Pad Thai and Lots of Buddahs

*I started this post a couple weeks ago and have just finished it, sorry! I've already been in Cambodia for a week and now that things have settled down a bit, I'm going to try to increase my blogging.

Hi Everyone,

Greetings from Bangkok. Sorry about the infrequent blog posting, but we've been trying to pack a whole lot of stuff in. So we spent the last two days of Vietnam on a relaxing boat ride through beautiful Ha Long Bay where we relaxed and did some fun outdoorsy activities like kayaking and spelunking(kinda). We were scheduled to leave Hanoi airport for Thailand at 540 that day. We had discussed this with our hostel when making the reservation and also with the people on the boat. They had all agreed making that flight would be no problem. The tour company bus was supposed to meet us there and drop us off about an hour from the airport from which we would take a taxi to the airport. We arrived at the dock a bit early and the bus wasn't there, but no problem because max decided to get a shoe shine from some street kids. They promptly stole his insoles and were trying to charge him 10x the amount originally agreed to. It became somewhat of an ordeal.

After an hour and a half of waiting for the bus me and max tried to get a taxi all the way from Halong Bay. We finally found someone who would take us and loaded ourselves in. Despite some of the craziest and most reckless driving I've ever seen, we manged to get to the airport about 1hr before takeoff. We ran through the airport and somehow made the flight.

Arriving in Bangkok, the first thin gchat strikes you is that it is much more modern and first world than I expected. It has modern subway system and the shops are not all sprawled out on the sidewalk as they are in Vietnam. It's definitely a first world city that would be great to spend a couple years in.

The other thing that striks you is how spicy the food is. I think I made a mistake of telling the first food stand operator that this was my first meal in Thailand. I think he purposely loaded in the spices. The food is super delicious but it really packs in a punch.

Also, the main thing to see in Bangkok culturally is Buddahs. They have ALL sorts of Buddahs, big buddahs, small buddahs, fat buddahs, skinny buddahs. There really is a Buddah for everyone's taste.

Thailand has a weekend market that is by far the biggest market I have every been to. It literally has too much to see and we got lost a few times. Its kinda supposed to be organized by section but it doesn't really have much order. They literally sell anything from puppies to bathtub stoppers. We even saw on the sign that it has cockfighting someplace inside.

Oh, and I also did my favorite activity in all of South East Asia. I went to Muay Thai boxing with Max. It was in a very seedy stadium and we were able to bet one or two dollars with the locals on the outcome of the match which added to the excitement. The atmosphere plus the action makes Muay Thai a must do experience in Bangkok.

Overall, Bangkok is an amazing international city and I hope to be back before too long.

Ben

Playing frogger in 'Nam

I've finally done what my father never had the balls to do, I've headed to Vietnam. It's become quickly clear that not all of Asia is like Hong Kong. We've spent the first two days mostly just exploring Hanoi and getting a taste for the city both literally and figuratively.

The first thing you notice when arriving is the constant crazy cacophony of traffic. Mopeds come at you from all directions without stopping. At first, it's hard to get out of the habit of waiting for traffic to stop. Eventually, you just have to just go for it. If you stay here long enough, people walk through oblivious to traffic talking on their cell phones. You just have to just count on the moppeders not to hit you.

The hostel we're staying at is amazing. Huge rooms, separate bathrooms with hot water, free delicious breakfast, great hospitality, all for 11 dollars a night. Money goes a long way here with full meals under 3 dollars.

Speaking of food, I actually think the food here is actually better than in Hong Kong. We've eaten some pho in streetside stalls as well as some more exotic fare, like vietnamese ox. We also me up with a great local who we drank some local beer only found here in Hanoi.

Finally, we've felt obliged to do some cultural things as well. We went to a couple temples, a war museum and a traditional water puppet show. We kinda stumbled on all these things when walking around.

Up next, taking a lesson on the language/cooking and possibly driving around on a moped.

Leaving Hong Kong

Like the British not too long before me, I am preparing to leave Hong Kong. Hong Kong is a lively, efficient,international city spewing with culture. I have been here one week and I don't even feel like I'm cracking the surface. I loved Hk and Max is determined to move here.

So, what are some of the "adventures" I've gotten myself into? We were able to find a much nicer hostel after the disaster of the first one. It turns out most buildings here if you just walk in and ask if they have a guest house, they probably do. Hot water, private bathroom, the ability to get into our room, compared to the first hotel this seems like the Ritz Carlton.

We went to an incense burning temple, so we did something cultural. We at lots of amazing food including a "hot pot" which is almost fondue but it's all you can eat smorgasbord board of meat, veggies, and free beer, for 15$. We were also able to find Max's friend from NY's uncle's dumpling shop in a small alley in Macau. Overall the food has been excellent.

We took a ferry to lamma island which does not allow cars. It was a nice peaceful sleepy island which I feel probably gives a little better idea of the typical Chinese expierence away from the bg cities. We also got foot massages that were awesome although a bit painful. Max had to tell his to go easy on him but in all fairness his was a much larger man while my reflexologist was a little Asian woman.

We also had New Years here. It was a giant celebration with hundreds of fireworks and they also lit up all the buildings. We watched the display from the waterfront, it was really impressive. After the display we wanted to go to the bar district. In an excellent example of Hong Kongian efficiency, they herded all the young people in a line of cattle for about an hour to avoid overcrowding and chaos.

Finally, we also made it to the proverbial "Mecca" also known as Macau, the gambling capital of the world. It was interesting in that it a didn't cater to English speakers very much so it was often tough to figure out what was going. We played a little baccarat which is the game over here (verdict is mixed) and even found a craps table. I'm happy to say I still have my plane tickets but my socks might be missing.

Overall, my taste of HK was not enough and I hope to come back again. Hopefully I will be able to get some pictures up soon.

Welcome to Hong Kong

Hey Everyone, So, I arrived in Asia two days ago. I'm currently sitting in my hostel in Hong Kong getting ready to start my day. It was a fairly long 13.5 hour flight from Chicago to South Korea and another three hours to Hong Kong. The flight was actually not that bad and we had plenty of free food and drink on it.

Hong Kong is a pretty awesome city. It is extremely vertical and dense. The only place I can compare it to is New York City in that way. It also has a cool mixture of old and new with traditional apothecary shops mixed in with more than enough Starbucks and McDonalds. It has an overall western feel with enough people speaking English that you can pretty much get around anywhere. We've got an "Octopus" card that pretty much allows us to go anywhere and we spent the first whole day pretty much just tooling around.

The food so far has been pretty good. We've had a number of classic hong kong dishes like waffles in the shape of eggs and mysterious substance on a stick. For some reason, we haven't eaten a ton yet and have been doing a bit too much snacking on random street chicken and what not.

Last night, we went to a cool bar in the white people area of town. There was an Asian band playing the blues which I hadn't seen before. We didn't stay out too late because I think we're still getting our time adjusted.

Finally the hostel we're staying at is having a number of peculiar issues. First, our key doesn't work. This isn't your standard, your key needs to return to the front desk. This is, we don't have a key that works in the whole hostel and we have to take apart the whole lock. We've had to wait for them to get us into the room in one way or another everytime we've had to enter our room. It's somewhat annoying. Also the toilet in the common bathroom wasn't working when we got here and there's no hot water. It does have free wi-fi, which is nice. We're moving to a new one tomorrow.

Overall, I feel like Hong Kong has been a nice introduction to Asia. Today, we're going to check out the central district and maybe try to make it into Kowloon.

Talk to you later,

Ben

Finishing Up

Well, tomorrow will be my last day in Clinic. A lot has happened since my last post. I've been very busy and clinic's been going all day so I haven't had much time. I'll quickly run through what I've been up to.

Two weekends ago I went to El Doret a city in western Kenya. There we visited with a friend of a friend or Reena's family. There's a pretty tightly knit Indian population in Kenya and Reena has family from here. Anyways, after being picked up, we were driven by Reena's friend's driver. He was a maniac on the road. We were pretty much going 70+ mph on roads with one lane and crazy drivers coming at you and giant potholes. I experienced my first double pass as well. We passed a car that was in the process of passing another car.

We expected to stay in Reena's friend's apartment and just check out the city. Instead, we experienced some of the greatest hospitality of my life. This family was truly awesome. They gave us giant Indian meals. First they took us to El Doret's famous cheese factory. Since it was the weekend, there were no tours, but we got to sample about 20 delicious cheeses. Reena's friend refused to allow us to pay for any of it, even after trying hard to pay.

They then took us to a beautiful resort. It looked like an oasis. We thought we were there to be shown around. Instead he decided to book a room for us. We kept saying it was too much but he refused. It took all of our negotiating power to stay in the dorms and not in the deluxe sweet. At about this time I became resigned to having him pay for everything but the girls kept fighting. The resort was really cool. We sat by the fire drinking beers and had a good chicken dinner. The only problem was later that night the chicken's sauce made me throw up.

The next day we went to an amazing Chinese restaurant for lunch on the advice of Reena's friend. Somehow without going to the restaurant, he got it taken care for us. He was truly a gracious host. When he comes to the US, I'm going to try to hook him up.

Also in El Doret, we saw a farm with Giraffes on it. We also had an amazing view from the top of this mountain.

Last weekend was also amazing, possibly my favorite one in Kenya. We started the weekend going into the Kokamega Rainforest. There were monkeys EVERYWHERE. Monkeys have to be the coolest animals. They're very human in their behaviors and expressions.

The night we got there we ate at an ancient woman's tiny hut where she cooked meals for guests. The menu was slim, but the food was impressive. The next morning we woke up at 5am to climb this mountain that overlooks the entire rainforest. When we got to the top we watched the sunrise over the forest and the steam evaporate.

We also climbed into a cave that our guide forgot to mention was filled with thousands of bats that all flew out at us unexpectedly when we were about halfway through the cave. We also go to see some amazing plants, birds, and animals. We also got to eat about 20 different plants and fungi that were used for different purposes. Some were really good, especially the mushroom and this plant that tasted like mints and soothes the throat.

We saw lots of birds. Some were super colorful, others were giant, and some had interesting whistles (one sounded like a piano scale, another like a human whistling and another would only whistle in 5 rapid beats). There were giant ant colonies that were fascinating. You could see all the different types and when the guide touched it with a stick. Tons of giant, quarter inch long soldiers came out with giant pinchers. I've always found ants to be the coolest insect. I probably liked looking at the different trees and plants the best. Not only were there some tasty ones, but some do interesting thing like having bulbs that jump off the plant when you touched them.

Later that day we headed to Kisumu. Kisumu is the third largest city in Kenya and is on Lake Victoria, the second largest lake in the world. Kisumu was bustling. When we got there our hotel that we had reserved with and also confirmed with told us they were full. We asked if they knew of any hotels that weren't full. They said they doubted there were any.

We ended up walking into a few hotels before finding the New Victoria Hotel. For 10 dollars a night we stayed in luxury. Not only did they have hot showers (which I haven't had for about 3 weeks) but comfortable beds and balconies. They also had a deluxe breakfast in the morning.

We asked the receptionist about hippo watching and he directed us to this guide named Ibrahim. We met him at this beach that was filled with tiny shack like restaurants all selling the same thing. Fresh cooked fish. We ordered a giant one for about 10 dollars that fed all 5 of us that were on this trip. We agreed to meet the next morning to go out on this rickety boat to check out hippos.

Normally on this boat trip you're supposed to see one or two hippos and usually just the eyes. Being unlucky when it comes to anything on water, I really didn't expect to see any. Instead we saw about 40. Some had virtually there whole body out of the water. We also saw some baby hippos. They're like aggressive water cows. We also got to see some amazing scenery and other wildlife. We watched dozens of giant birds fishing. There was other great scenery and wildlife.

We also managed to get into a boat accident with one of the only other boats on the entire, mighty, Lake Victoria. It wasn't serious, more funny than anything else. The drivers I guess knew each other. The other really cool place was this fishing village called Dunga. This place was definitely off the beaten trail and I think our guide is the only one who takes his clients there.

Here were hundreds of poor Africans going out on paddle boats with lines catching fish one by one that will eventually get sold to people in Europe and Eastern Asia. In my heart I didn't really believe that people in the Western world still ate food that began like that. I always assumed it was all done by guys in giant boats with giant nets. In the village we also saw some cool wildlife.

There was another sweet plant that would shrink when you touched it as a protection against being eaten by goats. Speaking of goats we also saw one about 6 feet off the ground standing on this fence, it was a very strange site.

I also had one of the more profound moments in Kenya. It turned out that when I was scanning through the Kenya Lonely Planet the night before and saw that it turned out our guide, Ibrahim, was featured in it. He had heard that he was going to be in it but had never actually seen the book with his name in it or known for sure if he was in it. I showed it to him and he kinda got quite and couldn't take his eyes off the page for about 3 minutes. He had a smile but I think he was really amazed and touched by seeing his name and a description about him in a book like that. I ended up ripping out the page and giving it to him.

When we got back, we had another meal of fish on the beach. Then headed to this market that was filled with stands selling all sorts of different souvenir junk. I knew that I had to get lots of friends and family some souvenir junk and this was the place. Bargaining is kinda fun, but kinda exhausting. The way it works is that they start off at something absurdly high, like 50 dollars. Then you go way to something insanely cheap, like 25 cents. Then they laugh at you. Then you decide you don't want it. Then they keep going down until until it's something less then 3 dollars. I got tons of stuff at ridiculous cheap prices. You always get a good deal and it all depends on how much work you want to put in. I don't mind paying a few dollars extra because they definitely need it more than I do. 50 cents for me isn't much but for them it's a really big deal. They will bargain very seriously for literally another 10 cents.

Another highlight of my week was getting a haircut and a shave in a Men's beauty salon here. My hair was getting unwieldy and I hadn't shaved since I had arrived in Kenya. They shaved my head and shaved my face with a straight edge razor (the first time I've gotten a shave in my life). They worked really hard and you could tell that they would stay all day until they got it right. Then included in the $7 haircut and shave was a face and head massage and steam. They also put all sorts of moisturizers and creams on my head and face. To quote the manager of the store "you had some dry skin under your eyes... not anymore".

That brings me to the end of this lengthy post. Just a quick note on the clinic. It was not at ALL what I expected but it has been a fascinating experience. I have seen all sorts of disease and problems that I may never see again in my life. I feel I've also come to understand well one aspect of the African culture.

I saw some funny and entertaining things like a village where all the elderly claimed to be ages ranging from 95 to 110. I saw some profound things like a baby that probably would have died unless we had treated it. I saw some sad things too, like a 12 year old boy that had terrible cyanotic heart disease. He had the worst clubbing in his fingers I have ever seen and a blue tongue. In the US, he would have been operated on as a baby. We sent explicit directions with him to the hospital, but I know that he has been seen there before and hasn't gotten any type of the treatment necessary to prolong his life much longer. In retrospect, I wish I had done more.

The hospitals here are mostly terrible and most people don't have access to them anyways. They sometimes make grossly wrong statements about people. A woman had a lump on her side and they said she had fibroids. Another woman that is a friend of one of the workers on the farm we stayed at went for a giant lump on her stomach. They said she had a gastric infection and gave her amoxicillin. They didn't even do a abdominal exam.

The mobile clinic program isn't perfect. I'm not convinced we're always doing the right thing exactly. But overall, I truly believe we're doing a net good. I've always put a high premium on charities and programs like these that's goal isn't global or grand, just to do some serious good in some people's lives.

From here I'm off to Safari and to visit Nairobi before leaving to go back to the US. I'm excited to go home and see my friends and family but I'm not ready for school. Going to Africa has been one of the best experiences of my life. I'll hopefully get around to a few more posts about the last few days here and reflecting on my experiences. I'll also find a way to share my pictures.

See you in a few days.

Ben

Diving into the Nile

Quick update because I'm not feeling 100%. The clinic has been really busy the last few days. It's often frustrating because we don't really have the proper resources or equipment. On top of that, many of our patients are middle age to elderly women who may be hypochondriacs. At the same time though, we are doing some legitimate good helping kids get better. It's worth dealing with the frustrating patients for the people that you really can do a good job healing, especially when the condition is easily treatable and clear cut.

This past weekend I went to Uganda. Uganda's really beautiful with incredible landscapes surrounding Lake Victoria and the Nile. I bungee jumped for the first time in my life. I don't know if I've been more scared in my life. My brain was telling me it was safe but every subconscious nerve fiber in your body tells you not to. It was fun but not something I'm looking to do anytime again soon. All the blood rushed out of my limbs. They also gave enough slack so the top half of my body plunged into the Nile which the bungee was above.

After that I went rafting. It was definitely the most intense rapids I've ever seen in my life. Virtually every boat flipped at least once, ours included. Being in the Nile is an interesting experience because it's always been this exotic faraway river that was so vital for civilization that you learned about in your history classes.

I got some pretty bad sunburn though and that made me physically sick yesterday and I'm still feeling pretty dumpy today.

Anyways, hope all is well.

Ben

Kenya!!

Although I still have a lot to say about Senegal and Mali, I just wanted to give a quick update on Kenya.

Kenya is a completely different world. It is extremely lush, more modern and overall doesn't have quite the same desperate quality as Senegal and Mali. The people are not nearly as in your face, the country is cleaner and economically, although not good, much better off. It doesn't look like people are starving as much. I can see how people can focus on health care here as opposed to West Africa where it was hard to think about health care with so many more pressing issues.

I also started working at the clinic today. It is a really cool group of med students working here from all over, including a couple from the UK. We really do act like doctors here, writing up prescriptions for meds and everything. So far people mostly have Malaria or Typhoid. It's pretty much the equivalent of how often I see diabetes and hypertension at the Free Clinic I work at in Columbus We have one doctor here who will be leaving tomorrow basically leaving med students in charge. We have a fifth year student from Scotland who will carry much of the burden but we will probably also have to refer more people to the local hospital.

Today flew by. The work is exciting and interesting. I like that I'm getting into a routine that will include some downtime to read and hang out. Traveling was fun but it was also exhausting and crazy at times. Hopefully I'll get to explore Kenya soon.