Being sick is never fun, being sick while travelling especially while solo is an all around terrible experience. Especially when you just don’t show signs of getting better for quite a long time.
Ive spent the last 12 days pretty damn sick. I’ve been in 3 countries since then, but in truth I’ve seen very little. When you can’t eat a real meal for more than a week energy tends to run low. I got sick in Yangon Myanmar, I suspect some sort of bug picked up from a small indian street food place. (I hold no real regrets on this and I will never stop eating street food (wisely) as it’s such a great window into local culture and it’s delicious)
One thing that really makes being sick more painful is being in transit. I took two flights from Myanmar to get to Indonesia and needed to spend a full night in the singapore airport which is beauty airport but still was not a comfortable experience. On another note if you ever want a test to see just how sick I am offer my Vanilla coke. The singapore airport did and I could only manage one measly gulp.
I’ve been in Indonesia for about ten days now. It seems like an amazing country, but I’ve been forced to spend most of the time in bed. Still the locals are lovely, the kids are curious and always smiling and the country is full of colour. It’s the end of Rainy season here, so everything is very much alive, scarlet blossoms on green trees. It’s beautiful. And seeing it rain almost every day for a few hours after 6 months without seeing rain proved a very welcome sight.
Three days ago I flew to Bali to go to the hospital. Another downside of sickness when travelling is navigating healthcare. This turned out to not be too bad. Everyone was helpful and it only cost 30 dollars. Of course the antibiotics I was given mix badly with warfarin and so I’m not taking them. The doctor assured me they didn’t interact, but I’ve learned not to trust doctors about blood clot related things unless thats their specialty, and sure enough a quick google search gave me tons of interaction examples. I’m just glad I thought to check.
At any rate I think (I hope) I’m finally rounding a corner and starting to get better. I’m still weak, still tired, and still feel a little off, but I’ve been able to eat, and hold it down, and clarity is starting to return. So let’s hope a few more days sees me fit again.
There’s also one plus side to being sick when travelling. You see the good in people because just about everyone tries to help, from conversation, to drugs, to herbal supplements, to errand runs. Traveler’s really tend to be awesome people and seeing a fellow traveller in need seems to bring out the best of them. Countless people have been kind to me over the past two weeks so at least there’s that.
At some point in the next few days I’ve got to dive in to the final edit for Disappearing Eyes, which I’m excited for. Those Beta readers who’ve had the chance to get back to me have been incredibly helpful and given me lots of ideas on how to turn what feels like a decent book into a very good one. Just got to get well and get the energy up and then actually see some of Indonesia before heading to Vietnam at the start of May. All the best everyone.
Luke
