January 28, 2024 to February 2, 2024
Jan. 28th - Feb 2nd - Flight back to Chiang Mai and taking care of business
More dental work and logistics
Chiang Mai - Sunday evening to Friday evening
The hotel ordered a Grab (think Uber) to get me to the airport. Check in was easy and before I knew it, I was back in Chiang Mai. The flight was only about an hour. Had already contacted The Comfort Zone Hostel I stayed at before and reserved a bed. It's right around the corner from my dentist. Since my travel plans changed abruptly and it was the weekend, I didn't even have time to let the dentist know my arrival date.
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Headed to the dentist first thing in the morning fully expecting to have an appointment for later, but no, he gets me in after the next patient. He consults with the guy who does the root canal with regards to my symptoms. The treatment plan is to remove the crown, do a root canal, give me a new crown. Before you know it, he's working on removing my crown. But I'm having pain, so he injects more Novocain. Except instead of making my lip go numb, it's spreading up to my eye socket and ear. Let's just say, by the time he finished, the whole side of my face was numb. I let him know he was not helping my dental anxiety at all! If he was not one of the tops dentists in Chiang Mai, I probably would have panicked! My root canal appointment is Wednesday afternoon. (It's Monday.) New crown, Thursday morning. He says I can fly on Saturday.
I wasn't overly thrilled to be back in Chiang Mai since I had already stayed for 2 1/2 weeks at the beginning of my trip. I have tons of research to do though as I'm trying to work out a flight to Sri Lanka, but that means I have to coordinate getting back to Bangkok first to catch the airline I want to fly.
I finally find a really good deal for a multi city flight. First stop Sri Lanka where I will stay for about a month, then on to Nepal! It was a bargain for $266 US! I did have to buy a separate ticket from Chiang Mai to Bangkok which was not a bargain. More on that later. I cleared with the dentist first because I need to fly Friday night to catch the Sri Lanka Flight mid day Saturday. With separate tickets, need to give myself space in case there are any luggage issues.
I have always intended to include Sri Lanka on this trip, just wasn't sure if it was all going to come together. So happy it did and I don't have to extend my stay in Thailand.
I return to the dentist on Wednesday, but I'm not convinced I need a root canal. Since he removed the crown and placed a temporary, the sensitivity to cold and the general ache is gone. Why is that? At any rate, he definitely recommends the root canal. The endodontist says he is going to give me lots of Novocain and make absolutely sure it's working before proceeding. Once he starts, he finds the problem right away and after taking a picture of my mouth, he shows me. My tooth is cracked. He says it would have been a matter of time before it would have gotten infected and confirms I absolutely need a root canal. He continues and that appointment was actually easier than the one removing the crown. Probably didn't hurt that I made sure to take a double dose of Lorazepam before my appointment.
Get my new crown the next day and decided I need a massage after the stress of this week.
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Thought about going to the zoo for my last day, but I see that the panda exhibit is closed so opt to see about getting highlights and a haircut. Took forever, but the lady did a good job except that once again, my hair is way blonder than expected.
The hostel owner has ordered me a "red limousine" for my ride to the airport. It's cheap, but I think I would have rather paid an extra 100B and gone in comfort and air conditioning.
Here is where my night starts to go to hell. First, I manage to run my luggage cart off the curb (it was a tight squeeze) and it tips over 😂 Next, I go to check in and after handing them my passport, they eventually ask to see my booking confirmation. Oh oh. And ya, my booking confirmation says I booked my ticket for tomorrow night! OMFG!! I had had troubles making the purchase as Thai Airways had kicked me out of their system when I tried to pay. I go back in to try again then it obviously had the seat locked up and I couldn't choose the cheaper fare even thought I knew it was there. There were also some calendar view issues, some, it was late at night issues, probably some Kim operator error issues as well.
Then it gets worse. The flight is sold out. They will put me on standby. Air Asia’s flight is also sold out. I’m on standby with them too. Finally, I look at Google flights and see if all else fails, I can get a VietJet flight. Whew! Major crisis averted. I’ll be able to catch my flight tomorrow. It was beyond stressful waiting, but in the end, although I had to pay even more money, they did apply the price of my ticket to today’s standby fare. I just paid $30 more, and got on the flight with Thai Airways that I wanted.
The only thing that was really annoying is that the lady helping me to see if I could fly standby was extremely rude to both myself and another customer. All I could do was stay calm and smile because I certainly didn’t want to piss her off. So out of character for Thai people. She also didn’t bother to tell me the flight had been delayed so as I’m watching the minutes tick by to what I think is the departure time, I’m stressing out again because I still have to clear security. She says the plane will wait for me. it’s been a very expensive week for me and my budget is completely blown! Who cares though? I’m off to Sri Lanka!
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