$2 Drugs

I had my first bout of travellers stomach illness, to use polite terms. It started yesterday and I thought it was a passing things but felt awful today so decided to go to the doctor. Turns out you don't need to see a doctor to get meds. I went up to the counter pointed to my stomach, and started crying. I'm such a wimp. It's just a little scary to be sick in a strange place where you don't speak the language and don't really know what to do. But the pharmacist took my hands and kept telling me I will be alright and how I will go see her tomorrow and tell her how much better I feel. Got antibiotics, pills to easy my stomach, and electrolyte solution for water. And I already feel much better. And the cost of all this? Yep, just $2. Now, back home, without insurance, you would have to pay maybe $80 just to see a doctor to diagnose you, then pay an astronomical amount for prescription medication. It's not even a matter of the dollar going that far, it just makes sense that you don't need to see a doctor for obvious things like this and pay up the wazoo for drugs.

Now, onto what I think is a quite amusing story:
Way back in Bali, last day there, I was sitting in a beach chair late in the afternoon and Jon was sitting nearby on the sand. A Balinese lady came up to me and of course the first thing I did was think, oh no, just leave me alone. Of course she offered to give me a manicure, pedicure, massage, anything. "good price." Suprisingly after I said no thank you, she continued to sit on the chair next to me and we started chatting. I learned her husband is a chef at a hotel, has been there 20 years, earns about $100 per month, she has 3 kids, etc. Now, I was wearing a pair of loose pants and a bikini top. I noticed she kept looking at my chest.
"I like your bra, very nice" she says
I said thanks and tried to explain it wasn't a bra but a bathing suit, for swimming. would I really be wearing my bra in public?

sidenote: for all of the kiwis reading this, I couldn't stop thinking of that advert on tv during the summers where there is a guy walking around in his tiny togs and he goes from beach scenes to city scenes, and you hear a voice going "togs, togs, undies, togs, undies, undies, togs" based upon what scene he is in. I kept thinking this is a togs scene.

"you have small boobs" she tells me, making hand motions to her own and still staring at my chest, "very small, like my daughter's. Do you have any more bras for my daughter?"
um, is this really happening? "no sorry, this is the only one I have."
"very hard to find ones for her, small boobs like yours, very tiny but she is very tall. mine come from Australia." she proceeds to lift up her shirt to show me her bra, your standard white underwire piece.
"oh, that's a nice one. yeah, from Australia. good bras." the entire time I just kept thinking, "this is one for the blogger."
the moment passed and we continued to talk until she spotted another white lady who looked like maybe she would want a manicure, pedicure, or massage.

every once in a while, an event occurs and Jon and I look at each other and say "this is one for the blogger." In a previous post he described his ledger abilities, which, I must say, he has taken very seriously. On a similar note, we had changed just enough money for our last few days in Bali so that we wouldn't have any left over when we left. We were down to $3 the day before last and went to the store for some fruit. It got to the point where I wouldn't let him buy peanuts because they were over budget by 5 cents and we wouldn't have enough to eat the next day. We planned this meticulously and we were going to stick to it. In retrospect it was pretty rediculous but amusing and we didn't go hungry.

Thanks for comments from the Eckstein camp. I'm rooting for some from my team but I keep telling Jon no one will keep reading unless we post some photos so the computer geek better get on it.


Gay