I'm afraid that I have become a medical tourist.
If there is one thing about India which is extremely good, it is healthcare. Private healthcare is of an excellent quality, very good value relative to the UK and available at your convenience. If you want something done, this can usually be arranged immediately for a reasonable cost (based on my limited experience).
Whilst clearly one would not hope to need to make significant use of medical facilities, I have decided that now is the time to revisit the orthodontist. I had 3+ years of treatment as a teenager, involving taking out a few teeth and various kinds of braces, and whilst this largely sorted my teeth out, they have partly slipped back now and I've decided it's now or never in terms of getting them sorted for good.
As a teenager, I remember making appointments a long way in advance and many trips to the hospital and sitting in the waiting room for my appointment. Not so here. On Saturday morning I had my initial consultation in the morning, had a couple of high-tech x-rays done directly afterwards, returned to the dentist for moulds to be taken, and had the braces fitted two hours later. Technology seems to have progressed a bit since I last had this done although I'm currently enduring the first few days where you can't chew anything (lots of icecream is required) but it will be well worth it in the end. The cost is much less than the UK with many more check-ups to make sure that things are proceeding as planned; and the dentist is only 5 minutes from our apartment. The treatment should be finished in a year or so with relatively little inconvenience (with any luck!). The list of things that I'm not allowed to eat are all pretty bad for you anyway, so this will probably do me some good.
Second, we decided that Saturday would also be the day for us to find a hairdresser. Phil had done a little bit or research through discussing with Sagar who recommended that Phil could get a decent cut for 100 rupees, but that the man cutting hair for 35 rupees at the side of the road was best avoided. Phil was tempted by the latter option but eventually saw sense and went for the 100 rupee place instead, which seemed fine. He sadly declined the offer for a head message (a staple of the Indian hairdressing experience) but promises me that he will try this next time).
I went slightly more upmarket and went to a smart salon charging the princely rate of 800 rupees (~£8.50) which was pretty decent, though I'm not convinced that my hairdresser had much experience. He took lots of time and care, but also informed me that he had just moved back to Mumbai from the UK where he had studied Computer Science, but couldn't find a job in India so had moved into hairdressing. Eek! The cut isn't a disaster but I might look around for next time.
Away from these domestic concerns, by far the biggest issue and news item in India at the moment is the decline of the rupee. This has fallen against the dollar by 16% since May, and seems to be plummeting further every day, as the controls put in place by the government and RBI appear to have the opposite effect to stabilising the currency. This a little inconvenient given that I'm been paid locally on a fixed exchange rate, so I hope that the rate comes back again in the next two years! More worrying still is that the government decided last week to restrict the amount of money that residents can take out of India in a year. Again, I'm very hoping that this will not apply to us or that the Indian bank changes it's mind soon. The decision has clearly backfired and the rupee has shot down further as many people are trying to get their money out as quickly as possible.
Interesting times...
If there is one thing about India which is extremely good, it is healthcare. Private healthcare is of an excellent quality, very good value relative to the UK and available at your convenience. If you want something done, this can usually be arranged immediately for a reasonable cost (based on my limited experience).
Whilst clearly one would not hope to need to make significant use of medical facilities, I have decided that now is the time to revisit the orthodontist. I had 3+ years of treatment as a teenager, involving taking out a few teeth and various kinds of braces, and whilst this largely sorted my teeth out, they have partly slipped back now and I've decided it's now or never in terms of getting them sorted for good.
As a teenager, I remember making appointments a long way in advance and many trips to the hospital and sitting in the waiting room for my appointment. Not so here. On Saturday morning I had my initial consultation in the morning, had a couple of high-tech x-rays done directly afterwards, returned to the dentist for moulds to be taken, and had the braces fitted two hours later. Technology seems to have progressed a bit since I last had this done although I'm currently enduring the first few days where you can't chew anything (lots of icecream is required) but it will be well worth it in the end. The cost is much less than the UK with many more check-ups to make sure that things are proceeding as planned; and the dentist is only 5 minutes from our apartment. The treatment should be finished in a year or so with relatively little inconvenience (with any luck!). The list of things that I'm not allowed to eat are all pretty bad for you anyway, so this will probably do me some good.
Second, we decided that Saturday would also be the day for us to find a hairdresser. Phil had done a little bit or research through discussing with Sagar who recommended that Phil could get a decent cut for 100 rupees, but that the man cutting hair for 35 rupees at the side of the road was best avoided. Phil was tempted by the latter option but eventually saw sense and went for the 100 rupee place instead, which seemed fine. He sadly declined the offer for a head message (a staple of the Indian hairdressing experience) but promises me that he will try this next time).
I went slightly more upmarket and went to a smart salon charging the princely rate of 800 rupees (~£8.50) which was pretty decent, though I'm not convinced that my hairdresser had much experience. He took lots of time and care, but also informed me that he had just moved back to Mumbai from the UK where he had studied Computer Science, but couldn't find a job in India so had moved into hairdressing. Eek! The cut isn't a disaster but I might look around for next time.
Away from these domestic concerns, by far the biggest issue and news item in India at the moment is the decline of the rupee. This has fallen against the dollar by 16% since May, and seems to be plummeting further every day, as the controls put in place by the government and RBI appear to have the opposite effect to stabilising the currency. This a little inconvenient given that I'm been paid locally on a fixed exchange rate, so I hope that the rate comes back again in the next two years! More worrying still is that the government decided last week to restrict the amount of money that residents can take out of India in a year. Again, I'm very hoping that this will not apply to us or that the Indian bank changes it's mind soon. The decision has clearly backfired and the rupee has shot down further as many people are trying to get their money out as quickly as possible.
Interesting times...
No comments:
Post a Comment