Religion and the hospital
A visit to a Thai hospital sometimes yields unexpected religious vistas.
For example, I doubted whether I should get into the taxi that came to pick me up at home in Bangkok for the ride to the Bangkok Hospital. Not only the dashboard was covered with hundreds of Buddha statues and images of Ganesh and prominent, but now deceased monks, the rear shelf was also richly decorated with statues and figurines. Especially the ones with a many-headed naga (mystical serpent) frightened me. An emergency stop would turn them into dangerous and pointy projectiles.
The necessary amulets hung from the rearview mirror. The largest was so heavy that the driver had to hold it in place during sharp turns and speed bumps, for fear of hitting the amulet hard on the head. Hit by a waving Buddha while driving, he didn't like that either. Fortunately, the driver was of more than average stature, so that he could just see over the sacred field. At the hospital, he left without a passenger; apparently no one dared to take the ride.
Those who visit the well-known hospitals Bangkok Hospital and Bumrungrad will be presented with the following image: the Muslim man in a short-sleeved shirt and Bermuda shorts. Lady is in black from head to toe, her hair covered with a veil and her face covered with an iron mask. A downright creepy outfit, reminiscent of the movie 'The Silence of the Lambs'. Are Muslim women so eager to bite that such armor is necessary?
When asked, my doctor stated that he absolutely hates these types of patients, but as a Thai, he believes in the adage 'live and let live'. However, medical examination of the women did not get any easier, he said. The Arabs and inhabitants of surrounding Muslim countries have been coming to the Netherlands in increasing numbers for medical problems in recent years Thailand nu journey to the US is in many cases impossible or difficult.
On the way back home, the following cheerful thoughts occurred to me: the Arab man makes every effort to hide his wife from sight. But when she flies back and passes the new body scanner at the airport, the officer on duty sees the contours of her naked body flawlessly….
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