Thailand does it again!

[Be warned: This is a rant!]

So the government in Thailand has a new rule where a work permit holder will now have to go for a thorough medical check-up before the renewal of work permit and visa for working in this country. Oh! and this is on top of another medical check-up required by my employer’s insurance company which has its own in-house medical practitioner – which means that the insurance is only valid if my clean bill of health is verified by the medical practitioner of that insurance company!

And believe you me, this is the first time in 6 years that I have been required to do this, and as we all know, medical check-ups are nothing but a royal pain in the ass.

The company you work in assigned you to a hospital, you hauled your ass there, you get stuck in traffic, you wait around, you get poked, prodded, and biles of blood taken from you (I hate frickin’ needles!) They take a long time to complete, they mandated that you wait around for the test results, you get stuck in traffic again; and before you know it, your day is a write off!

Forgive me for whinging, but seriously, how many medical checkups do I have to do in a year to fulfill all of these silly obligations of validating my frickin’ visa and work permit?

The most important question is – how does my health bill information provide value to the renewal of visa/work permit to the government body at all? Especially when they are more concerned about me having first and foremost, the most important disease of syphillis and the fact that I am in good physical and mental health with no symptoms of leprosy, tuberculosis, drug addiction, chronic alcoholism and elephantiasis.

Perhaps I’m missing something, but really, what is the point of all these unnecessary information? Does it make their life any better?

And for something completely different - excuse me while I digress: There was this sign at the hospital I was assigned to.

It boggles the mind why in the world would anyone healthy want to chill out in a hospital in the name of fun.


I mean, seriously?!

Only in Thailand.