Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Alternative Medicine

After one of my many recent hospital trips to have my wound dressed, I noticed that the front sidewalk is covered with an army of chickens.  Like most things in Thailand that make no sense, these chickens are here for a bit of extra luck - when you can't fully rely on modern medicine.  

This is how it works - if you have terminal cancer, you pray to the golden shrine promising that if you are cured, you will buy/ donate a statue of a chicken. Depending on how badly you don't want to die, you may mentally offer a larger chicken or several chickens.  The best part of this deal is that you only pay up if your wish comes true.  So, if you don't survive, you don't need to buy a chicken.


My wound was quite small, so I just promised to avoid KFC.





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