vagablonding

The sand fleas here are vicious. They will bite you while you’re walking on the sand, or even standing in the ocean. There are less of them on the docks, but you’re still not safe there. Bug spray kills the reef but if you don’t use it, they will bite the crap out of you, and the bites itch like crazy. The best thing to do is to use a bug spray without DEET, and wash it off before getting in the ocean.

To treat the sand flea bites, you should take ibuprofen and Benadryl, and apply hydrocortisone cream to the bites. Don’t scratch them, or they will get inflamed and break open, possibly leading to infection. Touch them as little as possible to prevent irritation.

On Saturday, March 6th, after a long day of classes in the morning, afternoon, and evening, 5 of us English teachers (3 girls 2 guys) took a tuk-tuk to Phnom Penh and went to the bars by the Boeung Kak Lake (big backpacker area). We hung around the area having a great time until around 3am when we went to the Heart of Darkness, one of Phnom Penh’s most popular clubs. We had a blast dancing with the security guards and laughing at all the ugly old white guys with their hookers. We stayed till closing at about 4:30am. We figured since we were still so awake we’d walk to the river to watch the sunrise.

We didn’t make it to the river. As we were walking and laughing, all in a great tipsy mood, something terrible happened. A motorbike drove by and grabbed the purse of one of the other girls to try to steal it, but the strap didn’t break. She was lifted up, swept along, and slammed into the ground, landing on her shoulder and head. I didn’t see it because I was ahead of her, but I turned around when one of the guys yelled her name. She was lying in the road and was unconscious until we ran to her and shook her awake. We sat her up and the other girl and I held her up supporting her head while one of the guys got a tuk-tuk.

The tuk-tuk driver took us to Calmette Hospital, a Cambodian hospital where they don’t speak English much at all. I wanted to go to the International SOS Medical Center, a clinic for tourists where they speak perfect English and have Western doctors, but the other 3 in the group decided we should stay where we were. We communicated to the doctors that her head hurt and she couldn’t hear out of one ear. She was very confused, but conscious, and bleeding out of her ear at this point. The doctors decided to do a cat scan, this cost $115 and we all pooled our money to pay for it, but we were still $3 short and they wouldn’t do it. I guess we found another $3, I don’t know I was on my way to the SOS clinic to see if they were open (they were, they’re 24 hours), but anyway they did the scan.

The cat scan results came back and the doctors said everything was ok. There was one more bill to pay and I waited in the bill line forever and started getting upset because I was very frustrated, worried, overwhelmed, dehydrated and still drunk by now. It was 8:30am. The 4 others went back to SCAO and I went back to Okay Guesthouse.

We all slept the entire next day.

They day after that, Monday, March 8th, I went to SCAO and the girl still wasn’t feeling well at all. Her head still hurt a lot and she still couldn’t hear, so she decided to go to the SOS clinic. The doctors there took her injury very seriously and decided to medevac her to Bangkok in a private plane that night. In Bangkok she got another cat scan and it turns out she has a skull fracture.

She’s fine now and currently recovering in the super posh Bangkok hospital, but man was it a scary experience!

Lesson learned: Do NOT walk around in the streets that late at night, no matter how short the distance is or how safe you feel in a group. This can happen to anyone. Be careful; we weren’t careful enough.

Saturday, June 13th, 2009

We went straight to the Hotel Puri Rai in Padang Bai. We stayed in a nice air conditioned room with a large bed, but our hot water didn’t work. They have 3 swimming pools and a decent breakfast included. It cost us 400,000 for the night.

In the afternoon we wandered around the 2 road town in search of some food. When we found a place I got my usual Gado-Gado and we were entertained by the 3-4 year old daughter of the workers with songs and drawings, and not a bit of English though she enjoyed hearing Ryan say the word “monkey”.

After lunch we hung out near the beach and then walked to Blue Lagoon, a popular snorkel spot 10 minutes from town.

For dinner we went to the Kerti hotel restaurant where I had a fruit salad with yogurt and honey for 15,000, and Ryan got a pizza for 40,000.

Sunday, June 14th, 2009

After breakfast at Hotel Puri Rai we went snorkeling for an hour at Blue Lagoon where the visibility was great and the reef wasn’t bad, but the current was very strong, and we saw a sting ray!

Photo taken with Canon PowerShot SD790IS 10MP Digital Camera with Canon WP-DC24 Waterproof Case

Photo taken with Canon PowerShot SD790IS 10MP Digital Camera with Canon WP-DC24 Waterproof Case

Photo taken with Canon PowerShot SD790IS 10MP Digital Camera with Canon WP-DC24 Waterproof Case

We rushed back and checked out of our hotel at 11:00am so we could move down the road to an equally nice but much cheaper place called the Padang Bai Beach Bungalows where we paid 220,000 a night for an air conditioned room with a super comfy big bed and use of the brand new infinity pool.

We walked around town in search of lunch and a convenience store. We ate at the Kadek Cafe where I got Gado-Gado again for 15,000 and a chocolate milkshake for 15,000. We found a convenience store and I jumped up and down with excitement when I saw that they had my new favorite thing, COFFEE SODA!!! We shared a coffee soda and Ryan got an ice cream to sooth his swollen tonsils. His tonsilis aren’t getting better or worse, and since he’s been taking antibiotics for a few days now we are a bit worried and aren’t sure what to do next. Stay on Bali where the hospitals are in case it gets worse, or throw caution to the wind and head to the Gilis? Hopefully time will help us decide.

We spent the rest of the sunlight hours hanging out in the super sweet infinity pool. For dinner we went back to the Kadek Cafe where I got corn flakes with plain yogurt for 15,000 and a coffee for 5,000. Afterwards we went to the Topi Inn and used their wifi for a few hours to research what else we can do about Ryan’s tonsils. They charge 200 per minute for use of their wifi. We hear they have great food but it’s pretty spendy so we haven’t eaten there yet.

Monday, June 15th, 2009

I’ve come down with a cold so today was spent sleeping in, lazing about in the pool, reading, visiting the convenience store 3 times for coffee soda and ice cream, and going to bed early. Tomorrow we are going to the Australian-run Bali International Medical Clinic (BIMC) near Kuta to see what can be done about Ryan’s tonsils.

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

We got a ride to Kuta to go to BIMC. Our driver was a local guy who charged us 300,000 for the ride, waited outside the hospital for us for the hour and a half we were there, and took us to the supermarket afterwards so we could buy peanut butter and jelly. People here are so nice!

At the clinic the doctors took Ryan’s vitals and asked him questions that were obviously designed to find out if he had swine flu or not. Then they got to asking about his tonsils and decided to prescribe him a 3 day course of a different kind of antibiotics, throat lozenges, multivitamins, and ibuprofen. The doctor wouldn’t give him an antibiotic injection because he doesn’t have a fever, but we tried our hardest to convince her. Oh well, hopefully these new antibiotics will fix him all up.

We’re planning to move on to the Gili Islands either tomorrow or the next day, depending on how the antibiotics work.