Ulaan Baatar - another country, another hospital
It was abit surreal heading back to civilisation after the Ger camp but as soon as we hit tarmac road the horn honking and manic driving started and brought it all home. Narkie (our guide) got the driver to stop at one of the hospitals on the way so I could get my plaster changed only to discover that A&E only operates in the afternoon in Mongolia. interesting start to yet another hospital visit. We checked in to “mongolia’s top hotel 2005″ which has to be said wasn’t hard to discover why it wasn’t of 2006 as well and headed to the state hospital. Triage at the entrance was in the form of a very young police man, fag in hand and the waiting area was full of all kinds of injuries. Again, no one had any regard for patient care or confidentuality and we were like a show piece. A guy in a bright yellow vest with “emergency” on the back obviously loved himself took us into the plaster room and looked at my xrays (thank god i have some knowledge about them and that it wasn’t a major break). I was glad to have stuart with me as at least there was some compassion as this guy wrenched my wrist about and put the most riddiculous plaster on ever. (i made a mental note at that point the next hospital would be western and prayed the alignment of my wrist was still intact!) There was a young boy there who had what looked like an open fracture not making a sound so i felt like a right wimp complaining as the guy moved my wrist about. We are so lucky to have the NHS. The room was pretty minging, open bags with all kinds of rubbish stoved under the sink and some very interesting bits of plaster that didn’t really immobilise anything. Anyway i think the best show was for Aidan in the waiting area with 2 nurses, again fags in mouths, holding up a chest xray to the light and jabbering on about it. Thank god nothing major was wrong with any of us!
We were glad to get out of there even if a massive full, wet plaster of paris cast added a few kgs to my arm.
The driving was horrendous which made our trip around town quite limited as we didn’t want to cross any roads. people actually drive at you on the zebra crossings and it really wasn’t fun so we played it safe in an internet cafe and headed out with Stuart for dinner - safety in 3s!
Such a contrast to the Ger camp but we were keen to get on the train the next morning just to be away from the cars and constant fear of crossing roads.