Congress, congestion and culture - Bangkok
Tom has haemophilia and attended the Haemophilia World Congress held in Bangkok in 2004. The Haemophilia World Congress is the largest global meeting of members of the haemophilia community and offers a great opportunity to hear internationally recognised experts speaking about their research and the advances being made in haemophilia care. It is open to anyone who wants to learn more about the condition, whether you have haemophilia, are a professional or a carer. It's a chance to exchange ideas and experiences and make friends with others from around the world.
The next Haemophilia World Congress will take place in the beautiful city of Istanbul, Turkey from 1st to 5th June, 2008. More details can be found at the official website www.hemophilia2008.org. Start planning your trip now!
Find out more about Tom's experiences in Bangkok below:
An unexpected invitation
Back in June I was flipping through the day's e-mail when I found one saying, "Tom, would you like to go to Bangkok to attend the Haemophilia World Congress?" I was surprised; I was very, very surprised. But there could only be one answer: "Yes please."
So mid October comes around, the home delivery people provide me with extra Factor VIII and a very tasteful mini-sharps box. I take all the usual precautions. I throw in a letter from my Haemophilia Centre saying, "He won't hijack the plane with these needles". Then I take out super-duper travel insurance. I also play a rather high-energy game of badminton four days before I am due to fly, and subsequently spend three days sitting with my leg in the air and cursing. I checked back in 'Health Advice for Travellers' and found that wasn't one of their recommendations.
Mobile again, I travel to Heathrow. Just one short ten-hour flight later, I arrived, blinking in the hazy heat of Bangkok.
So much to do and so little time. There was the conference. There was the smart hotel, two swimming pools, a jacuzzi, a masseur, different places to eat and drink. Finally of course, there was Bangkok - sprawling, huge and hot.
'Do you wanna tuk-tuk?'
Stepping out of the hotel we were instantly greeted by a portly gentleman with a warm smile and a shiny gold watch. "Do you wanna tuk-tuk?" he asked pleasantly. A tuk-tuk is a three-wheeler with two seats on the back for the unwary passengers, rather like a motorised rickshaw. They are everywhere and are a danger to life and limb. We didn't want a tuk-tuk. The Skytrain is a fantastic, cheap and most importantly, an air-conditioned way of getting around Bangkok. We hopped on, travelled for a while and jumped out somewhere that looked interesting. A very friendly man asked us what we wanted to buy and enquired whether we would like a tuk-tuk. The tuk-tuk concerned had edged up to within about a foot of us during the conversation. We still didn't want a tuk-tuk. Instead, we dived into a shopping mall. It was wonderfully cool after the streets and full of good cheap stuff. I was forced to snaffle up a couple of DVDs.
A Royal occasion
But I wasn't in Bangkok to shop. There was a conference to attend! A member of the Thai Royal Family, Princess Sirindhorn, opened the ceremonies. There was much bowing and 'Your Most Royal' this and 'honourable colleagues' that. The Princess watched with us as we saw a danced re-enactment of an ancient war, making the whole conflict look terribly civilised.
We had been warned that Thai people take a very dim view of anyone poking fun at their royalty. Nevertheless, on the taxi ride back to the hotel, we were having a quiet dig at her Royal Highness' choice of outfit. (A smart blue suit - we wanted a crown and robes). Unfortunately, the taxi driver got the gist of what we were saying, and started to drive as though he had an angry wasp down his shirt. It was just the kind of ride you would expect in a tuk-tuk, not in a large air-conditioned Toyota. We made the hotel in record time and with our nerves only slightly shattered.
New perspectives
The conference settled down to business. I attended sessions on vCJD (bad); the new entirely synthetic Factor VIII (good); and on gene therapy. In the latter I was excited to learn that there are Haemophiliac mice and dogs - even more exciting is that gene therapy tested on dogs with Haemophilia B appears to have cured them. Very early days, but also very encouraging. I confidently predict that soon they'll be curing the mice as well.
This was also an opportunity to meet professional haemophilia people from around the world, quiz experts on the obscure points of joint rehabilitation and generally broaden perspectives on the condition by chatting to an assembly of other haemophilia professionals. They gave me a crash course on what the recombinant factor VIII product actually is. All concerned displayed legendary patience when dealing with my idiot questions. 'So tell me, again. What is a protein?'
Fantastic Forgotten Curry
After a hard day at the conference, we enjoyed some spectacularly good Thai food. There were wonderful spicy soups, full of seafood. Scallops were packed with little shards of chilli that could have burned through bank vaults. Then came the fantastic Forgotten Curry, made with beef. Warm and sweet, it definitely became the culinary highlight of the trip.
One night we ate on the banks of the Chao Phraya River and watched as swarms of little wooden boats darted around on the muddy brown water. From the bank, their passage appeared to be a cross between navigation and extreme sport. These river taxis also had to cope with massive barges moving slowly downstream with no lights and precious little engine noise. The next night, we went from the rivers to the skies and ate at Vertigo, a restaurant with an open terrace on the sixty-first floor of a skyscraper. Bangkok stretched out in every direction; an astonishing sight if your head for heights would but allow you to stand up and look.
Hundreds of overheated delegates
We found time for a bit of culture as well. Haemophilia 2004 descended on the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha. A passing Thai lady stared in blank amazement as hundreds of overheated delegates passed through the turnstiles. The Emerald Buddha sits in a shrine of ornately carved gold and is one of the most sacred artefacts in Thailand. In the same compound there are a number of beautifully decorated palaces and throne rooms. It appears that for a time, each new king of Thailand had a new throne room built. They did not build in air-conditioning though. By the time we had seen the third throne, many of us had turned from pink to red, then to a rather sickly white colour. We needed bottles of iced water, iced towels and cookies to return us to a healthier hue.
Be there in 2008!
Bangkok was fun. The conference was an education, especially for this particularly ignorant Haemophiliac. The next Haemophilia World Congress will be held in Istanbul during June 2008.
Take my advice. Be there!
