happy friday! i hope you've been enjoying yours. i'm actually feeling a bit under the weather today. even took the day off of work to get some rest. hopefully i'll still be able to enjoy the rest of the weekend!
i'm feeling a little bit better now, but this actually reminded me of a trip a took a while back where i got sick while traveling abroad in asia and i though i'd share with you all a little lesson that i learned: always carry some over the counter medication with you while traveling abroad.
you may think this sounds silly, but you can't believe how difficult it is to obtain some medicine (and confirm its ok for you to take) when out of the country.
so my experience started in malaysia. i had some meetings scheduled on friday in penang and on saturday i was headed to bangkok to enjoy the weekend and attend some meetings on monday. i had a nice productive day on friday but when i woke up on saturday my head felt a little cloudy and i could feel that dreaded scratch in the back of your throat that just signals the worst is yet to come.
anyway i headed to the airport and hopped my flight to bangkok (a short flight) hoping i might feel better. well that certainly wasn't the case. when i finally made it to my hotel i was feeling much worse and headed right to bed to get some rest.
i woke up on sunday and it just wasn't getting any better. so i decided to ask the hotel to guide me the direction of the closest pharmacy so that i could pick up some medication. the concierge pointed me in the right direction and so i headed out.
at this point i was feeling pretty awful so the anticipation of some curing elixir flowing through my body was all that i could think about. i arrive to the pharmacy and find the aisle in the store to select and purchase the medication of my desire.....and everything was written in thai so i had no clue what to purchase. i thought no problem, let me just ask the clerk to guide me in the right direction....but none of the staff could speak any english and unfortunately for me my thai was about as good as their english. ugh plan foiled!
the hotel pool i missed out on cause i was sick as a dog
so i made it through the rest of the day sick as a dog and i suffered through monday as well. my next opportunity to secure some medicine was at the airport in bangkok on tuesday morning and i though for sure this would be easy.....i thought wrong.
i wandered the airport checking in every store i could to find some medication...nothing. finally at the very opposite end of the airport i see this little pharmacy and my eyes light up..jackpot!! they have got to have what i need and surely someone can speak english enough to help me. i walk into the store and yet again all the labels on the medication were written in thai. so i strike up a conversation with the store staff. the first young lady didn't speak english but she directed me to the other member of the staff who could speak some english....and some english was right.
i tried desperately to explain that i had a cold. the response i got was "a cold? what is that?" finally i was able to explain that i had a headache, congenstion, cough, etc.....all the symptoms i could manage to describe. the young lady proceeds to walk around the store picking up boxes of 3 types of pills (i don't know what they are because i can't read the labels) and a bottle of robitussin. now i'm a little worried about consuming the pill cocktail that this lady prepared for me because i had no idea what anything was....and she wasn't able to explain it to me. needless to say i walked out of the store with a bottle of thai robitussin and i still felt aweful.
so i board my flight to tokyo and when i arrive i though surely i could find some medication. i try a pharmacy close to my hotel and the same problem as thailand...i couldn't read the labels and the store staff wasn't able to speak enough english to help me.
i thought to myself...this is getting ridiculous. i was planning to have dinner with a colleague/friend that night and i thought that he could help me. but of course when we finish dinner all of the pharmacies close to the hotel were closed. foiled again.
that's it i thought i'm stuck feeling terrible until i get back to the states in another two days i might as well get used to it.
i head back to the hotel, and i decide one more try. let me ask the hotel staff if they have any medicine they could offer to me. i explain to the folks at the front desk what i'm feeling and at last someone is able to help me! the young lady at the front desk brings out this tiny black packet of medicine and a consent form (of course they have to remove their liability). normally i would have just passed but i was desperate. i signed the form, signing away my life, and took that little black packet up to my room.
i get the the room, open the packet to find this bright orange powder that i need to mix with a glass of water. i mix it up, hope for the best, and down the hatch it goes. i was asleep about 30 minutes later. i slept the whole night long, and when i woke up i actually felt like a million bucks compared to how i had been feeling the previous days.
needless to say, after that experience i always pack some simple over the counter medicine when i travel overseas (i.e. anti-inflammatory, cold medicine, & dietary aids) and i recommend you do too. you never know when you might get sick, and if you do how hard it could be to get treated.
happy travels wherever the road may take you...
until next time..
stay tuned for the next viewfromthair
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