Japanese Surgeon's Daily Life

Wat Yai Chai Mongkon

　　The tour guide was a Thai woman, whose Japanese skills were so-so. Being briefed about Thai history, cultural background, and current topics on the way, our minivan headed to the north, i.e. the historic City of Ayutthaya, one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The first place we visited was Wat Yai Chai Mongkon, which had been built in 1351. Then adjacent facilities had been built one after another for the following couple of centuries. I was really sorry that I was not able to fully understand the words of the tour guide for the lack of knowledge of Thai history. The walls of the buildings were partly heavily damaged. I thought that it was a matter of time before the buildings would collapse. There were even few pamphlets for historic items. I wanted to tell the authorities to prepare English leaflets, or if possible, Japanese leaflets about them. I wished that I had more information on their historic buildings.
　　The first picture was shot by my friend, when I viewed the scenery from the walkway on the main tower of the temple. As I heard before, there was no mountain around. Wat Yai Chai Mongkon was located on the small flat island in the river, and the altitude difference from Bangkok was apparently only a few meters. It seemed natural to me that the area had been easily flooded.

ワット・ヤイ・チャイ・モンコン

ツアーの案内はタイ人女性。タイの歴史、文化、時事問題などの説明を聞きながら車で北上。まず訪問したのはワット・ヤイ・チャイ・モンコン。寺院は１３５１年に建立され、周囲に次々と塔が建てられたらしい。ガイドの説明を全て理解するだけのタイの歴史についての基礎知識に欠けていたことが残念。建築物の壁などの損壊が激しく修復しなければいけないと思う。このまま朽ちていくのはなんとも惜しい。それと観光客向けの英語の説明があまりに少ない。日本語を用意しろとまでは言わないが、英語での説明がもう少しあればなと思った。

１枚目の写真は塔の上から周囲を眺めているところを友人が撮ったもの。話には聞いていたが周りに山は無く、簡単に洪水に襲われる地形が理解できた。海岸からここまで高度差はほんの数メートルらしい。

Outcome

　　As soon as we got through passport control, our friends ran up to us and took us to his company car. As I heard before, the traffic on the highway was really smooth, but the local streets were so jammed with lots of cars and small vehicles. I called and asked the tour company to wait for us for 5 or 10 minutes, and they were kind enough to wait for some time, but we weren't able to reach our hotel in time.
　　However, my friend came up with a wonderful possibility, which might help us. That is, the tour bus would pick their coustomers up at some places going through the same heavy traffic jam as the one that we were caught up in. Could we catch up with the bus, by going ahead of them? I called and asked the tour company again to tell our driver their customer picking-up route. I was a stranger in Bangkok and I handed my mobile phone to the driver. He chose a hotel out of several points and headed for it. Finally, we were able to catch the bus! The driver refused to receive a tip, but we had him a little forcibly receive it as a token of our gratitude. He didn't speak English, but we fully felt his sincerity. Starting with a bad impression of Thailand, our emotion changed completely to the opposite side. The picture shows my look of relief on the seat of the tour bus.

(Vocabulary)
be/get caught up in sth ＜…＞に巻き込まれる
Thousands of civilians are caught up in the fighting. 何千人もの民間人が戦闘に巻き込まれている．

ツアーに間に合った件

入国すると待っていた仲間が駆け寄ってくれて走って外へ移動。同窓生の用意したワゴン車とドライバーに助けられ、一路ホテルを目指した。空港から高速道路を利用するのだが、事故さえなければ渋滞は無いと聞いていたとおり、スムーズな流れだったが、一般道に降りると渋滞。ドライバーは脇道を走り、車をすり抜け急いでくれたのだが、ホテル到着時、すでにツアーバスは出た後だった。道中でバンコクのツアー会社に連絡し１５分ほど待ってはもらったのだが間に合わず。ツアーに参加することを諦めた。が、ここで同行の友人が客をピックアップするホテルを確認して先回りできないかと提案。

ツアー会社から客をピックアップするコースを聞き出し、ツアーバスよりも先回りすることでなんとかツアーに合流できた。この運転手のお陰でバンコクに対する印象が変わった。言葉の通じない運転手であったが誠意は十分に伝わってきた。彼は最初拒否したが、感謝の気持ちを示すためほとんど無理矢理彼にチップを受け取ってもらった。間に合ったツアーバスの中で安堵の顔を浮かべている写真をＵＰ

Passport Control

　　At the immigration control, what I had never expected happened. There were so many people lined up for their permission. It took TWO hours for us to go through the control. Unbelievable! I knew the reason the next day, and I'm going to write about it in the later articles. Anyway, the inspectors kept us, international tourists, standing in front of them for more than 5 minutes and stared into the PC screen. I didn't know what were they focusing on. I found other tourists also angry, but there was nothing to be gained if you got angry. We were just waiting patiently. If you are treated like that in the first-ever visited country, what do you think of the country? How does it feel to be left standing for such a long time? It's natural to bear a sense of dislike toward Thailand.
　　By the way, the person who was waiting for us in Bangkok hadn't met me. So one of the alumni, who was in the same line to passport control, took a picture of my face, and sent it to the person outside the control. It must have been helpful to get together after immigration. At that time, a border guard rushed toward us with a furious expression. I understood what he had to say, but it was due to the immigration procedure's delay. He checked the picture and went away. The tourists around us were smiling at him wryly.

 

思ってもみなかったことが起こっていた。理由は翌日判明したので後の記事に書くが、入国審査に２時間もかかったのだ。係官は何をするでもなく、ディスプレイを覗き込んでなにかを調べているのか、一人に５分以上かけてチェックしている。ありえんだろ。飛行機から降りて疲れている旅行者もいらだっているが、腹を立てて良いことは何も無い。じっと立ったまま２時間が過ぎた、、、我々を待ってくれている友人たちも同様に。初めてのバンコクの印象が最悪のものとなった。実は待ってくれている先の記事に書いた同窓生の顔を僕らは知らなかった。彼はあらかじめ両替したタイバーツを持って僕たちを待っていてくれた。出来るだけ早く落ち合ってお金を交換し、タクシー乗り場まで直行する必要があった。なので、連れの一人が僕の顔を撮影して彼に送ってくれた。だが、この行為をガードマンに見とがめられた。彼はすぐに我々の元へやって来たのだが、不要なことだけは早くするなあと我々の周囲にいた旅行者たちは苦笑。

Mental Expectation

　　We were going to rush to our hotel as soon as we got through immigration due to the tight schedule. We were supposed to deposit our possessions in the hotel before joining the Ayutthaya tour. One of our alumni, who stayed in Bangkok, was kind enough to prepare the local currency of Thai Bahts in advance to save the time of cash exchange. He was waiting for us with a nice company car and driver. Our flight was really smooth and arrived in Bangkok more than 30 minutes earlier than scheduled. We were happy with the earlier arrival.

 

バンコクに着いたら空港からホテルに直行し、ホテルに荷物を預けてアユタヤへ向かうツアーに合流することになっていたが、時間的な余裕があまりなかった。移動の時間を節約するため、現地在住の同窓生があらかじめ両替を済ませ待っていてくれていた。彼の会社の車とドライバーまで待機して我々をホテルまで連れて行ってくれることになっていた。そして飛行機は予定よりも３０分以上早く到着。大丈夫、ツアーには間に合う、と安心したのだが。

First-ever Bangkok

　　My long-time friend and his wife dropped in at my house, which is located near Matsuyama Airport. They picked us up and we headed for the airport. The first picture was shot just at the landing at Haneda (Tokyo International) Airport. The numerous lights on the runway stirred my emotion for the trip. After a short walk in the international terminal, we entered the ANA Lounge and met other participants in the alumni meeting. We enjoyed chatting over some light meals and beer. Alcoholic drinks were free in the lounge. I had enough nightcaps there and got on the plane. We utilized the night flight which started at midnight and arrived in Bangkok in the early morning. The time difference between Thailand and Japan was small and it was really helpful. The second picture shows the screen on my seat. It was just like a flight simulator.

２日の夜、我が家へ集まり、出発。写真の一枚目は羽田へ着陸するときのもの。久しぶりの羽田空港国際線ターミナルを少し見て回ってからラウンジへ。日本から同窓会へ参加する仲間と歓談。深夜に羽田を発つ便でバンコクに向かう。北米やヨーロッパへ向かうのと違い、時差が少ないので体力的には随分助かる。寝酒のつもりでラウンジでたっぷり呑んで搭乗。２枚目の写真はバンコクへ向かうＡＮＡの機内でフライトシミュレータのような映像が気に入って撮影。

Alumni Meeting in Bangkok

　　The high school which I had graduated from is one of the high-ranked schools in terms of its educational offering in order to enter the prestigious universities. Consequently lots of graduates work in overseas branches of big companies. Though the annual alumni meeting had been held in October in Matsuyama city, at which the school is located, some also wanted to have the party overseas.
　　Last year, a branch of the alumni association was established in Bangkok and the meeting of the Bangkok branch was planned on Nov. 4th. I'd never been to Bangkok, and I wanted to see some friends there. After a short thought, I decided to join the party. I'm going to write about my trip to Thailand from now.
　　I dropped in at Phuket on the cruise trip this spring. I kept some residual bills of Thai Baht at that time despite the fact that I didn't have any plan to revisit Thailand. However, the bills were really useful.

My junior high and high school: http://aiko.ed.jp/index.php