Working and thinking about travel vaccinations

During my day I was too lazy (and too busy because of the Telakka Christmas Bazaar tomorrow at 12-20  ^ picture up there, my stuff - the reflectors on the down left corner.) to cook.

My whole kitchen is a mess, all my materials all over the place, so, I went to get a pizza. I started reading  the local newspaper Aamulehti there and my eye caught an article about vaccinations, mostly about the normal flu prevention but also travel issues. Especially the facts that they stated there startled me. 

Our trip to Philippines was a "big one" when it came to vaccinations. I also had to take some additions, that we need to take in Finland for our normal program. What I found out, was that on the year I was born, the local program in my town did not vaccinate against MPR (measles, parotitis, rubella). This all took calls to the town where I was born and some digging into the old files and then sending them to me. That should anyway be now in control. But, I had been traveling a lot in areas where the noted epidemics happen, and could have caught something and did not even know that my vaccination cover was not ok...thanks to Finnish health system. No need to vaccinate these guys anymore, the illness is gone from Finland! 

The others I got was Typhoid fever, Hepatitis B (only one shot now, and now I am ok for the rest of my life). Malaria then...I decided not to get the pills since the side effects have been quite hard, and if I get it, normally the symptoms are different if you take the pills..the doctor agreed with me on this. There was different info on the Finnish vaccination pages (Rokote.fi  and Matkailijan terveysopas ) and the WHO  pages as well as the malaria maps on CDC.

The local newspaper article was quite clear on one thing,  Japanese encephalitis (the whole program of 2 first shots costs 250€) was not needed. I guess my doctor would not agree on this one. There has been one single case in Finland, and the person got the illness in Singapore. Also typhoid fever and cholera vaccinations were to be avoided because of the side effects on a short vacation lasting only a few weeks. 

Anyway, what I recommend now is this http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/   (travel section of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) 

and there you´ll find all the epidemics that we should know about while getting abroad. 

How has your travel health been? 

Toiletries

Now, to the shower. Which actually reminds me about the toiletries I brought with me and wanted to test on my trip. Here we go; a topic for a new blog entry.

OK, the washing cloth I did,was pretty much chapter 8 after the 2 weeks in Semporna...Had to throw it away, but the small hankies I made of 100% bamboo cloth are still working very well. Very useful indeed of for the toilet use!

Other toiletries I brought with me were the soaps, of which I forgot one at Jukkas place in Singapore, maybe even the best one, my shampoo..Anyway, I had to work my way through the rest organic soap bars. It was noticed that they attracted the fauna quite a lot. One morning we woke up in Pulau Derawan (in the Indonesian side, you remember?) and one of my soaps was missing. The only track was the half eaten leftovers with claw- and tooth marks on the other soap...maybe a rat had been curious about the soaps and took one sample to eat.

Other remarks on toiletries has been the oils that I normally have to use a lot in Finland. Not in here, only in very special occasions. It is so humid in here, that my skin feels fine. Except for my cuticles that keep to stay as dry as always. On the other hand I have gone back to the-way-back-in-Thailand- discovery and that is baby talcum. The best and useful method to feel refreshed a sweat free, just toss some of it (in your genitalia area and )all over your body, and voilá - you´ll feel totally fresh!

Make up is totally overestimated while traveling, but yesterday meeting Sallyanna after staying in the bushes for the past 3 days, I started thinking about looking nicer..I am in the Sarawak Capital goods sake...

The good sun lotion is very essential. I took the wrong turn in the beginning and tried to use the new Natuc lotion, that did not work at all. Not for me. I went to buy some Japanese stuff with factor 65 and that was working a bit better. It even had this menthol cooling effect in it. Nice! The rest of teh trip I have been using again my well trusted, tested and working Favora Sun Gel. Even if the factor is 15, it works wonders!

And now, totally, I need a shower!

Kalimantan Borneo ~ Sangatta

I have been thinking about my whole trip myself after Simone and I separated. I try my best of luck down by the memory lane and write about the trip before arriving in Kuching. To make the story more interesting to my dear readers, I will write it topless.

Since Simone left I was just trying to calm down, relax and get better. Before she went on her way, we did another trip to another hospital and to yet another doctor. THE hospital was one of the most expensive in town, with a nice lake inside the building, swan boats, fountains etc. The female doctor made the dame examination as the previous one, gave me a prescription, and this time the medication was mixed by hand and then put into small capsules, to be enjoyed 3 times a day. Unfortunately it was not that easy.

The next day I was still weak an my head was only slightly better. During my stay, I had been to Pondok Bambu- restaurant down the road next to our hotel, and got to know Helena who run the restaurant. After Helena, I met his brother Tommy, later another bro Hanz and their mother... They all suggested me to see a lady who is good in curing illnesses using traditional methods. There I went.

The modest Muslim lady was concerned about my situation and really wanted to cure me. She gave ma a good traditional massage with herb oils and some chanting. Later she took me into their living room saying she wants to give some more treatments. Tommy translated to me that she was asking what have I had wrong with my stomach lately... The lady took some more oils, herbs, vegetables like onion and carrots and made a mixture of these. With the mixture she then treated my joints and ears and finally pulled the bad spirits out of me. She told me that I had been crossing some bad energies on my way in Borneo and those had started to follow me, that was the reason of the headache. The next morning I should feel better and if not, she would treat me again. She also said that if I did not come to see her now, my travel would have stopped there.

The next morning the headache was gone, and still is.

The rest of the time in Sangatta continued with good conversations, drinking good coffee with friendly laughters. I was totally adopted by this wonderful Chinese family and the sisters from Warung Bone3. I was almost spoiled, getting free coffee, breakfast, food, took me to fishing, gave me rides on scooter...you name it. I wish I am able to give as much of myself when I have some visitors the next time!

On my last night I wanted to help on my own to promote Pondok Bambu. I told Helena to ask her youngest brother to make some flyers that I could give to people while walking to the hotspot with my laptop. People were REALLY amazed to see a WHITE person handing out something and they were curious...I haven´t heard yet if someone came after the promotion but I hope to find out soon. I mean, what the heck- those people were shouting after me anyway, why not get some fun out of it.

~ ~ ~

The day when I left came too soon. I was crying on my way in the bus, because it was again a stress to be moving after such a nice time in a small town, even if I did not see the orangutans - I got something 10 times better; FRIENDS.

Things you appreciate while travelling

- Warm shower (especially after 14 hours bus/van/jeep ride)
- Clean clothing (hostels sometimes does not do laundry and you find it very exhausting to wash yourself in the sink)
- Cold water to drink (in the countries where you have electricity only from 18->06, and therefore the cold drinks are rare.

Bus from Berau to Samarinda

09062010 Sangatta blog entry

Life takes surprising turns.
Our morning duties included a stroll to post office. We were not lucky. The prices to send a parcel to Europe were outrageous; a letter 100g was “only” 13€...and not to mention my snorkeling equipment that would have been 91,05€. Insanity. Not even in Finland mailing stuff is that expensive.

Later, in a good faith, we took the bus from Berau to Samarinda, but ended up having a ride from HELL. Sitting our way on the front seat, we were able to keep our eye on the road too clearly. Pavement ended every 20m, the mud holes were huge and there was one retard-(un)helping hand-mechanic-type of thing sitting next to the driver and laughing all the time when we hit the ditches and he also surely needed a hearing aid based by the loudness he used his voice. Our driver maybe had won his drivers license from the lottery of the mentally AND physically challenged people, where he probably got his car helper as a bonus gift. Anyway, he had some talent indeed. He mastered skillfully to aim the bus to every single hole on the road. He also started racing with another bus driver, almost hit the other bus and in the end hit a massive ditch that made the passengers to be thrown all over. Finally he hit another big ditch and broke the bus. It was of course nice to see the milky way again for the 45 minutes they fixed the engine.

Simone took tranquilizers for the rest of the trip and we decided to take the next stop at Sangatta to sleep over. The total travel time by this far had been 14 hours. My headache had gone worse (had had it for 5 days already) and I wanted to get some medicine prescribed by a doctor. We stopped at a small restaurant. At that moment I could not even think anymore. We asked everyone for help, and the only answer we got from men, was that there is no hospital in the town (...where there was a big company for the coal mining industry?!?). The restaurant girls were a lot more helpful; they gave us the address and phone number for a hospital and after a minute told to give me a ride to there! Leni drove me with her scooter to the hospital and waited for the whole examination before drove back to the restaurant. I got the medicine and was offered a bed to sleep while waiting for Simone.

Meanwhile Simone had been eating, having a coffee, talking with the girls and arranging a hotel room with the help of these nice ladies. She was awake more than 24 hours. We slept quite ok from that afternoon until next morning.

Today I have been talking with the sisters who helped us, with the help a dictionary and drawing. I also went to eat to a nearby restaurant and met there a wonderful Chinese Indonesian lady who spoke good English. She told that the word had been spread over that there are 2 Western women in the town. I was also talking the local police officer and we even discussed beyond the normal small talk- more than countries, climate, my age, my health, my marital status...we talked about money, traveling, planting trees for a safe income in the future, racism against the Chinese community in here etc.

And when I got back to the hotel, Simone called me that she saw a mother orangutang with a baby!

Peeling and leaving

It is time to say good bye to Semporna. Pay all my bills and hit the road again to south, to Indonesian state Kalimantan. All my friends are about to leave as well, so, I decided also to move on.

Unfortunately not with Nella. She got her symptoms back and flew her mother on an adventure of a lifetime. Her mom has arrived today and I am hoping to meet her as well.

I also found out that my sunburns are the second stage burns and they need 2 to 3 weeks to heal. Not very nice. At least not when it is combined with mosquito bites. After the water bubbles on my skin; I am now peeling off and look totally disgusting. I have been trying to hide myself under long sleeves both outside and in the water.

Today I made some unfortunate money transfers that did not get through. I was able to pay my hostel, but the diving is now waiting. Hopefully the transactions will show tomorrow, and I am able to go. I did succeed with the money transaction with some other money though. Nella gave me a huge bunch of bills in an envelope and told me to hand them over to some Belgian guys that would arrive by boat from Mabul resort. The Belgians had given Nella almost 1000€ worth of money to be exchanged by the time they arrived and she asked me to deliver the amount. Now it is out of my hands, the guys got their money and everything is ok. I have been really thinking that while travelling the people tend to help more with that kind of things and REALLY trust. I have been loaning my stuff all over and today I need to get them back together again for packing, but it does not bother me too much, because, me too, I trust. And besides, why not, if I have a book that can help someone, if I have a laptop that someone can use in a cafe to read the news and emails, why not?

Crossing borders to Indonesian side seems to be made quite hard. No information anywhere...at the moment I am going to get there to see it myself, how to get from Tawau to Tarakan and then later on further. When I find that out, I will put all the information online to help someone else who is making the same trip!


So, making the long story short, I will continue with diving stuff. I made through the Rescue Diver Course. And the first aid. Then I needed some time to think over what I was about to do. I decided to take a few days of fun diving and see, if I got back to myself in the water. I did. I did not make it ll the way to Sipadan, but I dot not regret it. There was a lot of talk about the experience in there; some said it is totally over estimated, some said it was the best dives if their lives. For me, I think everything after my night dive will be less interesting.

The night dive was amazing. I was diving with Flem, and his 2 Advanced course students Luke&Kate who were taking their night dive specialty. It was great to somehow take part in the course, to remember what are the important things and just listen. When we descended, Flem asked us to sit on the sandy bottom, to turn off out torches by pointing them closely to our bodies and then play with the water. The water was full of curious shrimps. And when you waved your hand in the water, they flashed as if they were fireflies. Beautiful. When we started our very slow dive, we discovered the incredible amount of crap that people throw to the water. Millions of plastic bags hovering in the water among the jellyfish that were size of a bucket, diameter something like 50cm. Ouch! We saw huge boxing-shrimps, crabs of all kinds, sleeping fish etc.

After a while Flem pointed out a flamboyant cuttlefish and we took our time to follow it with our torches. What happened was, that it lead us to some seahorses and stopped something like half a meter from them. At first it was tough decision to decide which animal to look at, but when the seahorse started giving birth to some little seahorses, it was an easy choice. A very very very rare sight!! This will be hard to beat at any dive. Maybe a manatee would be the next one to be wait.