Me, at Borobudur.
One of the narrative panels.
Here come the tourists!
I forgot what pose this is - at Mendut Temple.
Prambanan, a huge complex of some 50 Hindu temple sites.Thursday, March 20, 2008
Borobudur, Mendut, & Prambanan
Me, at Borobudur. One of the narrative panels. Here come the tourists! I forgot what pose this is - at Mendut Temple. Prambanan, a huge complex of some 50 Hindu temple sites.
Borobudur
Once again, so you know I'm eating well - at least some of the time.
Borobudur, a colossal Buddhist temple, built in the 9th century.
I'm not sure what these bell shaped things are about.
Oooh...there is a Buddha image sitting in each one - 432 of them.
A closeup of part of one of the nearly 1500 narrative panels that show Buddhist teachings.Wednesday, March 5, 2008
How to catch malaria in 3 easy steps
Step 1.
Go to a place that is known to have malaria. There are many places to choose from. Anywhere where it is hot and wet is generally a candidate. However, the more modern the place the less likely. So, the Virgin Islands, for example, has no malaria. But there are lots of places in South East Asia that would be ideal. Flores, Indonesia is one such place. The joke goes that the people on Bali tell the tourists not to go the Lombok, because their money will get stolen, and the people in Lombok tell the tourists not to go to Flores, because they will get malaria. Of course I didn’t hear this until I was on Flores. I heard it from a Balinese guy. He also told me that his bosses wife had just had malaria, and only just came out of the hospital.
Step 2.
Don’t take any anti-malaria medication. Unfortunately, there is no malaria vaccine that you can get and be set for life or 10 years or 1 year or even a month - although the Balinese guy told me of a one-month vaccine, but no one else seemed to have heard of it. No, anti-malaria medication comes in a pill that you have to take regularly before, during and probably after the time spent with the little vile mosquitoes. Because my first stops after leaving home were New Zealand & Australia (non-malaria places), I didn’t stock up on the pills at home. I’d get them when I needed them, in Kuta, Bali. But after a whirlwind of unexpected events, I quickly found myself on Flores, without the medication.
Step 3.
Take no steps to prevent mosquito bites. There are a few basic things to do to prevent or lessen the chances of being bitten. Wear long clothing to keep as much skin covered as possible. Use insect repellent on any exposed skin. And finally sleep under a mosquito net. Well, most places just simply did not provide a mosquito net, and I wasn’t carrying one in my backpack. I have no long sleeve shirts, and that didn’t really matter because sometimes it was so hot at night, that I slept in just my underwear. I did buy some insect repellent before I went to Flores, but I never remembered to spray it on until after I had already been bitten!
After a few days on Flores, I started to feel sick. One night I was just burning up, or so I thought. I woke Jacques up and told him I think I have a fever. Of course when he felt my forehead, I realized that his hand was much warmer than my head! “No, you don’t have a fever. Go back to sleep,” he said. After 2 weeks, I was back in Kuta and just waiting for the fever to come.
The fever, or a fever, did eventually come one day after I entered Malaysia. As I was crossing the border from Singapore to Malaysia, I developed a little cough. Nothing to worry about, just a nagging cough. After checking into a small Muslim hotel in Melaka, I went out to explore the town and met Navan, a Malay/Indian native of Melaka, with whom I would hang out for most of my time in Melaka.
The next morning, we went to the gym to workout, but I started feeling progressively sicker. So, while he and his friends worked out, I sat quietly - except for when I was running to the toilet coughing and feeling like throwing up. As the day progressed, I started to heat up and started worrying about malaria. Or was it dengue fever? I had read that vomiting is one of the symptoms of dengue fever.
When I was in Jakarta, I had planned to go to a decadent nightclub with some British guys I had met, but when I was getting dressed, I fell asleep. I awoke a few hours later to find that the mosquitoes and nearly drained me of all my blood. I had gotten up to use the toilet, and when I came back into the room, I saw spots of blood on the white tile floor. Why was there blood on the floor? The mosquitoes had so drunk so much blood, they could not fly. They just sat on the floor, and I stepped on them as I walked. I was panicked, because I had heard that Jakarta had a dengue fever problem. So I ran out to the 24-hour internet place to do research on both malaria and dengue fever.
Anyway, I started asking Navan, who works at a hospital, how much it would cost for a diagnostic test. He said it was just a small fever. I only needed to take some medicine to “cool down the body.” I decided to go with the body cool down approach and purchased a small pack of Conflo 500. The package says that it relieves fever, headache & body aches caused by the common cold. But what if this is not the common cold? If there is no improvement by morning, I’ll go to the hospital. That night, I sweat so much, I felt sorry for the owners of the hotel. They might have to burn the bed.
I slept until late morning, and felt that there was improvement. But when I went out to eat, my temperature started to rise again, so I went back to bed again, until the next morning. This time the fever was gone. The cough was still there, but it wasn‘t malaria. I’m still waiting for that fever.
Go to a place that is known to have malaria. There are many places to choose from. Anywhere where it is hot and wet is generally a candidate. However, the more modern the place the less likely. So, the Virgin Islands, for example, has no malaria. But there are lots of places in South East Asia that would be ideal. Flores, Indonesia is one such place. The joke goes that the people on Bali tell the tourists not to go the Lombok, because their money will get stolen, and the people in Lombok tell the tourists not to go to Flores, because they will get malaria. Of course I didn’t hear this until I was on Flores. I heard it from a Balinese guy. He also told me that his bosses wife had just had malaria, and only just came out of the hospital.
Step 2.
Don’t take any anti-malaria medication. Unfortunately, there is no malaria vaccine that you can get and be set for life or 10 years or 1 year or even a month - although the Balinese guy told me of a one-month vaccine, but no one else seemed to have heard of it. No, anti-malaria medication comes in a pill that you have to take regularly before, during and probably after the time spent with the little vile mosquitoes. Because my first stops after leaving home were New Zealand & Australia (non-malaria places), I didn’t stock up on the pills at home. I’d get them when I needed them, in Kuta, Bali. But after a whirlwind of unexpected events, I quickly found myself on Flores, without the medication.
Step 3.
Take no steps to prevent mosquito bites. There are a few basic things to do to prevent or lessen the chances of being bitten. Wear long clothing to keep as much skin covered as possible. Use insect repellent on any exposed skin. And finally sleep under a mosquito net. Well, most places just simply did not provide a mosquito net, and I wasn’t carrying one in my backpack. I have no long sleeve shirts, and that didn’t really matter because sometimes it was so hot at night, that I slept in just my underwear. I did buy some insect repellent before I went to Flores, but I never remembered to spray it on until after I had already been bitten!
After a few days on Flores, I started to feel sick. One night I was just burning up, or so I thought. I woke Jacques up and told him I think I have a fever. Of course when he felt my forehead, I realized that his hand was much warmer than my head! “No, you don’t have a fever. Go back to sleep,” he said. After 2 weeks, I was back in Kuta and just waiting for the fever to come.
The fever, or a fever, did eventually come one day after I entered Malaysia. As I was crossing the border from Singapore to Malaysia, I developed a little cough. Nothing to worry about, just a nagging cough. After checking into a small Muslim hotel in Melaka, I went out to explore the town and met Navan, a Malay/Indian native of Melaka, with whom I would hang out for most of my time in Melaka.
The next morning, we went to the gym to workout, but I started feeling progressively sicker. So, while he and his friends worked out, I sat quietly - except for when I was running to the toilet coughing and feeling like throwing up. As the day progressed, I started to heat up and started worrying about malaria. Or was it dengue fever? I had read that vomiting is one of the symptoms of dengue fever.
When I was in Jakarta, I had planned to go to a decadent nightclub with some British guys I had met, but when I was getting dressed, I fell asleep. I awoke a few hours later to find that the mosquitoes and nearly drained me of all my blood. I had gotten up to use the toilet, and when I came back into the room, I saw spots of blood on the white tile floor. Why was there blood on the floor? The mosquitoes had so drunk so much blood, they could not fly. They just sat on the floor, and I stepped on them as I walked. I was panicked, because I had heard that Jakarta had a dengue fever problem. So I ran out to the 24-hour internet place to do research on both malaria and dengue fever.
Anyway, I started asking Navan, who works at a hospital, how much it would cost for a diagnostic test. He said it was just a small fever. I only needed to take some medicine to “cool down the body.” I decided to go with the body cool down approach and purchased a small pack of Conflo 500. The package says that it relieves fever, headache & body aches caused by the common cold. But what if this is not the common cold? If there is no improvement by morning, I’ll go to the hospital. That night, I sweat so much, I felt sorry for the owners of the hotel. They might have to burn the bed.
I slept until late morning, and felt that there was improvement. But when I went out to eat, my temperature started to rise again, so I went back to bed again, until the next morning. This time the fever was gone. The cough was still there, but it wasn‘t malaria. I’m still waiting for that fever.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Relaxing in Malaysia
I've been in Melaka, Malaysia for the past 9 or so days. I'm just relaxing, doing nothing. I am planning a rush of activities here in Malaysia, including whitewater rafting, mountain biking, mountain climbing, jungle trekking & caving. But for now I'm just resting. I came down with a fever a week ago. I'm fine now.
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