As mentioned in Part 1 yesterday, the main reason for travelling to Bali this time (1st trip was 9 yrs ago) was to address the problems with my teeth or more correctly my lack of same. I know a lot of people will be interested as Dr. Rudy told me on my last visit "12 people have come from Barong Hotel and said "" Bill The Fencer sent me"". You are very good for my business". I must say that what I noticed that was good for his business was each day when I turned up for treatment there would always be some Aus. tourist with bark missing from their face, knees or elbows and with a tooth or two missing from their visage. I would look and ask "Motor bike?" to which I usually got a soundless nod of acknowledgement (biggest word I have plunked yet, hope the spelling is good).
Let me tell you about the motor bikes in Bali, or more specifically (there's another one), some of the people who ride them or more specifically some of the people who fall off of them. Apart from seeing firsthand the results of some of the minor results at the dentists I was also told about a young Aussie girl who, a couple of days before my arrival had hit one of those mongrel little kurbs that we all seem to trip over whilst trying to negotiate the FOOTPATH while a local rider or several are coming up the FOOTPATH travelling the wrong direction and dodging the oncoming bikes, cars, vans, horsedrawn carriages as well as a thousand or so horrified tourists who had yet to realise that "one way" means whichever way you want or are able to travel.(Told you yesterday that I was longwinded. Anyway this young lady from Aus. went up in the air after hitting the kurb and only to have the motor bike come down on top of her and break her leg. Apparently she had been in Bali for 2 days and was promptly on her way back to Aus.
Another young lady from Aus. decided to hire a bike to tootle about on but unfortunately was tootled off into a brick wall in Poppies 2 and was promptly tootling back off to Aus. with multiple fractures. Last count, one arm, one leg as well as the attendant bruises and abrasions to go with it. I did consider hiring a bike myself but after talking to 2 or 3 experienced riders from Aus. roads, who vowed they were too scared to give it a go I decided it was youthful exuberance that was getting all these others into trouble and I should just say "Ok" when asked "transport Mister, transport?". As it turned out I only jumped on the back of a bike a couple of times and only after giving the front man (steerer? driver?) a warning that if he looked like having a crash the last thing he would remember would be my hands around his throat. That slowed 'em down cos I have big muscles. (That's another story!).
Having gotten off the subject a little let me tell you about Dr. Rudy and my experiences with this DOYEN of all things DENTAL. Having arrived on the Sunday and filled my day in nicely buying supplies for my room etc, I decided that I would take a walk on the Monday to Bali Mall Galleria to scout the lay of the land and make sure I was in the right city to visit my carefully researched and selected Dental Practitioner. His clinic is situated approx. 1 and a 1/2 miles from the Barong so I decided with my certified and guaranteed accurate map of Kuta and surrounds, off I set to see the real Bali at ground level and under my own steam. Did I say steam? Don't bother taking under-arm deodorant to Bali as it will give you under-arm sockets of something that resembles porridge before you have gone 200 metres. You may very well sweat like a pig in Bali but I must say it doesn't stink like it does on a packed Melbourne tram riding in peak hour.
The aforementioned map was discarde as soon as I tried to negotiate one of my craftily plotted little back st detours that I felt was going to shorten my trip to the extent that I would arrive before I departed. Nothing is as it seems in Bali. ("Excuse me, why is this Tomato jiuce green?" "Green tomatos Boss!". I rest my case.
Having arrived at Dr. Rudy's and after visiting the toilets at Galleria, 4/10 by the way and don't forget to take some tissue from the conveniently placed basket just near the front door (provided you weren't in too much of a hurry to notice), I did manage to clean my act and armpits up a bit before I made acquaintances with "the pocket dental rocket".
Upon entering the Bali Dental Clinic in a galaxy far, far away, oops sorry, I was impressed by how cool and clean it was. Seriously. Just like a good one back home. Dr.Rudy, or Rudy, as we became more familiar,( and he and his staff called me Mr. Bill),introduced himself and I introduced myself as the horror mouth from Melbourne. Rudy rightfully reminded me that my appointed first appointment wasn't until the following day, Tuesday, so I told him that I had walked over from the Barong to stretch my legs and check out his whereabouts so that I didn't bugger up the following day. I think he was horrified that I had actually walked when I could easily have gotten on the back of a bike and possibly lost a few more teeth on the way over. Anyhow, he invited me straight into one of his rooms to have a look. When he said "HMMM, not so bad!", I knew I had found my saviour. AND THEN, he uttered the most amazing thing I could have expected, are you on the edge of your seats?, he said "$3750.00 Australian !!!! Without thinking I said "OK". As reported yesterday he had quoted me 4-4'500 US over the internet. I would not have expected him to go backwards and I wondered if he was related to "Ned Kelly" the taxi driver. So we shook hands on it and I left only to return the next day to begin my life-changing experience at the hands of possibly the world's greatest dentist.
For those who are interested I shall explain some of the issues that I presented to Rudy. Little children or those with heart problems should skip this paragraph and go onto the next. My top front 2 teeth had been smashed as a school kid and at that time had been replaced with a pair that were implanted in my top jaw with metal rods that over the years had been replaced a number of times. The 2 teeth on either side of those were smashed at work a couple of years ago and were replaced with a plate which I found to be extremely uncomfortable so I didn't wear it while I was working (as a fencer) as I reasoned that the fence didn't really care what I looked like. The other teeth on my top jaw were in a bad way with missing fillings and the odd cavity. I consider myself lucky that I ever got any work looking like a native out of Deliverance.
The first day in the chair, in two hours, I had 2 root canals, removed and replaced the metal rods, prepared impressions for the crowns as well as impressions on the bottom jaw to make a plate to provide an occlusion as I only had my front 6 teeth on the bottom as the back bottom teeth had been removed as a kid. This meant that since a child I had always chewed behind my front teeth, top and bottom but consequently all my bottom remaining teeth were worn down almost to the gumline. Too much information I hear you cry. From here on in it's all up hill.
I returned on the Thursday and was 4.5 hours in the chair, had another 2 root canals as well as other prep work done before I was fitted with temporary crowns. God bless you Rudy, after 2 visits I looked like a human being again and realised that each time I walked out of his surgery I did not feel like I had even been to the dentist. Nothing, nada, nil and zilch. Like everybody else I hated dentists, now I had met one I would marry in a moment. THEN, Rudy uttered the MOST shocking thing----- "When you come back next Wednesday we will FINISH!". I was gobsmacked. (Watch out for my teeth). He didn't realise the implications of what he was saying. "Hello darling, my teeth are finished, I will see you in 2 weeks!". Are you crazy? I would have gotten home and found all my model trains cleared out of the garage and a family from a third world country in residence. She really must be feared!.Without blinking an eye I said to Rudy "How much for the bottom set-up?" Keeping in mind I now had a plate on the bottom jaw with all of the missing back teeth on it. For the first time in 30 odd years I was actually chewing like a normal person and not just chomping and swallowing like a rabbit. As I related earlier, my bottom teeth looked like I had spent years chewing on a crescent file. Rudy, God bless his little cotton bed socks took another look in my mouth and said "6 root canals and 6 crowns, $1500.00 Aus.!" In retrospect I probably shouldn't have laughed so loud but I thought this is the perfect way to save my skin. I said to Rudy "You told me 18 days to do the top and now you're telling me we finish in a week." He said "Not so bad." God, I would hate to see bad.
I toyed with the idea of telling "she who makes my life worthwhile that I had to keep going back for adjustments but I knew she would see straight thru it so I told her the truth and to soften the blow I told her I was getting the bottom done now instead of coming back next year as Rudy had given me a good price if I would come and build his fences. Well, I could see he was thinking it.
Next visit was 2 hours and I had more impressions and 6, YES 6, root canals done and walked out with the top finished, new back teeth and temporary caps on the bottom 6 that once again looked like the real thing.
Back at the hotel I hunted down the photographer and got him to take a photo, "Make sure you get plenty of teeth, zoom up mate!". I then rushed off to the internet shop and asked the girl to email my hastily processed image wich cost me 7500Rp. and then I rang my loved one and said "Watcha doing Babe." She informed me she was in bed reading so I asked her if she had checked her emails today and then I hung up.
More tomorrow.. BILL