Thought I was going home...

When I arrived to Manila I felt a little strange around my rectal area... Thought it was just from the diarrhea in Thailand, but after one day I went to see a doctor.
He made a VERY thorough  medical examination on me, and came up with possible prostatitis. Gave me painkillers and antibiotics.
The following days the infected area, now running down my butt cheek, got bigger. Got really sore, and I was walking like an old man. Mission of the day was walking to the shopping mall. 50 meters from my hostel.
After a few days it got to the point where I had to see the doctor again. He gave me another diagnose "perianal abcess". He strongly adviced me for an operation.
I contacted my insurance company, and they started organising my trip back to Denmark for an operation.

I met two of the Danes I was surposed to sail with, but told them I was on my way back home.
Then last night (22:00) the inflammation got to a point where my skin on my butt cheek bursted. After calling my insurance company I took a taxi to the nearest hospital.

They put me in a bed. Blood and stuff was still pissing out of me.
They treated me very nice. Got my own room, and was set up for an operation at 7am.
They put me in anaesthesia, and woke up a few hours later. Rather confused.
I didn't noticed them giving me the anaesthesia, so I thought I had just been sleeping.

Well now, I I'm my bed. No pains. An open wound but thats the procedure.
I have rebooked my flight to Palau, so things are looking fine again.
I did not have any problems with my prostate. Great.

In Manila

Next adventure in the Philippines is about to begin. On the 26th I'm flying to the island Belau/Palau. Far away !
In Belau/Palau I'm joining this ship
http://amazingtravel.dk
Sailing with them for a month. Looking very much forward to it.

Manila is great. Coming from Bangkok it seems laid back. Everyone speaks good English. Sings are often in English.

I'm staying in a "family pension" down town Manila next to a giant shoppingmall, Robinsons.

Five minutes after checking in, I went back to the reception. The girl, started laughing, I saw the screen on her computer. She was already stalking me on facebook :-)

The restaurants next door serves food from all over the world. I choose Japan tonight.

Let me introduce: The Bum Gun!

Todays 12 hours busride from Chiang Mai to Bangkok wasn't that interesting.
Sat next to an American guy, Steve, which made it much more interesting though.

But using todays blog to introduce you to Thailands bum gun. They don't use toilet paper here. They rinse them self with a gun, and after some practice runs shooting you get the hang of it.

Busdriver on drugs is much more fun

First of all: Bob is fine, and also survived the trek. Only on the third day he came out and tried to charm the girls. While I was busy surviving....

Wake up with a little sore legs, but the rest of the body was pretty much back to normal. Four girls from the group
had planned an early start, 9am breakfast at a nearby cafe. I was in.
The menu looked very tempting with bacon, eggs, ham and bacon... But played the safe card, and ordered müsli with fruit.  (right now I'm glad my mom is the only one reading this)

Got organized, went back to the guesthouse and said goodbye to Jack, Emma and Kate, with Bob interfering again...

Went for my minibus, 15:30 departure. The bus was on time. We put our backs in, and got in. Well not all of us. Not enough seats...
Got out backs back. "Your in bus number two"...
Oh, of course. 45 min later the minibus turned up. We were only 5, so I got front seat.
2 minutes later the driver got back, and tried to jump into my seat. "your driving Sir!"...
Cay, the driver choose to drive though. While diving away he was shouting goodbye out the window when passing some of the passengers he had just dropped off.
He spoke pretty good English, all learned from diving with tourist (Pai-Chiang Mai)
He was driving 9 hours each day, some days 12. No days off.
And it's very challenging mountain diving.
But he was rocking up a good wibe in the bus, with music, singing in Thai.
He honked to pretty much everything alive. He had his favorite dogs.
He shouted out "elephants!" when getting close to a couple of grey... rather big... maybe?..... cows.....
And Mr Cay was looking in the mirror to check the number of tourists with  cameras.
He stopped and asked two tourist for directions to Chiang Mai (one way up, one way down).
Sadly he had to swap bus halfway, and drive home. We got driver, who should get some of Mr Cay's drugs. He looked very tired and drove with the philosophy "I'm sure no one is around that corner"...
Now in Chiang Mai again. In bed. Met new people. All good.

Diet: loose 5 kilos in 3 days?

Here's the deal
Book a three day challenging jungle trek with Mr. Chart (office in Pai)

Two days before the trek:
Eat a lot of Thai food. Especially street food...
(disclaimer: you might/should feel sick already the same evening)
The following day your gonna visit the toilet quite a few times...

Trekking day...!
You wake up, feeling ok, not 100%, but what the hell, we're going to the jungle!
So go trekking! Easy!

Here's my experience with the diet:

Met Mr Chart at 8:30 in the morning. 8 other jungle warriors wannabes turned up. And 1 helper. Mr Chart wanted an early start, but there's ALWAYS time for a whiskey. (whiskey lovers: keep your expectations low, and don't expect whiskey)
My stomach was still not running 100%, so borrowed the toilet. 15% was closer..

Told Mr Chart about my situation, but he said I would be fine. Gave me some medicine, and probably offered me another whiskey.
I had brought some medicine myself, which hadn't done much help apart from getting rid of my fever. But felt sort of alright.

We got into two trucks. I was offered the front seat, and slept most of the half hour drive. Strange after sleeping all night...

Well, we got of. (Thomas body 56%)
Starter trekking. Beautiful trek.
I was sweating way more than normal doing a quite easy trek. Drank buckets of water, which I quickly realised, forced me to quick toiletvisits. (41%)

Two hours of trekking we had a little rest. The group was worried about me. (18%)

I was so tired. My stomach actually felt alright (apart from the often jungletoilet visits). But my energy level was close to zero.
Mr Chart served me a sort of concentrated Red Bull (energy drink), and said I needed to rest.
So for the rest of the day, whenever we had rest, I laid down and slept, immediately! I couldn't really eat, but was served water containing some sort of powder containing sugar, salt and stuff...
Can't remember much of the first day, but the feeling when Mr Chart said "here's our camp" I was sooooo glad.
Went straight to "bed" and was only awake when going to the jungletoilet, or whenever Mr Chart was offering me food, drinks and stuff...
So probably 13 hours of sleeping, while the rest of the group was having a party. I heard close to nothing.

Day two started out pretty much the same, but felt a little better. I was running on water and lolies, and very little food. Manly just rice and noodles. Had absolutely no appetite.
Still with frequent toilet visits and still slept most of the little breaks away.
And now in the middle of the jungle...
We got to our camp, a tiny village in the mountains.
I was feeling alright, but needed a little rest, as usual...
Still absolutely no appetite, but Mr Chart was serving great food. With spices from the jungle. Some of them "not so spicy", so had to try.

Good night sleep on a shared bed (bamboo with blanket ontop) approx 50cm room pr person.

Third day
Some sort of appetite back. Great!
A great day trekking, manly downhill. Downhill to the amount where we wanted to go uphill again.

Now back in Pai, and after a shower, dinner with the group, and very little beer, I'm almost back to normal again.
And five kilos lighter I guess.

Would I recommend the diet: no!
Would I recommended trekking with Mr Chart even though he charges more than the others: yes!

Love Pai

Got up rather early, my standards.
Had to meet Jack at the railway station.
Had time for breakfast, my first one without rice... And including bacon and hot coffee!

While eating breakfast and chatting with the waitress an interesting email clicked in. Sailing with http://www.amazingtravel.dk for a month. With the agenda: diving, fishing and exploring little island in the Philippines... Yes please. So flying to Manila on the 21st of February.
Giving me a only a little time to explore northern Thailand though... But what the heck :-)
Our guide of the trek, Mr. Chang, moved the start of our trek one day. Meeting him tomorrow, and gonna stay at his village for one night.

Photo: an internet connection on your phone is really handy. Google maps is my friend.
Second photo: Jack and I eating our last real dinner before jungle food...

Temple run in Chiang Mai

I had a bed in a guesthouse, but only for one night, so first mission for the day was finding a new place to stay. All the guesthouses in the area are pretty full. A popular area, and a busy time of the year.
It took me an hour to find something I would pay for. 200 bath for a single,  fanned room.
I live in the old city of Chiang Mai,  a my t hotspot.
I walked around the old city, and saw a lot of temples.
Tomorrow I'm meeting with Jack, the traveler I met in Bangkok. We're meeting this Mr Chart, who is going to teach us how to survive in the jungle. Three days in the jungle only eating bushfood.
His tribe lives near Pai, a three hour drive away from Chiang Mai.

So probably no updates for the next few days.
Photos: temples, and my 80 bath lunch.

Out of Bangkok

Went to bed at 4, and got up at 7. But wanted an early start to go the bus station near the Mo Chi station. It took a while to find, and a tuctuc tour.
At the bus station first counter I walked into was selling Chiang Mai tickets.
I asked for a price. They said 860 bath, but only with my facial expression, I got a 300 bath discount.
The bus was great. Like the firstclass seats in a plane.
Still in the bus, but Chaing Mai is just an hour away. I'll have to find a guesthouse, but that shouldn't be a problem.

The scenic view it getting very interesting up here.

Photos
*Breakfast included, well sort of a breakfast.
*Entertainment on board
*I'm in the front seat

Happy new year!

Chinese new year!
A fellow traveler, Jack, and I took a taxi into China town. An half hour ride, 12.2km. Price 105baht, 20kr...

We had a walk through the main street. LOTS of people, and lots of food stands. So we basically had another day of eating - only Chinese today.

Policemen were closing the street, and people were lining up. Something big was coming up for sure. A parade, fireworks ? We had no clue, but waited. And waited, and waited. About 35 degrees, but we had a good spot, so wouldn't leave.
After 2 and a half hour, it finally started. We got up. We were standing on a little wall. Great spots. But a man told us to sit down again. I didn't hear it, so I kept standing, and recorded the "thing" on my camera. A bunch of red trucks passing by??
All the people, who had been waiting there with us left. ?? Was that it.
Apparently we had just seen a princess driving by... There's a rule saying you can not be higher than the royal family. That's why we were told to sit down...
A bit of an anticlimax... I was the one talking Jack into staying at the good spot.

Oh well, an experience, and we had some good food afterwards, of course :-)

On the way back home we had Thai whiskey, and had a great time at the guesthouse...

Tomorrow I'm leaving Bangkok. Probably going north...

Another day of eating

My day rhythm isn't normal yet. But in Bangkok that's not a problem. Many shops and food stands have open 24 hours.

Bee, the woman running the guesthouse took me to the market today. Her 3 year old son, Tailek, joined us. We had to shop, and cook, for a couchsurfing dinner.

Shopping at market was very interesting. Live toads, fish, snakes was one option.
We bought chicken, and lots of vegetables. (first photo is Tailek and I waiting in a tuctuc for Bee.
Back home Bee showed me to cook traditional Thai food. Well, the dish containing 4 liters of coca cola didn't seem very Thai'ish....

But all the food was amazing. Leo, a couchsurfer who "got stuck" here, cocked us a beautiful duck.

At 2am everyone were going to bed, but Scott, the coowner of the place, felt like pizza, so Scott and I went down town to get some pizza. Even though it was very late, there was still lots of traffic, but Scott did very well, arcade game mode action through traffic.

We had an OK "Italian" pizza, and headed home.

Bangkok, eating street

This morning a fellow traveler asked me if I wanted to join him visiting  an "eating street".  Excellent!

I'm not sure if we found the right street, cause it looked like any other street I have seen in Bangkok. Lots of food stands, serving a blend of very exciting food. Most of the chefs did not speak any English, so I have no clue what we ate...

Afterwards we went to the tourist strip No. one in Bangkok, Khaosan Road.
At the guesthouse where we live there's no tourist, but here, at
Khaosan Road, there's plenty. So plenty of people selling shitty stuff to tourists - (I actually bought some stuff), lady boys, bars, shops and so one... Glad I'm out out of there now :-)

Tomorrow, I'm going to the market with my host.  We're gonna cook a big meal for some couchsurfers visiting us.

Bangkok, first impression

Right now in front of a big fan blowing nice cold air toward me.
It's 20:10 and I'm struggling to stay awake. But my theory on avoiding jetlag is ignoring time, and force yourself into the new timezone.

Have visited a nearby market, and went out for lunch with another traveler from the housestay.

Crossing the street is very "interesting".

Bangkok is BUSY, hot, but full of smiling, helpful people. Great.

Of to bed seen!

Bye snow

My third Bob and Tom adventure has just begun! 2 and a half month traveling Thailand and surrounding countries.

I actually love snow and frost, but then again, 33 degrees in Thailand also sounds nice.
But all my warm winter clothes is now stored away- wacompacked! :-)
So better be nice and warm when I'm back late April!

Flying from Copenhagen at 14:45, then change flight in Cairo, and hopefully land in Bangkok tomorrow at lunchtime.
Staying at Tailek's guesthouse for the first couple of days.
http://www.tailek.com