I promised to provide a packing list for those of you scheduled to be down here so here it is. Bear in mind that some of it relates to being in a Vertical Suite apartment and it may be different elsewhere. Most of this came from MonkeyMel's suggestions with a few additions of my own:
1. Toilet wipes – essential. I brought 3 packs and wish I'd brought at least 4 because I can't for the life of me find any in the supermarkets.
2. Baby/cosmetic wipes. You can bring them, but not such a big deal because you can find them easily around here and Chettawut gives you some in his starter pack.
3. Chargers/Leads/Plug converters. After over 30 years of travelling this is something I've pretty much mastered, but for those of you just setting out, my advice is don't skimp, make sure you have enough of them. You can buy them around here if you fall short though.
4. If you want to access your local TV programming (like I do with the BBC), you might want to sign up to a proxy server service that gives you a VPN and makes it look like you're still in the UK/USA/wherever ...
5. Panties. Now this is pretty essential. You can get a bunch of new, but perfectly good reject cotton panties on Amazon for a few £. I ended up buying around 30, but 20 will serve you fine. Don't go for nice big baggy ones on the assumption that you'll need loose clothing. You want them to fit you normally and keep everything (i.e. pads) close, but choose something light. If you have loads and use the washer/dryer machine here at Vertical Suite (it works well) then you can change regularly and without worry.
6. Panty pads. Chettawut provides you with a starter pack, but you'll get through these in no time. You can also buy them here, but you're probably best advised to bring a pack or two with you anyway. As a pre-SRS girl you're going to wander into the supermarket and look through shelves and shelves of different options – wings/no wings, light/medium/heavy, day/night my goodness the options seem endless and you have no idea what you'll actually need. If you bought nice light cotton panties as suggested above, you just need the basic pads. I brought Carefree with cotton extract (medium?) – they just appear to be the basic things – and they work great. I brought some others (with wings just to be safe!) and they work ok, but they are way more than required in both size and cost.
7. Food. Thailand is very British in many ways and you can find lots of products you wouldn't have expected, but there's no harm in bringing some things like teabags, marmalade, jam or anything else you might crave during a month out here. As an aside, isn't it weird that throughout the world you only ever really see Liptons English tea and yet you never see it in England?!
8. Soap: grab a couple of bars of soap. Sure you get the tiny little bars in your bathroom as standard and you can buy it here anyway, but if you're out shopping why not bring some with you?
9. Intimate sensitive wash (I brought Vagasil), just gives you a little bit more confidence when you're cleaning up your new apparatus!
10. Sudocream (baby nappy rash cream). Bring a nice big pot. Helps sooth you when you come back from the clinic with bed sores and, as an antiseptic cream, you will find plenty of other places to use it too, I've used it over my external stitches and it helps sooth them.
11. Sun protection cream. Again, you can buy it here if you need to.
12. Clothes:
a. Plenty of cotton panties (as suggested above).
b. Loose cotton trousers.
c. Loose light cotton skirts (make sure at least one is nice and long to hide the catheter when you have it).
d. A few T-shirts and/or skimpy/strappy tops.
e. Open shoes/flip flops/Berkenstock whatever.
f. A fun and glam and sexy outfit and some wedges or heels. You might not wear them, but you may well find you feel like wearing something like this sometime when you've jumped the final hurdle. If you forget, there's plenty of great stuff to shop for across the road and it's cheap.
g. One or two nighties, loose below the boobs, easy to put on and take off.
h. Light dressing gown, I lived in mine for the first few days when I got back in the hotel and it protected the bed and the chairs from my sudocream covered back.
13. Inflatable neck pillow. This was something suggested by MonkeyMel and a good one. Means you can pop it into your handbag and keep it available whenever you need it. I've found that I can generally sit down okay if the seat is soft, but once or twice it's been a godsend to have this available. It's much smaller than Chett's donut cushion and, as MonkeyMel says, you can just fill it partly to give you a different seating plan!
14. Pencil/Paper – useful to make yourself a tick list to know you've taken the right drug at the right time. Fran made mine and stuck it above my bed (and was a rigorous enforcer!).
15. You might need earplugs – it can be quite noisy outside even very late at night, so if you're a light sleeper this could be a good idea.
I think that's about it. You'll find that plenty of stuff can be bought down here and in many cases the same brands you're used to are available as well. However, you'll also discover that just about anything here is the same price back home – food and clothes. You can find plenty of cheap stuff in the markets and stalls which are dotted everywhere, but anything branded will be the same or maybe more, so it just makes sense to bring what you think you might want with you.
I would also suggest you grab a Thai SIM card when you arrive at the airport because they understand English much better there and quickly set everything up for you. I went a little bit crazy and bought a 12 GB package for 3,000 Baht (£50) and have only used about 1 GB after being here 3 weeks, probably because a lot of my use has been over the hotel Wifi, so you don't need to go crazy and can always top it up if needed.
Finally, there is also the issue of lubricant gel. Chett gives you a few in your starter pack, but trust me when I say you scream through the stuff. I looked around for some more and couldn't find it easily (wasn't in the supermarket for some reason
). Nurse Sri told me they could supply 10 tubes for 720 Baht (£13 or $20) which is a pretty good deal and worth getting because I see that 12 tubes of KY on Amazon cost about £2 each. No doubt it's in the shops somewhere here, but I took her up on the deal because I wasn't sure quite where and it was a good deal anyway.
If I think of anything else you might need to know I'll post it later.
