Getting vaccinations in India is worth the wait. At least financially, with nerves I'm not so sure :)
We headed out this morning after a hearty breakfast of pongal, dosai,sambar (also Kesari for a sweet snack) and a good stroong, sweet south indian coffee. Our goal was the Thousand lights district and we decided to walk. It was still relatively cool, (~30 degrees) and we enjoyed seeing the bustle of daily life along the way.
I had the address of a vacciantion boosters clinic so we headed there first. The nice doctor lady there told us she didn't have the required jabs in stock and directed us to the Apollo hospital. I had heard of this place before and looked it up on the internet. Voted the best hospital in India apparently, so we were in for a treat.
This time we went for the rickshaw drive, sometimes it's nice to speed things up and have a little luxury :)
Apollo hospital was a beehive of activity. I thought a private hospital would be a little bit more subdued than the public one but I was very much proved wrong, haha! After half an hour of being passed from one department to another I decided I never want to arrive here for an emergency procedure ;)
Once we reached the invasive diseases dept. and had a seat in the queue I thought we would be there all day.
Only after I went to see the ladies at the reception a second time and payed 500 rupees to see the doctor upfront did things get underway. After that we were passed to an assistant of the doctor's who recommended some further vaccinations. When he was finished we waited again.
A curious little incident then happened which showed us how things really worked around here. Suddenly from the end of the busy entry hall came a growing hush of voices and the hospital staff seemed to all move at once into the center of the hall, ushering patients and waiting families aside. A few moments later an elderly man in a flash suit pulled off a moses, (except we weren't near water) being ushered by staff all the way along the corridor. After he left, the crowd moved
back to take it's place and all was as before. Some famous guy, or perhaps holy man? I don't know but I reckon holy men don't wear flash suits.
We were next in line and went to see the doc. He was a nice man who apparently had a friend in Auckland (don't we all ;) and wrote us prescriptions for our vaccines which we took to the pharmacy.
We grabbed our vaccines from the pharmacy (another small epic) and headed for the emergency(!) dept. to get the nurse to jab us.
I am now protected against Typhoid, Hep A, Meninngococcal and the Flu all for about NZ$60!
Before we said goodbye to Chennai we had one last massive lunch of rice and sambhar at the smallest little eatery we'd been to so far. The electricity was a little sketchy so we spent some time bathing in sweat and other times basking in the luxuries of a fan (no air con here mate! )
I had the address of a vacciantion boosters clinic so we headed there first. The nice doctor lady there told us she didn't have the required jabs in stock and directed us to the Apollo hospital. I had heard of this place before and looked it up on the internet. Voted the best hospital in India apparently, so we were in for a treat.
This time we went for the rickshaw drive, sometimes it's nice to speed things up and have a little luxury :)
Apollo hospital was a beehive of activity. I thought a private hospital would be a little bit more subdued than the public one but I was very much proved wrong, haha! After half an hour of being passed from one department to another I decided I never want to arrive here for an emergency procedure ;)
Once we reached the invasive diseases dept. and had a seat in the queue I thought we would be there all day.
Only after I went to see the ladies at the reception a second time and payed 500 rupees to see the doctor upfront did things get underway. After that we were passed to an assistant of the doctor's who recommended some further vaccinations. When he was finished we waited again.
A curious little incident then happened which showed us how things really worked around here. Suddenly from the end of the busy entry hall came a growing hush of voices and the hospital staff seemed to all move at once into the center of the hall, ushering patients and waiting families aside. A few moments later an elderly man in a flash suit pulled off a moses, (except we weren't near water) being ushered by staff all the way along the corridor. After he left, the crowd moved
back to take it's place and all was as before. Some famous guy, or perhaps holy man? I don't know but I reckon holy men don't wear flash suits.
We were next in line and went to see the doc. He was a nice man who apparently had a friend in Auckland (don't we all ;) and wrote us prescriptions for our vaccines which we took to the pharmacy.
We grabbed our vaccines from the pharmacy (another small epic) and headed for the emergency(!) dept. to get the nurse to jab us.
I am now protected against Typhoid, Hep A, Meninngococcal and the Flu all for about NZ$60!
Before we said goodbye to Chennai we had one last massive lunch of rice and sambhar at the smallest little eatery we'd been to so far. The electricity was a little sketchy so we spent some time bathing in sweat and other times basking in the luxuries of a fan (no air con here mate! )
Great stuff here folks - I really enjoyed your hospital story about the elderly gent in the flash suit. That's pretty much how they treated me when I was there...yeah right! Keep up the good work, and don't forget Mahabalipuram!
ReplyDeleteCheers, Terry