I think Asia is out to get me...

Sorry about the slow blogs... I see that my last blog is about hospitals... well I got to visit a few more after the Vietnam incident.

I headed out to Cambodia which was absolutely incredible!! Possibly my favorite country. Such a unique place, but the people, culture and surroundings are all beautiful! I read a book while there called 'First they killed my father', one a great read and two it was eye opening to hear a first hand account of someone that went through the Pol Pot era (for those non-history buffs, which I fully admit to being one, go google it). Pretty remarkable what these people went through and how fresh it still is amongst them. I've never seen so many blind/deaf/amputee people in my life. And to know that it isn't their fault (not that those things normally are...) but that this happened to them because of some evil government in the late 70s and the current government does absolutely nothing for them. They are reduced to being beggars or selling random goods (photo copied books, sunglasses, postcards, etc.). Its really a shame... the country has come so far from where it was but it still has tons more to do to help the people. I hope to return someday and see a major difference but from the locals I spoke to, it sounds like their president will be around for a while (he doesn't get a 4 year term - thank you America for establishing that!), so they have very little hope for how or when things will be different.

My tuk-tuk driver for when I visited Angkor Wat was something else. 18 year old kid, has taught himself English in the past 6 months - and was really good at it! His father is blind from a landmine, his mother is too old to work, so he drives tourists out to Angkor Wat, reads the English dictionary while we wonder around, works on his conversational skills with us and gets paid around $10/day to help care for his family (4 siblings and parents) and then it starts all over again. Incredible.

Well, I wasn't planning on saying much about Cambodia... but I think I'll just need to do an individual blog on it. (I wish I could put the world on pause every few days to just write all this stuff down that I get to see and hear about... but its sooooo tough!! While I'm sitting here writing, I want to be outside exploring!! But its raining in Bangkok right now and I've been here enough I don't need to see to much...)

But anyway! Here's actually what I wanted to say:
left Vietnam, to go to Cambodia, still on some antibiotics for my fake swine flu encounter. I went to a fantastic beach town called Sihanoukville and swam the days away in the ocean and in the pool at my hotel (for $5/night!). And what do you know, I get two gnarly ear infections... ugh... so then I go on a search for a good doctor in Cambodia to help with my ears. Tough to come by, considering what I just explained about the government.

I got to Siem Reap, saw 3 different doctors and finally got a good one to help with my ears! Got set up with more antibiotics and headed off to Thailand for the islands! (Although I was super bummed because I knew I wouldn't be able to swim due to the ears... and I was hoping to get a first time scuba dive in... guess I'll just have to come back here soon enough!)

Four days in Thailand and what do ya know!? Back in the hospital! Broken wrist this time so a bit more extreme than the other ones, but not the worst thing to have happen. Although the worst part was the first doctor I saw... he spoke no English, his x-ray machine was probably from the mid-80s and when he came over to 'explain' to me that my wrist was indeed broken, he took out his ball point pen and drew a picture of a wrist with a squiggly line at the end, then another squiggly line at the start of the hand. I laughed hysterically and now wish I had kept that piece of paper.

So I've been in Thailand for 10 days with a broken wrist and it hasn't been too bad. I met a Canadian girl that broke hers and she goes 'Yeah, I booked my flight for tomorrow, when are you heading home?' And I said, 'oh, i'm going to Bangkok and then up to Europe so I won't be heading home for another 6 weeks or so' And she looked shocked!! Utterly shocked. 'What?! You're not going home now??' (At that point I started to question myself.) "Uh... no, I mean its just a broken wrist.' Her response, in a very snooty voice, 'Well, six weeks is a really long time to be miserable.' Ouch. But I did a slow gaze out from behind her head and looked at how beautiful the surroundings were (I was on a Thai Island at the time) and I thought to myself about how dumb she was for going home! I know I'd be kicking myself in the butt if I got home and sat around thinking about all the stuff I had missed out on!! Dumb Canadian.

That was about a week ago, and I still feel great about my decision. I haven't been miserable at all! Off to Europe now and hopefully all these hospital visits will stop!!! Wish me luck!