Gods are smiling because I am monkey free until 2.00pm when I have to collect them from school.  That is fine but there is a downside – that is that school is now out for summer so tomorrow is full on Monkey Time.  Anyway let’s stick to today.

Inside Central - it was busier than it looks here

My two little treasures were in fine persuasive form after school and ice-cream was the object of persuasion.  Well I figured a trip to Central would be OK as it was on the way back home and so being the dutiful father took off Svenson’s bound.  On arrival I was told ‘buy one get on free’ was order of the day for card members – that includes me – great value.  Orders were placed and a lovely presentation of 6 scoops of ice-cream appeared.  Yum yum I like ice-cream too being a big kid at heart.  Now things were getting interesting as Monkey no. 1 decidedhe wasn’t really in the mood for ice-cream and Monkey no. 2 who had by this time devoured three teasons of ice-cream decided to follow his older brother.

I of course reasoned with them that this was all their idea and it was not good form to order ice-cream and then not eat it.  All to no avail so I ended up eating what I could myself – hmm no big torture I suppose except that the consumption of half a ton of ice cream is not exactly wonderful for my attempts at eating less in the hope my waistline contracts – ha ha don’t think so.

Evening brought a visit to the Bamboo bar in soi Nahm Tok Kathu – translated as Water Fall Katu Road – for a fish & chip dinner for 130 baht and a few beers – for me that is not for them.  They busied themselves playing pool and generally keeping out of mischief – so far so good.

Friday brought quite a shock to the system.  Not my system particularly but the water system in Kathu just over the hill from Patong in Phuket.  Now you should know that Phuket has a potable or drinkable water supply system and it has to be said that most of the time the water supply is pretty good assuming you accept the very frequent though short interruptions caused by cars or bikes smashing the pipework somewhere or just plain old pipes fracturing.  Now water is not something in short supply in Phuket most of the time given the amount of rain that falls.  The island does have a reservoir in Kathu but with the surge in population on the island over the last few years I fear it is now under capacity.  So if there is any break in the water system off goes the supply.

Anyway I have installed a tank now to store a day or so worth of water which is pumped into the house having beed fed up with not being able to shower one too many times.  That is OK and if you are living here or renting a house you are well advised to ensure it has a storage tank otherwise you will find yourself cursing when you can’t flush the toilet or do the washing up etc.  I have also installed a pretty large filter system which serves the entire water supply to the house save for the downstairs loo which is supplied direct from the city water supply.
On Friday I was chilling out downstairs and so went to use said loo.

Phuket Water Problem

Looking into the bowl my anger started to rise against two of my three boys thinking they had once again failed to listen to Dad and flush the loo.  However closer inspection was necessary since the problem did not disappear after flushing.

So next I thought I’d run the tap.  Hmm well I don;t fancy drinking that.  Come to think of it I don’t think I would like to shower under it either.

I wouldn't wash in this let alone drink it

So the moral of the story for anyone thinking of staying in this wonderful island is to make sure your house is fitted with a decent water filter system.  I bought mine from Home Pro in the Tesco complex.  It is just a simple but large carbon filter.

However as we also use tap water for ice (we have one of those fridges that connects to the water supply) and making tea and cooking vegetables etc., we also have a small osmosis system under the kitchen sink.  I haven’t a clue how it works but the water that it produces is clean, clear and tastes quite OK.

Just in case you are interested I thought I’d show you the filter systems I have installed shown in the pics below.  Now you know why most people buy bottled water to drink.

This is a carbon based filter that strips impurities - drinkable output

So basically the system I have is an underground tank fed by the city mains to provide some storage to bide us over the times when the water is not available – a couple of days worth 1000 litres if you’re careful for a family of 4.  Then the water is pumped into the pressurised filter tank which has carbon granules to filter the water.  The pressurised bit is good so that you don’t end up with water running hot and cold in the shower as you are showering.  Anyway that serves the house and then we have the supplementary second stage filter to purify it more before we get to ingest it via ice or cups of tea or whatever.

This is a low volume drinking water filter

It all works great unless the electric fails – which is another fairly frequent occurrence.  If that happens it is off to the downstairs loo where the city water is hopefully still on and the hot water tank hopefully still has a little hot water left.  Well actually even if the hot water is cooled it is no big think because the water is generally at a pretty lukewarm temparature anyway given the temperatures most of the year here in the wonderful island of Phuket.