May 16, 2015
The dentist chair awaits once again: Making it to Medan
I had been having increasing trouble from my tooth as a result of the root canal that I’d had done in Iran, the one where half of the tooth had broken and been removed by a Chinese dentist in Lanzhou. Now there was a gap developing between the restoration and the remaining half of the tooth, and, after looking at the extortionate cost of dental procedures in both Singapore and Australia I had recently had a blind panic that my time to fix the problem was rapidly disappearing. But fortunately I’d managed to contact a dentist on the outskirts of the city of Medan who, because he could speak English and had a Facebook page, I considered very reputable, and I’d made an appointment to visit him this afternoon.
Getting to the dentist on time for the 3 p.m. appointment didn’t seem like it would be much of a problem, but Tom, who also wanted to have his plaque removed, appeared to be very keen to get there. So much so that when I went around to his guesthouse (we stayed in different places because of arriving in Berastagi separately) in the morning he had already left. I caught him up a few kilometres away as he was making sure that his tyre was okay before beginning the long and steep downhill that we would be on for most of the morning. For the rest of the day he continued with this rushing, that was reminiscent of my desire to get to the volcano the previous day. I guess different people are passionate about different things. Some of us look forward to seeing volcanoes, others to the dentist. But I was particularly confused by Tom’s desire to have clean teeth considering his lack of motivation when it came to almost every other area of personal hygiene. “Well, you’ve got to look after your teeth man.”
The road was horrific. It was a very steep downhill although there was a disappointing lack of worthy views as we came down through the mountains. No matter, all of the attention had to be on the road. Although there wasn’t much traffic heading down our way, there was an almost constant line of traffic going up, due apparently to it being some sort of holiday that meant everyone was pouring out of Medan. Of course half of the drivers were keen to press on and make risky overtakes just to get slightly further along in the queue of traffic and as I went fast down I had to be constantly aware of the line of cars, watching out for any that would suddenly move out and drive straight towards me. This happened many times. At one point a bus drove straight towards me at speed on the wrong side of the road beeping its horn and leaving me no option but to dive for the ditch.
| Heart | 0 | Comment | 0 | Link |
“I’ve just been the victim of attempted murder.” I said to Tom as I caught him up having a quick coffee.
“This road is crazy” He agreed. “Let’s keep going!” He really wasn’t going to miss this dental appointment for anything, and he was going much faster than me despite his tyre (which thankfully was holding up okay) and lack of helmet. Just as he set off again into the madness a group of kids whizzed down past me on bikes of their own, fixed gear bikes with no brakes, and skidded around a switchback, sandaled shoes dragging along the tarmac to control the corner.
Fortunately for us there was another road that we could take for the second half of the ride. It was a narrow winding road that passed through a mix of jungle and palm oil and had a lot less traffic. Compared to the craziness of the main road it was absolute bliss, and we went on to find our way all of the way to the edge of Medan on smaller roads, arriving at the dentists with plenty of time to spare.
Once again I found myself on that most fearsome of seats – the dental chair. This time the dentist was quite young and after he looked at my problem tooth he didn’t really seem like he knew how to fix it. He suggested a couple of treatments, but during our consultation he said “I don’t know” rather too many times to inspire confidence, and I decided it would probably be for the best for him not to attempt anything. But he was really a lovely man and the plaque removal was free as he was so honoured by our visit.
Then we had the difficult task of cycling into Medan, a chaotic and busy city if ever there was one. Finding a guesthouse was a monumental undertaking that I don’t really want to go into again now. It was such a tricky misadventure that at one point we even ended up in a KFC in order to use the wifi. Neither of us had been in KFC for a very long time.
“Are you kidding me?” I said, looking at a paltry helping of soggy fries, “That’s not a large!”
Tom handed me the ‘milkshake’ I’d asked him to get me.
“What the hell is this?”
It had bits floating in it.
“Ah, it tastes horrible! What the… why would anyone eat here?!”
Eventually we found a hotel near to the Grand Mosque, which was a pretty grotty excuse for a hotel and my bed was more spring than mattress. But it would serve the purpose for a couple of nights. I had allowed an extra day in the schedule because I thought the dentist might need me to come back for a second visit to complete the work. As that wasn’t going to happen we instead got a complete rest day. But Tom made surprising use of it, going out and buying some new clothes and five dollar trainers for the cruise. He looked rather good with all his new gear and his hair tied back. He’d even had a shave, although he left a little goatee on his chin and a twirly moustache. He really looked the part now. Like an aristocratic tramp. The cruise was on.
Today's ride: 73 km (45 miles)
Total: 40,798 km (25,336 miles)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 4 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 0 |