IFMSA Professional Exchange – Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand – July 2016
Hello everyone! I am here to tell you something more about my wonderful month in Thailand :)!
Where to start? I have so many wonderful stories and things to tell you! So, lets go all the way to beginning – deciding which country to pick. I have spent my previous summer in Indonesia and as I fell in love with SE Asia there, it was very easy to pick something. I booked my flight in April and it was around 400euros from Budapest to Kuala Lumpur (and back, yes!). Then I got a cheap low-cost flight to Bangkok. You also have to obtain a visa for Thailand. If you want to stay just for 30 days you can get them at the airport, if you want to stay longer (as I wanted to) you have to go to embassy in Bratislava and apply for them at least one week before your departure.
With visa in my passport, flight ticket, full backpack and message from my CP I was ready to fly! My CP contacted me few weeks before, attaching info about my stay, about my department (OB/GYN) and so on. She was very nice and also picked me up at the airport and drove me all the way to the dorms.
We stayed in the dorms straight in the hospital area. Dorms are separated for girls and boys (boys had to walk around 15min), rooms were for 3-4 girls. However, I was the lucky one (:D) to stay in the only one room for 6. Rooms were clean, with AC (best invention ever). Even if the dorms were separated – there was an area for meeting with other guys, with shop and gym right downstairs.
So after the first days in Bangkok (which we spent just wandering around the hospital area completely lost), we were about to start our internship. Bangkok has many hospitals and I stayed at Siriraj hospital [pronounce as Sililaaaaaa when taking a taxi]. My department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics was one special building as big as whole Ruzinov hospital with 15 floors. First day, my CP took me and my Canadian friend to show us our department and introduce us to our doctors. They were very nice, even prepared special schedule for us. We changed the department every day – from OR, delivery room, out-patient dpt., clinic for STD to Family Planning department. There was lot to see, however as the Siriraj is the biggest and busiest hospital in 67mil Thailand, the doctors were VERY busy. They didnt have much time for us and it happend few times that we all ended up sitting in Siriraj food court chatting and eating (oh, you havin rice again?). Speaking about the food – Siriraj has many food courts/places to have some rice. Or rice.
To speak about IFMSA people at Siriraj I have to say I am AMAZED. They were great bunch of people and they did so much for us even if they had school and all the exams! The social program was great – from preparing amazing welcome dinner, taking us for night cruise with fancy dinner to showing us around Bangkoks biggest attractions (and everything for free!).
Well, we explored some of the attractions on our own as well. I am happy to say that all the students who came to Siriraj for Exchange were supernice. We visited beautiful Erawan Waterfalls, fascinating Bridge over the River Kwai, rainy Koh Chang, muddy Elephant Sanctuary in Chiang Mai, we tried all the weird fruits (DURIAN!) and animals (scorpion!), partied our troubles away at Full Moon party, swam in Koh Samui, climbed 1237 stairs in Krabi, got diarrhea, saw PingPong show and had so much fun. I cant describe how much I loved my stay in Bangkok, with all the traffic, rainy season (When it starts to rain, it RAINS. Like hell.), crazy taxi drivers, cockroaches, 7-11 sandwiches…
It was one amazing month and I am happy I could be part of this exchange! Thank you BSM, Kop Kun Ka Thailand! On scale 1 to 10, I rate it 12!
GET READY FOR THE BEST MONTH OF YOUR LIFE! 🙂
