October 2016 – Jen Goes Rogue

By Jen Hawse on Asia tagged America, Animals, Bangkok, Health, Medicine, SE Asia, Snakes, Thailand

Medical Tourism in Bangkok

Update: I wrote this two days ago, but haven’t posted due to changing cities and lack of internet in Bangkok. So, we’re doing better now!

I’m feeling a bit guilty. Travel is about the experience of constantly diving into the unknown. In the past two days we have not dove, but mostly stayed afloat in the serene waters of our new hotel room (this one has a bathroom en suite!). Why are we sitting and not wandering? Because, we’re both a little under the weather and we’re needing our rest, regardless of my guilt.

It’s true, this is my third illness in the past six weeks. Travel has taken a beating on my normally healthy body. The generally strong and healthy one in the relationship, Jason, is also under assault and feeling lethargic from cold symptoms. Woe is us, right? No, of course not, just another admission about what’s real and ultimately not glamorous on our budget travels.

I don’t mean to dwell on illness, truly, but I do want to spin you a story about our past few days.

When we arrived in Thailand last Wednesday it was very late. We didn’t make it through immigration until after midnight. It took us about 45 minutes to figure out which mode of transportation we were going to take to leave the airport itself and then once we were on our way our Uber driver got lost at least twice (yes, there is Uber in Thailand). By the time we got to our guesthouse it was after 1:30 and we were exhausted. The plan was to get vaccinated here in Bangkok the next day.

Why did we wait this long to get our travel vaccines? Because, as you can read in one of my first posts, it would have cost us over 3x’s in the US as it does here for the exact same drugs. Let me answer your looming questions: No, our insurance wouldn’t cover them in the US. Travel vaccines are elective and thus not covered. No, we don’t think they’re any different over here, in fact we know they’re the exact same drug from the exact same manufacturer. Medicine is globalized. No, we don’t think we were taking an unnecessary risk in waiting because we are going to be in developed areas for the 4 – 6 week period while the vaccines take hold. No, the US isn’t world class in care, they’re just world class in health costs. Thailand has excellent hospitals and they say if you’re ill anywhere in SE Asia to run to Thailand for treatment, if you can. No, you can’t get vaccinated for malaria or dengue fever, you can only take preventative measures, so the mosquito risks are all ones we have to take on ourselves through DEET and long sleeved cloths. I digress, but we weighed this very carefully and decided to get vaccinated in Bangkok well before leaving the US.

Jason asks me Wednesday night if we’re getting vaccinated on Thursday, the day after we arrive. I tell him no, we’re going to want to sleep in as best as we can and we should wait till Friday when we can get up early and go. So, Friday comes and we’re running a little behind, as is our way, but we get out and jump on the bus to the clinic. Truth be told, I’m scared. I’m scared of getting vaccinated anywhere, not just Thailand. I think the anti-vaxxers got to me, because I fear things like loss of limb function and death. If I got vaccinated at home I’d have the exact same worries. I just don’t want to do it. The funny thing is, needles don’t scare me at all, just the stuff in them! So, I’m moody and nervous. We’re almost there though, on this very slow moving non-airconditioned bus and Jason says to me, “Fuck! I forgot the passports!” I didn’t realize, but you need a passport for the international immunization documentation packet that they give you. It’s handy for going into countries that actually require pre-vaccination (although none do on our trip). Well, there goes that! We skip vaccines that day, then Saturday (my birthday), then they’re closed Sunday and also Monday, because of a government holiday, so that means on Tuesday we have to get vaccinated to make sure we have time to recover before we leave on a 12 hour night train on Friday.

Tuesday, late at night, after we book our AirBnB in Chiang Mai and Jason falls peacefully asleep I start freaking out. My throat has a huge lump in it. It’s swollen. This happened very suddenly. It hurts to move my neck! This is crazy! Right before I left I found a swollen lymph node in my leg and had a little freak out, but it felt nothing like this. I’m a tiny bit hypochondriac, so this huge and painful lump isn’t boding well. I think my throat is closing up it happened so quickly. I try to sleep, but can’t with my pounding heart and worried mind. Tomorrow we’re getting vaccinated; maybe I’m making this up in my head! Maybe I’m believing I’m sick to trick myself out of getting immunized. After about an hour of basically having a panic attack I wake Jason up. I apologize, tell him not to get angry with me, but just help me calm down because I can’t do it myself right now. He gets up and starts talking logic, like, “No one dies in their sleep from a closed up throat.” (But, do they?!). “Stop touching it, it’s probably not that bad, and you’re going to make it worse.” “Just got to sleep, it’s after 3:00, and you’ll be fine.” Eventually, exhaustion takes hold and I sleep.

Waking up, my throat is still swollen, but not much better or worse. Jason has a little cold, he’s had one at this point for a few days, and no matter what happens we’re getting vaccinated today. We grab our passports, the cash, and head out. Other than the lump and soreness, I feel physically fine (very mysterious indeed).

We get to the hospital, which we’d read a blog online about before the trip explaining the ease and affordability of travel vaccines, and find the place to be a little oasis in bustling Bangkok. Not only do they have a travel clinic, they also have a World Health Organization snake farm here where they milk poisonous snakes of their venom to work on anti-venom therapies. You can visit the snake farm and see these slithery little guys in action for $6 USD. We planned on a double whammy of vaccines and snake farm in one trip!

The hospital staff has lunch from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m., and we arrive about 12:30. We we grab a tea in the courtyard and fill out some paperwork as we wait. I’m, of course, nervous. At 1:00 we head in, grab our number, and wait our turns. The process is smooth and there are both foreigners and Thai here getting shots. There’s even a Buddhist monk in his beautiful orange robes. After we register and get our paperwork packets we have our temperature, blood pressure, and pulse taken and then head in for a consult with the doctor. During the process we overhear an American asking about how it works. He’s alone and so I say to him, “We’re doing the same ones you are!” Maybe he was nervous too and I wanted him to know he wasn’t alone.

Well, the process is so quick that we basically spend the entire time moving from station to station with our new friend, Kevin. This is good for me, because it takes my mind off the clear and impending doom the vaccinations will surely cause me! Kevin, on the other hand, is chill and definitely not nervous, but happily chatted with us the whole time. Thanks, Kevin!

After the doctor’s consult, which he recommended we get Hep A, Typhoid, and Japanese Encephalitis, we go to the pharmacy to pick up our vaccines. Yes, you personally pick these up and take them with you to the nurse who will give you the shot. We paid, in total, for the two of us, less than $150 for all three shots, plus administration fees. In the US it would have been 10x’s as much.

The nurse sticks me with three needles, I wince, she tells me to relax, I apologize, and we call it a day. We get our immunization documentation packet and are told to wait a few more minutes (to ensure no serious complication arise) and we’re done here.

After getting shot, we part with Kevin, wish him well on his journey through SE Asia and to Australia, and head to the snake farm. Boy, are we in luck! They’re having a show with all the snakes on display! We get to see vipers, pythons, and rattlesnakes from all over the world. At the end they invite you to get a picture with an albino python and I just had to! My dad fiercely feared snakes, but I just love them. I don’t know why, but I think they’re fascinatingly beautiful animals that deserve respect and want to harm you far less than we harm them.

Vaccines complete, snake farm check, it’s about time to head back. But first, lunch! We go to a nearby mall, get some Japanese ramen (it doesn’t compare to Japan, but I’m afraid nothing ever will) and then treat ourselves to ice cream for being good patients. As we’re doing this Jason is getting sleepier and sleepier. I am, strangely, feeling fine, but that throat lump is as big as ever! We head back to the hostel and call it a night.

The next day we’re moving hostels and I’m still worried about my neck. Swollen lymph nodes indicate your body is fighting an infection, and my lymph nodes are still enormous. If you can’t figure out where your infection is happening it’s a real problem. If you can, you take proper care to fix it, and you’ll be fine. I can’t figure it out so I’m googling while trying to talk to our AirBnB host in Chiang Mai and pack up properly before check out time. After days of searching, and being told by Jason to stop touching it, I’m just making it worse (grrr), I find the answer.

There are two types of strep throat, one is viral and one is bacterial. Viral causes swollen lymph nodes and makes you feel overall ill. Bacterial strep is generally a child’s disease, but it can happen in adults, and is something people can acquire from large crowds. We have been in some of the biggest crowds I’ve ever encountered. Bacterial strep makes your tonsils swell and have pus cover them (sorry, gross, but true). I take my phone’s flashlight, shine it in my mouth and hold up my mirror, and see I 100% have bacterial strep. An answer! How do you treat this? A common 10 day regimen of penicillin. Easy.

To be sure it’s bacterial strep, though, you need a strep test. So the first place we go after leaving our hostel is to a travel health clinic. They have no strep test, so we go to a pharmacy and they have none either. Crap. I don’t want to wait to treat this and google isn’t showing us where travel health clinics are. I’m so sure of what this is that trying to find a clinic is just going to prolong the infection, which is dangerous. We decide the best course of action is to pick up some antibiotics from a pharmacy, amoxicillin, and start treatment. The 10 day regimen is $10 USD. Back home, without insurance, how much do you think that would cost? Well, considering you can’t just go into a pharmacy and get antibiotics you’re looking at a doctors visit + the prescription, so I’d say around $400 from what I’ve witnessed as of late with the US health care system. Or, it’s $10 in Thailand. If we’d gotten a strep test it would have probably been another $10 USD. The progressive US, am I right?!

So, today, we’re resting again. Jason is still fighting his cold, because getting vaccinated on top of a cold means your immune system is fighting doubly hard, and I feel fine but don’t want to risk exacerbating the illness by stressing my body. The swelling is dropping and while it still looks nasty I feel completely fine.

Tomorrow, we leave the hostel at noon, exploring with our packs on all day, then jumping on a train to Chiang Mai for a 12+ hour journey starting at 7:30 at night. We’ll be in Chiang Mai for 17 days, so hopefully we can cook some (yes!) and dig into the landscape a little more than we have here in Bangkok. There are elephant reserves where you can feed and meet former circus elephants, but you cannot ride them. It’s a little pricey, but it’s what I’m going to spend the birthday money my mom sent me on 🙂 Thanks, Momsie, so much!

Thanks for listening and stay well, my friends!

1 Nov

By Jen Hawse on Asia tagged Bangkok, Birthday, Prices, SE Asia, Thailand, travel

Bangkok Birthday Madness

You all are owed a Hong Kong post. I’ll try to get to that, but I feel this one is best to write fresh, because it’s been a doozy of two days. Let’s start on October 21st.

Khao San Road is the most famous street in Bangkok. When you think of sin and excess and ladyboys, you’re thinking of Khao San. It’s about a 10 minute walk from our hostel, which was intentional, because prices are good here and entertainment is clearly easy to find. Bangkok is a great many things, including a highly religious city with ornate golden temples and Buddhist monks in their beautiful orange draped robes walking the streets, but it’s known for the sin. We’re old, we don’t need much sin any more, so we’re here to witness sin more than imbibe it (save a few beers, of course!).

Earlier in the day we had went to a shopping mall, a huge monstrosity that has shops as you’d expect, with stores and walls and whatnot, but also vendors set up in an open style floor plan packing in as many people selling as much cheap crap as you can imagine. We know the rules here in Thailand, to truly be respectful, you have to wear pants that cover your knees or more and shirts that cover your shoulders. The outfits on Khao San aren’t what you’d call respectful, but they’re not expected to be. You can wear little to nothing and be OK there. If we’re to go to the famous temples we need to dress properly. So, after trying to get vaccinated and forgetting our all important passports, we decided to skip the heat, get into the mall, and buy some clothing items that show the proper respect Thailand deserves. Jason didn’t find much, but I grabbed two scarves, one shirt, and one pair of long pants that are very common here in Thailand. They’re light material, open and free flowing, and have elastic on the bottoms so they don’t drag on the ground. All this for about $15 USD and lunch for the two of us for about $4 USD. Pretty good!

Now back to Khao San, where our heroes are taking pictures, drinking beers in the streets, and getting ready to sit down to a nice meal of Pad Thai (a national dish) for again about $3 – 4 USD. My camera is my phone (something I now am seriously considering changing) and so I often have it out taking shots of damn near everything. Wearing my new Thailand approved pants, I snap this picture below (didn’t realize how bad it was) and slide the phone back into my pant’s pocket. Well, these new pockets aren’t really phone approved and it slides right out and into the wet wash puddle that you see below. Whoops! Phones and waters don’t mix! Happy birthday to Jen!

I scramble to grab the phone as quickly as possible and RIP my pants in the process. HUGE HOLE! UGH! Jason, being the sweet man that he is, immediately jumps up and tries to find rice from the nearby 7-11. Meanwhile, I’m taking napkins (thank GOD this place has them, so many don’t) and trying my best to clean the dirt water off my phone. This is wash water that the street vendors use to clean their food dishes. It’s nasty. My phone starts freaking out. Turning off and back on again. It’s going into cardiac arrest. Jason returns with the rice and a flimsy plastic bag. Immediately, we empty the rice into the bag and deposit the seizing phone. I try to get rice all over it and massage it around and, of course, the bag tears a hole and now rice is coming out. Great. All the while I’m angry/upset and taking it out on Jason (not fair of me). He’s upset because I’m upset. The server finally comes to our table to take our order and I tell him I don’t want to eat, I want to go back, I’m so done with the night.

I storm home, Jason in toe, and go straight to our room. I transfer the bag to a better, stronger bag and pray. I’m still upset and Jason is too, so he leaves for a walk around to block to cool down. I brush my teeth, read some post on the internet about how life could be so much worse, and go to bed feeling guilty for how immature and upset I was over this stupid piece of property.

In the morning it’s my birthday. I’m not well. Physically, I’m fine, but emotionally I’m drained and depressed. Birthdays are kind of stupid. They’re suppose to be your special day and that level of expectation always leads to disappointment. I wake up at 6:00 a.m. and write Jason an apology letter. I see my mom has given me a sweet birthday tribute on Facebook. I’m crying. I’m up till 8:00 when I crawl back into bed to see if I can sleep and give Jason a cuddle. He accepts it, which is more than I can ask for after being nasty to him, but I still can’t sleep. I think of my family and friends. I think of my dad. I miss those that I love and wonder, “What the hell am I doing here?”. Before I left I knew my birthday would be difficult and I’m proving myself right in the moment.

Eventually, after being up and down and up again I do fall back asleep for a few hours. I wake up, tell Jason how sorry I am, cry some more, for a long time, and then eventually get the strength to go out for the day. Depression feeds on stillness and quiet. It wants you to sit and wallow. When you move, it helps move it away from the foreground and into the background. I suffered from clinical depression for years as a teenager. I recovered after finding some purpose in life in my mid-twenties and thankfully didn’t require medication, but I still know what depression looks and feels like and I certainly felt some of that on my birthday. Long term travel can be tough; I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, but at least you’re afforded the opportunity to experience something new every day you want to. Far later in the day than I had originally planned we did just that, we left to experience something new and see a sculpture garden in a museum.

Entering the main road from our neighborhood we swam in a sea of people wearing all black. We’d been in Thailand for days and had seem many wearing black, but not to this degree. We trudged, slowly, so slowly that when Google said it would take 10 minutes it took nearly 20 to get near our destination. All black. Merchants sold black clothing on the street for those not prepared. Food stalls fed Thai people all manner of eats. Free water and bread was given out. It was hot, but the people wore black. We did not, and so we felt out of place, but knew we’d be forgiven or at best ignored as tourists. Traffic was stopped. People were out of cars as there was no hope of moving for some time, but they packed into buses waiting for them to pick back up again so they didn’t miss their chance to move from the crowds. These crowds, in numbers we’ve never witnessed, were later estimated between 150,000 to 250,000. We had no idea it would be like this. A true moment in history is taking place here and we, by pure chance, have the honor and privilege of witnessing and taking part in it (video from yesterday as pictures do no justice).

We never made it to the sculpture garden, but I don’t think we could have even if we tried. It was located through the masses and this was clearly more important than seeing some carved rocks. We did grab lunch, pad thai from a street vendor on the same property that a McDonald’s is on, then headed back to the hostel to rest till going out for birthday dinner and drinks.

Months ago, when we booked our stay in Bangkok, we planned to go to Mikkeller for my birthday. It’s a special Western treat of amazing craft beer and rich foods we couldn’t get elsewhere. Getting to the restaurant was a journey in itself. We’ve relied on Google Maps so much that when they aren’t accurate it really throws us. After some serious tech issues we did finally make it on the bus, paid our 6.50 bhat (about $.20 USD) and asked the attendant who takes the money if we were going in the right direction, just to be sure. Google said we’d be able to take the bus most of the way, which was great because it was raining and a long walk wasn’t what either of us wanted. The attendant eventually seemed to say sure and we settled in. At least GPS works without WiFi, so we could follow along the route to make sure we were heading the right way. As we’re nearing an expected turn the attendant seems to indicate we should get off. We know we’re suppose to go further, but maybe the bus is doing something different today (who knows around here) so we jump off and start walking. We’re still over a mile from the bar, but we figure better to get off than go the wrong way. After about 15 minutes we see a bus stop with our bus number on it, and then a bus, in the right direction that we were heading…. We didn’t need to get off, but oh well, onward we go.

Mikkeller couldn’t have put themselves in more of a dark back alley if they wanted. Shrouded in trees we were sure we were lost over and over again. After nearly giving up twice we see a the light and the familiar cartoons of the Mikkeller brand. Wow… What a trip! You can’t really see my face here… but man was I done!

When we got in, all was well. The food was amazing (so much richer than we’ve been eating!) the beer was superb, and the service was lovely. They had coloring books and colored pencils and so, of course, I had to color! My favorite. At some point I say to Jason, “This is really expensive, I wonder if they don’t take credit cards.” He says, “They can’t expect you to carry thousands of bhat around. They’re an international establishment. They have to take credit cards. If they don’t I’d be insulted.” Well, they do, but just not tonight. I was heading to the bar to get one final birthday beer when I see a “No c/c. Sorry” sign. I said, “You guys don’t take credit cards?” The server says, “No, we do, but the machine is down right now. I’m working on it.” OK…. I refrain from getting another beer to not rack up more tab and tell Jason the news. The bar is never able to get the machine working while we’re there and, long story short, we left with Mikkeller’s banking information and no charge (thus far) for our most expensive meal. Oh Bangkok…. (that’s the name of the hostel next door to us too. Now I know why.)

At least there’s Uber here! We had a really nice ride with a great English speaking Thai person who told us about his province in Thailand and gave us some free lessons in Thai. I learned how to properly say thank you and hello (I was saying them wrong before, of course). Jason gave a tip and still the ride was about $4 USD for 6 miles. Whew! We tried to get one more beer at the 7-11 when we got back, but it was after midnight and so Bangkok was telling us it was time to call it quits.

We still have more days here in Bangkok and then Thailand itself. Chiang Mai is next. Then, we go to Malaysia next month. The journey continues! Thanks for listening! ลาก่อน (goodbye in Thai)

16 Oct

By Jen Hawse on Asia, City Review tagged asia, rain, rtw, taipei, taiwan, travel

Torrential Taiwan: The Country That Wouldn’t Stop Raining

Talk about a downpour! In Taiwan, we slogged through the rain each and every day. Truth be told, we hadn’t had a truly sunny day since Tokyo. All through the end of our time in Japan it was fairly cloudy and rainy, then into Taiwan the rain continued. Yes, we dodged two typhoons, but rain didn’t care.

We’re troopers, we’re still new to this travel adventure and eager to explore the big and small parts of the world we’re living in, but rain made it tricky. Nonetheless, we preserved and both of us certainly learned a thing or two about Taiwan. When I left you all in the blog we had just arrived, one day in, and had explored a night market that was pungent and overwhelming. My impression was that every area of Taipei would be like this: smelly, crowded, and too compact for comfort, but I was wrong in the best way.

We didn’t give up on night markets after the first one; no sir! Night markets were in fact the top reason I wanted to go to Taiwan in the first place. Food of all sorts is my cup of tea, and Taiwanese/Chinese is no different. When you think Chinese in the states you imagine sticky, fatty fried rice with the chopped up dried pork bits and nearly dehydrated carrots and peas. It’s a sad state and it’s not how Chinese food should be viewed because it’s truly so much more than that.

Night markets give you a chance to try a bit of everything for an incredibly reasonable price. We would spend $5 – $10 tops, collectively, feeding ourselves dinner. That’s eating a bit of fresh fruit, meat on a stick, a pancake of sorts, cream filled pastries, and more. I never knew I’d like pork floss, but I love pork floss omelettes! Heaven.

The variety at these markets would go on and on and into areas that I wouldn’t touch, like dried squid, chicken feet, and various pork products sold in carts that were in unknown stages of jerkying or other transformation. I didn’t ask, they couldn’t tell me even if I did, we left it alone.

Despite cooking and washing out in the open the night markets Jason or I didn’t get sick (a welcome surprise!). I’m now a little shaky about food borne illness and trying to be more cautious, but it’s difficult to be cautious when there’s so many abundant and tasty goods. We made sure to get our water from only clean sources or bought it sealed from the convenient store at least. It was about $.30 USD for a litre of water.

Prices were great in Taiwan, and the dollar took us very far. The conversion rate was a little screwy, but we eventually figured it out. $30 Taiwan dollars = $1 USD. So, sometimes prices looked very high, but you divided by 3 and moved some zeros around and you could figure it out fairy quickly. $60 for some Pringles! Oh, no, that’s just $2, no problem! Hong Kong is about 8/1 HKD to USD, so a soda costs $8 HKD, but it’s really only a buck. Currency conversions are a great way to exercise your brain muscles! Currency exchanges are a way to frustrate them. We lost about $1 when we converted our Japanese Yen to New Taiwan Dollars. When we converted from Taiwan to Hong Kong dollars we lost about $8. A bigger sting! We’re trying to spend all the cash we get out in every country to avoid these fees, but sometimes you can’t, and so we’re learning the hard way how to properly convert our cash.

Moving on, while we were in Taiwan they celebrated Double Ten Day (October 10th), the day the uprising against the Qing Dynasty began, which lead to the Republic of China being formed. It’s a Taiwanese national holiday. We stayed about a block from the Taiwanese president’s palace and on October 9th we visited the Chiang Kai-shek memorial, which is a sight to be seen. The memorial itself has a museum and art gallery inside of it and is a monolith of a building. Incredibly beautiful and clean. A big tourist attraction. We witnessed the changing of the guard (picture below). I won’t get into politics here, but Chaing Kai-shek was a prominent figure in Taiwa. It’s controversial which country owns the island or not.

When we’re visiting a place we want to dig into the culture and experience the why and how of the location. We are history museum lovers (I also enjoy art museums, Jason not as much). In Taiwan, we tried to go to two museums that were either closed for the day or permanently closed. Big bummer! Jason wanted to see the Miniatures Museum, but if there’s a government holiday on a Monday then museums are closed the following Tuesday. Whoops!

Taiwan had a World Religion Museum, which I was very interested in, but when we trounced through the heavy rain to the museum’s destination we discovered its doors were shut and signs in Chinese out front seemed to say, “Closed!” OK, not great, but we got some lunch and then visited a beautiful temple where we did our own world religion studies in Taoism before heading home. Taiwan seemed to have the most active religious community thus far, with worshipers chanting and lighting candles while we were onsite. It was a sight to see!

The museum we did get to see was the National Taiwan Museum, established in 1908, and considered the Louvre of the East because of its extensive art collection. We wanted to see a piece of jade carved into the shape of pork belly. A pork fat tribute! We didn’t find this piece, but we found so many other treasures that it didn’t matter. The museum has a garden attached where you can feed coi and birds food pellets. The continuous dreary rain didn’t keep us from playing in the park! Fish and waterfowl don’t mind a little downpour, so why should we? While there I saw my first black swan pair. The mother was clearly nesting and unpleased that I wanted to feed her. The father was ungrateful for my food as well. Suit yourselves, the ducks and coi like it! Check this out!

Taiwan was tough. I came in not feeling well, with little sleep and a bad attitude, and walked into a smelly situation and a crappy AirBnB. There was little bright side that I could see, but I just wasn’t looking properly. In the end, I loved Taiwan’s character and how the people were more real than Japan and Korea. The rules were looser and so were the people’s attitudes. The food was hit or miss, but when it hit it was a hit out of the park! No middle ground here. And, despite the rain, I learned that you can’t let a little weather get in the way of your adventure. Live once, live it well, and if it takes you a little longer to get up in the morning to make sure you live it, then so be it.

A few more pictures for the road from Taiwan!