Exit COS Trip: Thailand

 Onset of Dengue Fever in Climbing Transport, Chiang Mai

After the Philippines Libby and I flew from Manila to Bangkok, Thailand. In Asia's, perhaps, most dense concentration of vice and tranquility, we met Gabby, my Peace Corps site mate from last year. Our intent was to have an extravagant climbing trip in both northern and southern Thailand, trying regional foods and drawing distinctions between climate and culture. To our demise, Libby and I both got Dengue Fever, spoiling most efforts and energy for adventure. Although we were bedridden for the bulk of our trip (especially me), travel is not about what you do but who you do it with, strangers or friends. 

Ao Nang 

Arriving in Bangkok was reliving. Despite the azures, pinks, emeralds, violets, and golds of the Philippine sky and sea, it was hot. Not as physically disastrous as Chongqing, but the entire absence of AC meant no breaks from the heat and sweat. Bangkok was cooler and our penitentiary-esque hostel, Smile Society, had arctic qualities. Libby was bedridden for our entire time in Bangkok, surviving alone as Gabby and I went out to explore the Red Light District (RLD). 

As cities go Bangkok is the strangest I have encountered. Nothing opens until 11am, and on the weekends the local store owners will push it to 2pm. When things open, there are restaurants, markets, mango slice sellers, fried plantain stalls, Chinese snack vendors, hot dogs, McDonalds, Starbucks, sushi, streetside coffee stands, and light and fresh Thai style rice noodles, and can't forget fried chicken with squeezed lime.  It is difficult to tell whether Thai sincerity is genuine or not because of the fact that their country has been entirely retrofitted for tourism, but regardless, there is clearly a deeply spiritual and kind quality to Thai people that I have not seen anywhere else in the world. 

I have met two people who have done world tours, have traveled to every country you can think of and more (takes two years), they have no relation to each other, and both people said Thailand was their favorite country in the world. 

 Ao Nang Beach in the South

We stayed in the heart of the RLD. At night the district is entirely transformed, from a deeply polite place, full of quiet entrapuners, city goers, and cute children to a steamy sewer pit of ratty tattooed men soliciting prostitution, 'sex shows,' and 'pong shows.' There are done-up women sitting in uniformed clusters outside of red and green neon light massage parlors. Cat calls. Drunk, fat, sweaty, and smoking white men answering with English, sometimes accented, sometimes recognizably American without shame. Bangkok does not hide anything at night, everything crawls to and out of the darkness of humanity and into the neon lighting. 

In Bangkok we met some of our good Chinese friends from Wanzhou. There are so many Chinese tourists in Thailand, South East Asia really, but Thailand is the hottest and easiest destination for Chinese travelers. Funny part is most Chinese travelers can't speak English or Thai, and Thai people can't speak Chinese, but have minimal English skills. Both Thai and Filipino people asked me why most Chinese travelers can't speak any English. I just told them it is complicated. 

After day two we were scheduled to leave for Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, and we were ready to leave by then. It has become clear to the three of us that we are not fit for the standard tourist thing: seeing temples, walking, sitting, eating, moving on to see the next site, then the beach, stuff like that. We flew to Chiang Mai in the afternoon. We stayed at Green Tiger Vegetarian House, which is probably one of the nicest hostels in the world. The price is high but every penny is worth it. 

 Swing Over Water in Ao Nang

To our good fortune one of our best PC China friends, Kayla and her friend from home, were staying at the same hostel at the exact same time. Thailand is the climbing Mecca of Asia, and Chiang Mai is the Kaaba. The next morning we were super stoked to finally get on the infamous Crazy Horse crag, an hour outside of the city. We arrived at the crag early in the morning. We picked an easy route to warm-up on. Dizzily, I led the route, realizing at the last bolt to the top that I was not aware of what I was doing, where my feet were being placed and the distribution of my weight. My mind was empty, yet my head was pounding. 

After finishing the route I needed to lie down, so I picked a semi-inclined yellow slab of limestone to lie down on. Pulled my hood over my eyes to guard my face from mosquitos. I sat there and attempted to fall asleep. Ants were crawling all over and around me, mosquitos buzzing in my ear just outside of my hood. Thankfully it was cooler and overcast with a breeze high on the rock or I would have been boiling. 

After eating a pre-packed pad thai lunch, in a hot festering delirium, I went down the mountain to lie down in the climbing transport. My heartbeat was in my frontal lobe, and frontal lobe and face on fire. A deep pressure induced pain formed behind my eyes, releasing a galvanized pain when I moved them from the straight-forward position. My lower back began to hurt. Then the sweat came in buckets. I was so out of it I couldn't tell how much time was passing, I was burning up, the sweat, arctic chills, the humidity from the rain, the light becoming unbearably bright, the incessantly irksome mosquitos, no sleeping, and the strangest part was that other than my lower back my body felt fine, so I didn't feel the need to leave the transport. 

Four hours passed. Libby and Gabby came down from Crazy Horse and we left for Chiang Mai proper. When I got back to the hostel all I could think to do was sleep. I crawled into bed. My heart was pounding too hard for sleep, then the sweat came again. Thankfully, Kayla is brilliant and she brought PC issued thermometers. When I took my temperature the first time it was 102F. You must understand I have had the flu once in my life, get colds twice a year, but other than that I have never been sick, not a broken bone, nothing. A combination of my mental state and my lack of history with sickness, I did not understand what was going on. 

My temp was 102F for two hours. I sweated out my fever in that time and I thought things would get better from there. I eventually fell asleep and woke up at 3:00am to the most unbearable chills, but in reality uncontrollable convulsions. They lasted 20 minutes. Until then I had never experienced being out of control of my body. At 4:30am I woke up to another fever. My temperature was 103.5F. At 104F your brain starts turning into scrambled eggs. 

I waited for 40 minutes to see if my temperature would drop and it did. Finally understanding this were serious I woke up Gabby for counsel because she is far more knowledgeable about this stuff than I am and she said we should go to the hospital. We walked to the hospital early in the morning. They ran blood tests and did a check up. The nurses were so nice I would need love poems to express my gratitude to them. 

In the waiting room of the ER I fell asleep across some chairs and was woken up by some nurses pulling me up. They brought me to a hospital bed in the hallway of the ER where I passed out. Another fever had taken me, rising to 103F. When I woke up I was not in the hallway, but in a room with a very charming and austere doctor in front of me, nurses staring and smiling down a me. Despite him clearly being at the end of his night shift he was attentive and careful of my condition. 

I had tested negative for dengue fever, but all of my symptoms matched, so they retested my blood along with some additional tests. At this point I was alert, my fever had broken, and I could tell I would be fine for at least half a day. I went back to the ER waiting room and the nurses were so nice to keep me company. They kept me entertained, asked questions about me, wanted to see photos of my family, and showed me the cafeteria on the 3rd floor, which had terrible food and wifi but some of the best coffee I have had in the past two years, there was also Muay Thai boxing on TV.  

The hospital opened and I was ushered into the main wing. There Kayla came to sit with me. She is so nice. I had to come back two days later for test results. I tested positive for Type #2 Dengue Fever. There are four types of dengue fever. It is transferred to humans by the nasty white tiger striped mosquitos which are rampant in hot and humid equatorial areas of the world. Dengue Fever is on part with Malaria as a world issue. There is no vaccine, treatment, or medicine for it, you just have to drink water suffer through it. 

It is likely that Libby and I picked it up when we were in the Philippines visiting the volunteers on their island. The rash on my arms I thought was heat rash, was likely a common rash you get right before dengue reveals itself. The good news is that since I have survived Type #2 Dengue Fever I am now immune to Type #2. The bad news is that if I get a different type of dengue, like the more common Type #1, the fever will hit me harder next time, and be very serious. 

 High Tide at Tonsai

The doctor was so nice. He said in a tranquil, polite, and austere voice, "We want to make sure you are safe. We think you should get blood tests every two days to make sure your platelet levels are ok. Here are some places you can go to in Karabi (our next destination, in the south) to get your blood tested. We hope you stay safe and are comfortable." Honestly, nicest people. 

As I found out most dengue deaths are not caused by the fevers, but by bleeding out. Dengue attacks your platelets and liver. The liver is usually fine in the end, but the platelets are troublesome. In short, most people who die from dengue do not keep track of their platelet levels and the levels drop super low to the point where your blood will not clot, get some injury, mostly internal, and they bleed out inside without knowing it. It is scary because the only thing you can do to prevent this is drink water, make sure you don't get cut or injured, and hope your platelet levels rise. 

Although we suffered for two weeks, Libby and I are both fine now. 

We flew to Karabi in the south after four days in Chiang Mai. We stayed in Ao Nang where there was a clinic to give me blood tests. Our plan was to take a boat to the mostly secluded Tonsai Beach. At Tonsai, just around the corner from the popular and expensive Railay Beach, there are tons of developed crags. Tonsai is another climbers Kaaba. After I was finally cleared by the doctor we left for the beach. There we met climbers from all over the world. The atmosphere is unique to the climbing community, and expected. Everybody is friendly, chill, there is beer and other substances. Everybody is highly supportive and encouraging of your climbing, providing insight. 

Throughout the Thailand trip I was super tired, and even now, writing days later I am still fatigued from the dengue, but as a consequence of my fatigue I barely took any pictures during the trip. I regret not having the energy. Tonsai Beach is brown and sandy, with jungle foliage, the beach bounded by high rusty orange and white crags. It is really a remarkable place. 

Caught in a monsoon on the water from Tonsai to Ao Nang, it was a little scary

Libby and Gabby climbed. I was too tired to do much, but I still had a great time because of the company. One thing I forgot to mention is that it was monsoon season while we were there. Randomly there would be huge gusts of wind followed by insane amounts of rain at blowing at crazy speeds. Everything is upturned and left destroyed. Amazingly, there was a large section of overhung rock on the beach that covers a large area of sand. We worked on a route with other climbers (a very very difficult route), had a fire, some beer, hung out, and watch the terrible power of the rain blow all around us. It was something magical. 

Even though the Thailand climbing trip did not work out as I had imagined, it was still a great trip. I learned things I wouldn't have learned if I hadn't gone. Mostly importantly I experienced it with good company, moments I would not trade for anything. 

Ugh. . . Dengue, Finally Over

Exit COS Trip: Philippines

5:30am at Siquijor 

For our exit Peace Corps China trip Libby and I decided to head to the Philippines for our first stop. We set out on July 12th from Chengdu and arrived on the small south central island of Siquijor, Philippines the next day. There we visited a few PC Philippines volunteers to reflect on and draw differences and similarities between our services. Discovering the real challenges other volunteers face set some lingering tensions about our service to rest. I highly recommend COSing volunteers to visit active PCVs in other countries at their sites. A visit answers a lot of questions many volunteers are likely to develop about service in other countries while at site. 

First Mate unloading our kayaks from the bunka boat in El Nido

After Siquijor we headed for a small developing tourist town at the north end of Palawan island, El Nido. We did many touristy things, making us uncomfortable for most of the time: kayak island hopping boat tour, kayaking, tons of snorkeling, tons of motor bike riding, white sandy beaches with coconuts, and although not very touristy I snorkeled out to a deep, coral barren area and did a pinch of deep water soloing (climbing over water with only climbing shoes). 

Philippine sunrises are just spectacular

Nerd Alert!

Leaving Beijing:

Leaving China, Bye Bye from Beijing

We flew from Chengdu to Beijing to Manila to Cebu City, then a bus to the end of Cebu Island, then a ferry to Sibulan, then a trike ride (three-wheeled motorcycle, sort of) to Dumaguete Port, and then another ferry to Siquijor. Long travel, even with a daylong delay in Beijing, but Siquijor was worth every second of it. 

Hard to explain this view, but we are in the air at twilight

Siquijor Island:

Ferry to Sibulan hit rough headwinds 

Unspeakably Beautiful Philippines

Libby (and myself not pictured) skeptical about our first trike ride

There are three ways to travel on land on smaller islands in the Philippines. There are public buses, trikes, and jeepney. The public buses on the smaller islands can be rented out by locals, for a birthday party or something, and as a consequence, they bus might not show up to the stop on that particular day. Trikes (pictured above) are motorcycles that have been welded to a thin metal sidecar structure. We were told they are of Russian design and the designs are different on every island. Jeepney, is a private small-bus, likely owned by the driver. The coolest thing about jeepney and the trikes is that they all have custom paint jobs and metal work, themes ranging from Christian saints to anime characters. The last trike we rode was Batman themed. 

The treehouse we slept in

To arrange the offhand site-visit, I contacted our kind and magnanimously generous host, Sandra, through the PC Couchsurf Facebook group. In the group I looked for active PCVs in the region I was interested in traveling to and sent FB messages to all of the volunteers. Only one responded, so I recommend this strategy when your try a PC couchsurf.

When Libby and I arrived at Siquijor we were greeted by four volunteers. As volunteers come they were amiable, highly informative, passionate, cool, and a little nerdy. Unlike China, where we all teach English, I believe the four were broken into three different sectors: youth development, ________, and environment . Immediately we were lifted into Tagalog, dialects, food, habits, education, environment, economics, and weather. Hyper specific things that living on the island outside of the PC would be difficult to learn, for many reasons of perspective and intention. 

Old Church made of coral

On Siquijor all of the volunteers lived with host families. Sandra's family opened their doors to us. Gave us meals and shelter, which ended up being the new tree house they had built recently. Their wooden house sits on a hill above the ocean. Chickens cluck and cheep with snorting pigs and marauding dogs patrolling the lush property. A farm is one word for the place, but the well pruned bushes, mowed lawn, and clean sunlight reflecting off of every leaf and flower certainly detract from the grave images I have developed of farms in China. 

Inside the coral church

At the waterhole with coconuts

Keeping this short, on Siquijor two volunteers have coral gardening as part of their PC projects. Not long ago a typhoon swept the island clean of 94 percent of its coral, desiccating life in the reefs surrounding the island. Peer at the ground within a few hundred feet of the coast and you will probably see skeletons coral strewn by the typhoon. As part of their larger PC project, the volunteers dive, in real diving gear and plant coral, with the intention of regrowing the population, and possibly bringing the reef back to an equilibrium with the ocean. You might be pulling your hair out right now at the thought of their project, and you should be. Despite the reality of this project being underwater labor, there is no way you cannot make their project sound badass. Good people doing good things.

On the other side, despite the volunteers living in an imagined island paradise working one of the coolest jobs you could not think of, there are setbacks and challenges. I will not discuss my observations, but like China and every other PC country, there are highly complex cultural challenges that take significant time to even realize. The point being, at points, we all think we got it bad in the PC, many think service would be better somewhere else, but challenges in one place will still be challenges in the next. 

Libby and I got lucky with timing and came during the weekend of 'fiesta' in the county we were staying in. Sandra, being a great host, got us all tickets to the beauty pageant. I knew Filipinos loved Pacquiao like Job loved god, but I wasn't aware of the staunch affection for beauty pageants. A culture bound by beauty pageants is a culture I don't understand, for sure. Regardless, hundreds of people filled the auditorium, cheering at contestants' references to the Lord and developing tourism in the county. 

In the image above, there is a boy flying off a swing made of vine. This area is a popular swimming spot for locals and the little tourism that has touched the island. One great thing about the Philippines is all the water you would swim in, from rivers to sea, is hot. You never have that temperature adjustment period, it is always perfect. 

That time we rode on top of jeepney

Host brother

On the trail to the beach

Fisherman

For our last two days at Siquijor we went with some friends of the volunteers to a beach only known by locals in the area. It was discovered by locals after the typhoon that killed all the coral. Our plan was to snorkel, hang out in the sun, make a bonfire, and camp on the beach. 

At the beach I spoke with some of the local fisherman that came ashore. I asked them if there are less fish now than there was before the typhoon. They said the fish they catch now a re significantly small than they were before, but I am not sure this has to do with the typhoon. 

My first shot at night photography. Got lots of work to do. 

Light work

Light painting

We woke up at 5:30am for the sunrise. It was one of the most beautiful I have seen in my life. These photos have very little editing. 

Passed out on the beach after the sunrise

We had a great time on Siquijor. The beauty of the island was perhaps less important than us visiting other volunteers at their site. We are super grateful to all the volunteers and the family who hosted us.

 EL Nido, Palawan 

Bay near our hotel

Next we traveled to El Nido, Palawan. Palawan is known as the 'last frontier' in the Philippine archipelago. I am not sure what classifies it as 'undeveloped,' because it seemed just as developed as Siquijor. Regardless of its development status, El Nido was rated the number one tourist destination and island in the world by a handful of reputable travel companies, such as Tripadvisor and Conde Nast, and after going it is hard to argue with them. 

El Nido bay is where most of the hotels, hostels, and restaurants are located, where everything happens pretty much. What makes El Nido so great are its the white sandy beaches scattered throughout the small islands not far out of the bay. It is very much paradise, with coral and great snorkeling.  

Sunrise from our hostel

My only critique of the Philippines is of the food. Even though the flavors are highly complex, there is very little diversity by way of substance. Most meals are just meat and white rice (Adobo, pictured above). There are vegetables at restaurants, but they come in very small portions, some places don't even have them on the menu. My other issue is that if it is not meat and rice, it is sweet. Pretty much everything has sugar in it, painfully so. The lack of vegetables and I forgot to mention fruit is likely due to the archipelago status, but after talking to some locals about agriculture, they saw no reason why they shouldn't be able to grow vegetables on Palawan. I was told all produce comes from Manila, by ship, and if there is a storm and the ship gets delayed all of the produce rots on the ship and the island is left with no produce for a week. 

On our way to a waterfall. And men ride water buffalo in Palawan. 

Libby and I spent most of our time at El Nido riding motorbikes, snorkeling (7 times), on beaches, and kayaking. We have never done the average tourist thing before, and it was weird, so strange that I am pretty convinced we will never do it again. 

The only non-tourist thing we did was deep water soloing, and we barely did it. The only reason we went to El Nido was because I had read about a couple of climbers developing some deep water soling in El Nido in 2014. The idea is that you kayak out to the rock faces on the islands and then climb without a rope. When you are too tired to continue or slip you drop into the sea below. After kayaking out to the crags, we realized this whole thing was kind of ridiculous. When you get there your hands are super pruney and you are tired and sunburnt. The worst part is the rock. The rock in El Nido is extremely sharp. I did one route twice and left with a pretty nasty puncture in my hand. I asked the workers at our hotel about people DWSing in El Nido, and he said people have come before and tried to rent a bunka boat, even for crazy high prices, but bunka captain would take the risk. Unless you are a very very hardcore climber, I am positive a DWS trip it El Nido is currently unrealistic. To developers, there are a bunch of crags in El Nido bay that need developing. 

Dark red crabs live in the waterfall

We biked around the main part of the El Nido one day. It took over three hours but we saw the countryside

I haven't mentioned how hot it was in the Philippines. Not that we couldn't escape the heat in the shade, but we spent almost all of our time on the water, motorbiking, or in the sun pretty much. We didn't have one cloudy day in the Philippines, perfect weather, all sun and puffy white clouds, but after five days we were praying for storms. We were destroyed by the sun. We had to spend a day inside to recover. 

You just got to go. It is that beautiful

I got a flat. Luckily the mechanic was close

Even though beaches aren't really our thing, Nacpan Beach is extremely nice. Eat at Prince's Restaurant. The food is very affordable, and possibly the best food I had in the Philippines. The waiter there is unlike any other waiter. "The code of Palawan is: Smile everyday, everyday be happy."

Bunka boats

So much sunburn

This is a pretty common view in Palawan

Mentioning how Libby and I aren't comfortable with the whole tourist thing, we dug deeper and ended up getting a private kayak island hopping overnight tour. There was a three member bunka crew for the two of us. We would kayak between islands, snorkel, and then the boat would drive us long legs. Because we booked the tour through our hotel at El Gordo's Adventures, the crew has designed a trip that runs separately from all of the other tour boats. When you book a standard tour in El Nido, you are carted around with all of the other tourists, sitting on the beaches with all of them, but our boat hits all the spots when the boats aren't there, so it is very peaceful and you feel like less of a tourist. 

We camped on the beach. Sunrise. 

We kayaked through lagoons only accessible by kayak. When we were leaving tons of tourists started arriving. All the noise ruins the peace of the sanctuary. It is filled with sea urchins. 

Captain grilling a fish for us

One of the most amusing things about or trip was the question: 'Is she your wife?' Might be an Asia thing, but a guy and a girl can't travel together without the assumption of marriage. People would wait for Libby to leave and then pop the question. But, only when she was gone.  

The deck hand was very cool, I think his name is Muka

The las thing I want to express about the Philippines is my affection for the people. First, I must say the beauty gods favor the people of their country. But, more importantly they are super nice and they are always smiling. So many times in a nonchalant friendly way people walked up to me to just find out what I was doing. Hopefully I'll be able to return one day. All in all it was a great trip. Now for Thailand.