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Published: December 6th 2010
UPDATE: MASSIVE IMAGE UPLOAD FOR ANYONE WHO WANTS TO PERUSE!
And: Jenna does not have Malaria or dengue or scrap! She has some bizarre combination of a cold and virus and possibly parasites but is on the mend. Now this may sound worse but its not, i assure y'all.
Also... i am coming down with one of the afflictions she had but also will be fine. Cheers!
Our return to Thailand gave us much to look forward to. The food is fresh, bright, delicious and everywhere. There are many consumer items available easily that are quite hard to find even in Malaysia. And of course the return of one of our favourite games... punch-pink-polo. Much like punch buggy for a volkswagon beetle but whenever we see a man wearing a pink polo shirt the goal is to punch the other person in the arm first. This time we had no clue what we were getting into.
It's festival season in every country in this region right now. Every week there has been fireworks, devotional floats that get sent out on rivers, flying bags alight with candle aloft by the thousands and crowds, crowds, CROWDS. Yesterday it was the King's b-day and Thai's LOVE their king a lot. For the 5 days leading up to the big party there were fireworks every night and sometimes during the afternoon. The pictures of the king that are seemingly on every major street corner quadrupled in number. Most busy streets and all temples had some sort of stage being constructed or large colourful alter erected. As for punchpinkpolo, the game was in full effect as Thai's are a very fashionable bunch and the guys dress more flamboyantly than back home. There was something we noticed about the frequency of pink polos though... suddenly it seemed that more than half of the Thais we saw were wearing them. So frequent they were that we had to call off the game because there were so many thousands of people wearing the shirts everyday that if the game continued we would be punching each other all day and that would hurt, and be just plain improper in public. There were stacks of the shirts for sale at all markets and we would see bus loads of Thais, young and old, rocking the pink polo. We had absolutely no clue as to the cause of this dramatic increase but knew it had to be something to do with the King.
Was it his favourite colour? Is pink just what you wear for celebrations? Our minds were truly boggled over the matter until by chance i managed to be sitting next to a couple of students at a busy restaurant who had very good english and i was able to ask them about the matter. The King makes an address tot he people every year on his birthday but this year because of a health condition he was unable. (he is 83 and in the hospital) The colour of his hospital, of which the whole facility is devoted to his personal health, is PINK! So the Thais by the thousands we see are wearing the shirts as a collective "Get well soon" card. Thai's are so sweet... they just want their king to get better.
Solved Mysteries aside, we have had a few hitches as of late. I mentioned before about my need for tooth extraction. It all went well except i only had 2 teeth removed instead of 4... the Doc wouldn't do both sets but that is fine. I had the option to get the others removed a week later but opted not to as i want to be able to chew food with both sides of my mouth and there will be superb dental clinics in Malaysia available. We had planned to go to the ancient capital of Ayutthaya and to the bridge over the river Kwai, in Kanchanaburi but Jenna has come down with an unknown tropical disease. It isn't life threatening and we went to a wonderful hospital geared to travelers and expats that looked nicer than any hospital in Canada. She had a full blood count and came up negative for Dengue Fever which was the prime suspect. The blood work showed her to be in otherwise great health but every day she has throbbing sever headaches and mild fevers. The doctor thinks it may be a tick-born disease called scrub??? We have never heard of this one and thought we were rather well read on tropical diseases. Jenna had received one tick bite in Cambodia while we were in Chi Phat but we got the sucker out long before it embedded its head and the anti-malarial we are taking, Doxycycline, prevents tick born diseases.
The problem and likely cause as to this whole matter is that Jenna has been taking tums whenever she has stomache pain. ALL antacids and vitamin supplements when taken at the same time as doxycycline interrupt its ability to give you any protection so shes been at risk for 2 months unknowingly. This is a major issue as we had investigated many many anti malarials and their properties, interactions, and complications and this never came up as an issue. The receptors in you stomache that absorb doxy are the same as calcium, iron and many other vitamins which is the reason for the conflict. Luckily there is no other complication and the agents do not react against each other. We are glad we know all this now and that Jenna's health is not seriously compromised. She came up negative for malaria and all other diseases and had all the right amounts of platelets, cells in her blood. She has needed quite a bit of bed rest and we had to cancel plans to go to other cities around Bangkok but there are worse places to be stranded.
We go back for a checkup tomorrow but the symptoms are all receding and she will be fine. In 2 days we leave on an overnight train for Butterworth, Malaysia where we will disembark to Pulau Penang, the first British settlement in this area. Penang is world renowned for its phenomenal food and rich chinese culture. We almost went here before leaving Malaysia last time to see a world Lion dance competition but ended up passing on it, promising to hit it up on the back to Permaculture Perak farm. We plan on spending 5 days on the island then 2 weeks at the farm. We are VERY much looking forward to seeing the goats, ducks, and rabbits and feasting on the highest quality food within thousands of miles. The breakfasts of fresh goat cheese, whole grain bread, garden greens and fresh picked papaya still haunt my dreams with their deliciousness. We also look forward to seeing the fruits of our past labours as we planted some big gardens there and are excited to see how the veggies are fairing. The farms' peace and quiet is unparalleled and cool nights are a rare experience for us. Illnesses and pain aside... things are still looking up.
We fly to Banda Aceh on Dec 29th from Kuala Lumpur to begin the next major phase of our scheme, the jungles and volcanoes of Sumatra. Bad roads, worse buses and tsunamis! We are stoked!
All the new malls geared to rich locals and foreigners living here (farang) here are playing Xmas music and have trees, snow flakes, and dancing Santas. Its friggin weird to walk outside from that into tropical heat and crowds of short people i tell ya. We wish you all well for the holiday season! Love Brian and Jenna
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Dean
non-member comment
Health
Hope Jenna is feeling better soon. Did anyone ever figure out exactly what the problem was? Finally we have snow on the ground here. It's been all over Europe, shutting down airports, etc. and there has been lots from Barrie and north and London and west but none here until last night. I am avoiding all stores and malls and trying to buy all gifts via the internet. Still need to plug my ears and go into the grocery store for milk, cheese, yogurt, etc. Looking forward to January! Missed last week at Plan B due to a knife accident in my barn. OK now. (No stitches just blood and pain.)