Travel to Seattle for alternative health care

Alternative health care is easy to find in Seattle; just look it up on the internet or in the phone book. While you're there, be sure to enjoy Pike Place Market, the outdoor art found everywhere, street entertainers, a wide range of dining opportunities, and, of course, coffee.

Quick Tips:

The one downside to visiting Seattle is the cost and availability of hotels. This is not a cheap city to spend the night in, and if you go for the low-end hotels like I did, you may find yourself in a noisy, cheap hotel with poor service and some interesting street activities outside.

Best Way To Get Around:

If you fly into SeaTac, the best way to get downtown is the public bus. Route 194 is the express route between SeaTac and the airport, running about every half hour from 5 a.m. to 1 a.m., and costs .25 ( during rush hour). It's the fastest way to get downtown, and then you don't have to find and pay for a parking space. They don't seem to mind folks bringing luggage on the bus. Walking downtown is a good option, as there seems to be plenty of courtesy between pedestrians and motorists. Use the public transit system and you'll spend less money than you would on parking.

The room was large enough, but the furniture was not comfortable for hanging out, reading or watching TV. That's okay if all you need is a place to sleep and shower. I booked this place because it was cheap, and my expectations were not high, so I was not disappointed. I had a room facing the street, which tended to be noisy, both with traffic and all-night street people who sometimes got into shouting matches at 3 a.m. Housekeeping was kind of funky - I left a tip each day, and on the third day they had come in to take the tip but failed to clean the room (just a little thing to laugh about). The front desk expected me to leave my key each time I went out, which was often, and that was kind of a hassle. The heating system was also funky - it was either on full blast or totally off; there didn't seem to be a happy medium. And it was also noisy. Don't expect shampoo or drinking glasses in your room; just little bars of soap and a couple of cheap towels. The location was great, in some respects. Just a couple blocks from the Pike Place Market, and right behind a Patagonia store. There's a Starbucks across the street. But did I mention the nightlife? Once I was walking back to the hotel at night and was approached by a drug dealer, offering me something to smoke (I don't know what), even said he had a pipe I could use. And there were a couple of girls pacing up and down the block, possibly prostitutes but certainly not pretty. One morning I was having coffee at the Starbucks and a homeless woman was rumaging through their garbage can, picking out things to eat and drink. So this isn't the best neighborhood, but it isn't the worst part of Seattle either (that can be found a few blocks to the south by the Green Tortoise Hostel).

You may not think much about food courts in shopping malls, but this one is particularly good, with good choices and lots of variety. Most vendors offered a plate special, and my favorites were from the mid-east and indian vendors, which had plenty of vegetarian choices. They had good hearty servings, and five bucks satisfied a big hungry guy like me. Like any food court, it is quick and convenient, not what you would call a dining experience. But when you're looking for some good fast food so that you can get back out there shopping or protesting or whatever in downtown Seattle, go to the third floor of Westlake Center. It's conveniently located at the southern terminal of the monorail.

Pike Place Market is fun and local. For fun, how about flying fish? Two of the seafood places in the market have a habit of throwing fish between workers (keep your head down if you walk between them). They have so much fun on the job, a work management book has been written about them ("Fish"). Buying fruit and veggies can also be fun, as I had good interaction with some of the vendors. One woman kept feeding me samples of all their products until I finally relented and bought something. Inside the market and in the surrounding shops, you won't find franchises (except for Starbucks), and you won't find many t-shirt shops either. This isn't a sterile, corporate market like Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. Seattle's Pike Place Market is real, with real people. You'll be entertained by some good street entertainers, sometimes by real professionals who keep to their roots by doing occasional street work. When I was there, Jim Hinde was on a side street just off the market; Jim is one of the best folk singers in the country, and I enjoyed sitting on the sidewalk sipping my Starbucks coffee listening to his songs.

I'm at home watching the TV news, and learn that acupuncture can effectively treat high blood pressure. This sounds good to me, as I'm currently on medication and am looking for alternatives. A search in the internet and the local phone book convinces me that there are no practicioners in my area; I'll have to travel somewhere. But where? I remember a trip to Seattle 18 years ago, where I stumbled on to a street health fair, and discovered that Seattle had a flourishing alternative healthcare network. A quick look on the net yeilded lists of acupuncture practioners in Seattle, and I fired off email to two of them, getting a positive response on both. I decided on one, then checked the airlines and found that I could fly to Seattle as cheaply as I could anywhere else. After locking in airfare, I made two appointments with an acupuncture practioner in the downtown area, and after some searching found a hotel in my price range ($49 a night, the most expensive part of this trip). This was my first experience with acupuncture, and I was both curious and a little nervous. I met the practioner, and we talked awhile, putting me at ease. Then I took off my shoes, socks and pants, lay on the table, and she inserted 14 needles in me, at key locations. I didn't feel the needles going in, but then she probed and twisted them a bit until I could feel each one, something like a very mild tooth ache. Then I lay there for 35 minutes, and she returned to take the needles out. I left feeling somewhat euphoric, but who knows what caused that (it could be that I was simply in Seattle instead of at work?) I returned four days later for another treatment, this time with 12 needles, plus some nutrional advice and some instructions on self-administering acupressure. Now I'm back home, and my blood pressure is still high, but this may have some long term benifits. At least I feel good about trying it. The cost was $70 for the first visit, $55 for the second. If it does show some long term benefits, I hope to return this fall for more treatment. And if I do, I want to also sign up for massage therepy, as there were plenty of places offering that service at reasonable costs.

Street protests are alive and well in Seattle. While I was there, a well-organized stop-the-war rally was held at Westlake Center. The next day, several people concerned with possible outbreaks of antibiotic resistant diseases were passing out fliers. On the corner is a man shouting, holding a sign that calls the police "communists" and claiming he is the real son of god. In walking around Seattle, I stumbled upon several different kinds of bookstores, some radical, some feminists, some gay/lesbian, and there is the famous Left Bank Books right at the entrance to Pike Place Market. I didn't join any protests, but I read their fliers, and browsed through some bookstores, particularly those with underground comics. Free speech seems to be going strong in this city, at least. There was censorship, of sorts, at Pike Place Market, where some street musicians were shut down for lack of a permit. But based on the songs I heard by the folks with permits, it doesn't sound like content was an issue, as there were hearty doses of anti-establishment lyrics.