Sick
On Tuesday, Nov. 14, it was time for Eunice to move out of her apartment. She doesn't have much stuff, so it didn't take that long to pack everything up. Her brother picked us up, and we stored some things at his place in KL. Then he drove us to a bus station, where we planned to take a night bus. The night bus would take us to a ferry to Langkawi, one of Malaysia's most beautiful islands.
We sat on the bus from 11:30 PM until 5 AM the next morning. In theory, we were supposed to sleep on the bus, sleep on the ferry, and then arrive at our hotel in Langkawi refreshed and ready to have fun in tropical paradise.
Instead, I got no sleep on the freezing cold, swaying bus. I only slept a little on the ferry. Once we got to Langkawi, it was hot and I wasn't feeling very well. I felt like I was going to have diarrhea, but there were no bathrooms that had tissue. I just wanted to get back to our hotel and sleep, but we had a 30 minute drive. Our rental car was a total piece of crap. It was manual drive, so I couldn't drive it; it had lots of trouble getting into gear, and it had no power steering so Eunice had lots of trouble turing the wheel. Plus it was almost empty of petrol when they gave it to us, the roads were mostly unmarked, the map sucked, and the car was not insured. So we had a "fun, interesting, and educational" experience with that car. I was supposed to navigate, but I was so hot and miserable that I kept losing my temper. :(
When we finally arrived at the hotel I immediately had diarhhea. I took a shower and slept for four hours. When I woke up it was 3 in the afternoon and I knew that I was sick. I had all the same symptoms that Eunice had had, like fever and sore throat. We had booked snorkeling for one day, and an island hopping tour for another day, but those would have to be postponed. I slept for the rest of the day.
Eunice brought me some food that afternoon. It was Pad Thai and some soda. It was good, but I started to feel sick from it. After a few hours I started feeling nauseated, but I couldn't throw up because the food was already out of my stomach. Unluckily for me, I also had constipation, so my body couldn't get the food out of my body at all! So I had nausea all night long. That night my fever also got really bad, so I had a night of intense suffering.
I slept in until 11 the next day (Nov. 16). I was feeling better, but still very weak and sleepy and light-headed. I tried going outside with Eunice but the intense heat and humidity made me feel like I was going to faint. So Eunice, bless her soul, took me to a massage parlor and got them to massage my head, shoulders, and feet.
I was feeling braver that evening, so Eunice and I went out to a shopping complex to shop for a new camera. The old camera had been dodgy, sometimes taking photos and sometimes refusing to. Now it had stopped taking photos entirely, so if we wanted photos at all I'd have to buy a new one. After shopping around we found a nice deal: the latest model of Nikon Coolpix (the L2, with 6 megapixels), with 1 GB SD memory card included, for RM 890 (about $240). That's about the same price as the camera, which was 3 megapixels and came with a 256 MB SD card.
The second picture I took with my new camera
The view from outside our hotel
We sat on the bus from 11:30 PM until 5 AM the next morning. In theory, we were supposed to sleep on the bus, sleep on the ferry, and then arrive at our hotel in Langkawi refreshed and ready to have fun in tropical paradise.
Instead, I got no sleep on the freezing cold, swaying bus. I only slept a little on the ferry. Once we got to Langkawi, it was hot and I wasn't feeling very well. I felt like I was going to have diarrhea, but there were no bathrooms that had tissue. I just wanted to get back to our hotel and sleep, but we had a 30 minute drive. Our rental car was a total piece of crap. It was manual drive, so I couldn't drive it; it had lots of trouble getting into gear, and it had no power steering so Eunice had lots of trouble turing the wheel. Plus it was almost empty of petrol when they gave it to us, the roads were mostly unmarked, the map sucked, and the car was not insured. So we had a "fun, interesting, and educational" experience with that car. I was supposed to navigate, but I was so hot and miserable that I kept losing my temper. :(
When we finally arrived at the hotel I immediately had diarhhea. I took a shower and slept for four hours. When I woke up it was 3 in the afternoon and I knew that I was sick. I had all the same symptoms that Eunice had had, like fever and sore throat. We had booked snorkeling for one day, and an island hopping tour for another day, but those would have to be postponed. I slept for the rest of the day.
Eunice brought me some food that afternoon. It was Pad Thai and some soda. It was good, but I started to feel sick from it. After a few hours I started feeling nauseated, but I couldn't throw up because the food was already out of my stomach. Unluckily for me, I also had constipation, so my body couldn't get the food out of my body at all! So I had nausea all night long. That night my fever also got really bad, so I had a night of intense suffering.
I slept in until 11 the next day (Nov. 16). I was feeling better, but still very weak and sleepy and light-headed. I tried going outside with Eunice but the intense heat and humidity made me feel like I was going to faint. So Eunice, bless her soul, took me to a massage parlor and got them to massage my head, shoulders, and feet.
I was feeling braver that evening, so Eunice and I went out to a shopping complex to shop for a new camera. The old camera had been dodgy, sometimes taking photos and sometimes refusing to. Now it had stopped taking photos entirely, so if we wanted photos at all I'd have to buy a new one. After shopping around we found a nice deal: the latest model of Nikon Coolpix (the L2, with 6 megapixels), with 1 GB SD memory card included, for RM 890 (about $240). That's about the same price as the camera, which was 3 megapixels and came with a 256 MB SD card.
The second picture I took with my new camera
The view from outside our hotel