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British Mensa Travel Special Interest Group |
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Much Wisdom is Much Grief by Terry Gibbon My holiday was a bridge and bowling holiday in Tunisia with Mercian Travel, one of the few companies that specialise in such holiday combinations. The holiday was in a relatively new resort Port el Kantaoui. It had a new port and shopping plaza with many attractive shops and restaurants. Taxis were very reasonable. The cost of a taxi for two was the same price as the bus fare. There was very little hassle from the local salesmen. Leather was an excellent buy. Contrary to advice from others, we had no 'incidents'. Before leaving on holiday, I had a wisdom tooth extracted by my dentist. I phoned my dentist four days after the extraction and said that I thought the tooth had become infected and I was invited in to see him. After cleaning out the cavity he told me that taking some extra painkillers with me should be sufficient. During the descent of the plane, I experienced extreme pain in my ear and the painkillers had no effect at all. As soon as I arrived at the hotel my wife called out the hotel doctor who was with me in half an hour, which was the time it took him to get out of his bath and get over to the hotel. This was the first time I had ever asked a doctor to come to see me. He gave me
some antibiotics and injections and within half an hour I was feeling
some relief. For two days I lived on soup and was unable to go to the
dining room for meals. After two days I was much worse. My mouth was all
swollen and I could not swallow. My mouth kept filling up with saliva
and I was frightened of drowning. I stuffed tissues in my mouth to absorb
this and lay on my face with one finger in my mouth to keep it open. In two days I was able to go to the dining room and eat. How wonderful the meal tasted. It soon became obvious to the rest of the group that I was having trouble because I was inundated with sympathy and advice. It was amazing the number of people who had had similar problems. The lucky ones were those who went into hospital for their extractions. I was concerned that I would be unable to claim on my travel insurance, as there had been a precondition before setting out on holiday. I had a letter describing the illness from the travel representative. I made the claim on the basis of my ear infection. For all the attention I received, the total bill came to £110. The local travel representative said that the medical facilities for foreign tourists were very good and it certainly was not expensive. Most illnesses were treated by injections and there was a male nurse in attendance at the hotel twice a day. I later received my claim paid in full by the insurance company, except that two deductibles were applied for each doctor even though there had been one illness. On my return home, I decided not to take any further action against my dentist but instead signed on with a new local dentist. However, for reasons I won't go into here, this was not a success!? PS and about the holiday itself... Usually with these holidays, I fill in the comment sheet before I leave. I always try to be factual and pay as many compliments as I can. In general I praised the holiday for its excellent value and organisation. I mentioned the fact that every day we quashed the cockroaches on their usual journey to and from the toilet compartment. This I had mentioned daily to the management and the maid. I also noted that, although I had not experienced any problems, one couple who argued and yelled at each other had disturbed some of the bridge players. One was suspected of cheating with unauthorised signals such as tapping the table and twisting his ear. Somebody had anonymously tried to draw attention to this by writing a very amusing poem and pinning it to the notice board. I wish now that I had thought to copy it before the management took it down. I received an email later from the tour company management denying all my comments. If I had only kept the cockroaches, so I could have mailed them to them. After a number
of replies, I decided the time had come for me to start naming names dates
and specific situations, and suggested that someone in his organisation
was not telling the truth. These facts were difficult to ignore and, with
my assurance that I was not intending to sue, I then received a complete
retraction of the previous emails. Apparently the organisation was really
frightened of being sued. First published in VISA issue 46 (summer 2002) |