When I take out travel insurance, I always assume “I won’t need it anyway”, but buy it “just in case”. Luckily I haven’t been in any major accidents that racked up hospital bills, but I do have some interesting doctor experiences abroad. I once spent a night in a hospital in Australia, got experience with Laotian, Cambodian and Peruvian doctors when I got bitten by dogs and I discovered Burmese health care. In this last case I am still unsure of what was actually wrong with me, although I have a feeling it had to do with exposure to the sun. Although the Burmese are wonderful people, my doctor visits were well, interesting…
Merry Christmas?
For my Christmas in Myanmar I decided to go on a 3 day trekking from Kalaw to Inle Lake. It was the most amazing experience and my hiking group became a little family. But when I woke up on my third day I felt sick. I had a restless night and had the feeling a fever was coming up, but after a few spoonfuls of rice I decided to keep going. There were 4,5 hours to go and I really wanted to finish the hike. Beside that, the idea of going by motorbike didn’t make me feel any better.
I powered through and made it to the end point: a restaurant on the edge of Inle Lake. I was so weak and the thought of food made me nauseous. My ears started ringing and I had the feeling I was going to faint. So while my group was having lunch, I sat in a chair on the side slowly getting worse, trying not to lose consciousness. I didn’t even feel it coming up, but suddenly I vomited, right there in the full restaurant. Instead of having lunch, I showed everyone last night’s dinner.
Some hiking friends and locals took me to the back of the restaurant. After cleaning up a bit the locals gave me a “medicine”; some concoction that looked like a child had put some mud in a cup and added anything they could find in the forest. Even in this state I was polite and drank half of it. To make things more interesting, we still had a one hour boat ride to the other side of Inle lake to reach our destination Nyaungshwe. I didn’t see a thing and just lay there. Back on land I stumbled to my hostel and went to bed. I had some sleep and even ate a bit that evening.
Does this man even speak English?
In the morning I only felt slightly better, so with encouragement of other people, I decided to go to the doctor. First I couldn’t find the doctor. After walking up and down the road where it was supposed to be and asking random people, I finally saw the tiny purple building. It was all locked up. Back at the hostel they gave me another address, a bit further, so I dragged myself back onto the same road. It looked shut as well, but when I walked around the building I saw a girl through a door. She said the doctor would come at 4PM.
Meanwhile I’d gone through all the strength I had left and returned to my hostel. A bit later someone offered to take me to a doctor on a scooter. He dropped me off at a small cubical structure at the edge of the street. From the street I could see some benches in front of a curtain. Hesitantly I entered and called out “Hello?”. It turned out the doctor was with another patient behind the curtain, but it would soon be my turn.
The doctor waved me in and I sat down on a bed and told him what was wrong. I had no idea if this doctor could speak much English, because he’d only been gesturing and nodding until now. As it turned out his English wasn’t bad at all, but he was a man of few words. He sat on his chair, looked straight ahead and looked pensive. After a short examination he decided it was the flu. He walked to a big open cabinet, chockfull of small boxes with pills. He pulled some out and changed them around a bit. Then he settled for some yellow pills that I had to take twice a day and some ORS. I paid the equivalent of €2,10 and went back to the hostel.
The sun strikes again?
Another popular place for trekking is Hsipaw, which is a long bus ride from Nyaungshwe. I had taken some time to get my strength back and made my way there. After exploring Hsipaw a little further, I decided for the 2-day hike. The first day went absolutely fine, but on day two I started to feel it again. The feverish feeling, being cold even though it was over 30 degrees Celsius! I think the intense sun made me sick. I was drinking a lot of water and wearing a cap and really didn’t know what else I could do to protect myself from the sun. The hike was often in the open sunshine, without much shade. The only thing I could do was keep walking and stay out of the sun at the end point.
Back in Hsipaw I decided to visit a doctor again. The clinic looked a lot more professional this time and the doctor even had an assistant. First he did a quick malaria test, but when that came out negative, he seemed a bit lost. After some deliberation he gave me some pills. They were antibiotics again. I was reluctant to take some random pills again and asked if he could tell me what was wrong with me. He heaved his shoulders. He didn’t know. I politely paid for the pills, but never took them.
At home I probably would have been given the advice “Don’t worry, it’s nothing serious. Take some rest and plenty of fluids”. In Myanmar the doctors didn’t want to send me away with nothing. Perhaps this is their approach to every situation, perhaps it’s because I’m a tourist. I was just glad it wasn’t serious and I recovered after a day or two. Myanmar was such an incredible country to visit. Even if the doctor visits were a bit of an adventure, I would highly recommend visiting this country.
I guess I’m lucky that nothing has gone completely wrong on my travels. While traveling I’ve heard the craziest stories of freak accidents and exotic diseases. Every time something happened to me, or I did get ill, I recovered. I’m glad I only have a few stories to tell…
