Kuching: Day 6 – Spine Doctor & Borneo Museum & Festival

I’ve had ongoing issues with my back so I decided to check out Timberland Medical Center and see a specialist. I had tried to book an appointment here online but I never heard back using the web form so I used Whatsapp (the preferred comm tool here) to inquire about an appointment and they told me to come in. I headed out there and arrived at 9 a.m. Was checked in and by 9:15 a.m. I was seeing doctor who recommended X-Rays to see what was going on.

I was given number 3001 and the counter was at 1012 but much to my surprise the next number to appear was 3001. Total wait time for x-ray was about 8 minutes.

The x-ray got done in under 10 minutes and I had to wait another 15 minutes to see the doctor and the results. The doc gave me the results and a prescription that I could pick up at the pharmacy downstairs after I paid my bill. Here are the total costs:

Doctor (initial consultation): 169.60 RM ($40)
XRay Lumbosacral spine 2 views: 76.80 RM ($18.24)
Medication: 35.62 RM ($8.46)

Total: 282.01 RM ($67 USD)

No insurance, no extra long wait times, no scheduling months in advance (basically walked in), no over-priced services, no consultations with endless intermediaries, no arguments with insurance companies about the necessity of getting medical care. No surprise costs or insurance denials, just pure healthcare at a reasonable price.

I headed downstairs, with a giant envelope that had my x-ray, and waited about 4 minutes to get the meds.

I arrived at 8:54 a.m. and left at 10:39 a.m. according to the Grab log timestamps. A total of an hour and a half to get everything done and without insurance!

After the doc visit, I went to the Borneo Cultures Museum and was very satisfied with the exhibits and cultural education you can attain from attending such a place.

The cost for “foreigners” is 50 RM ($11.87).

There is a great deal of lore around the masks that I found very interesting.

There was a giant digital book that you could control by moving your arms around in the air and flip pages back and forth. Excellent experience although the interface was a bit clunky.

My biggest pet peeve with Kuching is that it is hostile to pedestrians. I was leaving the museum to head over to the mall in the background for lunch when the sidewalk suddenly ended. Yes, I walked through that gulley where the sidewalk reappeared on the other side.

I found a Subway at the mall and was nostalgic for a sandwich so I ordered a roasted chicken and it tasted much like Subway back home. The cost for 6″ sub and coke was 20 RM ($4.75) I guess the $5 dollar sub still exists but it’s in Malaysia.

22nd Inter-Cultural and Autumn Festival

I have been walking by this road many times, my tailor is a block from here but the stalls have always been closed. Today they were open so I decided to have dinner here.