A minor injury

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Considering how tired I was last night, I didn’t sleep very well.  This morning I had a bit of a mini-breakdown while on the phone with my mom.  As much as I’m loving my trip, and I really am enjoying every experience, it’s still hard to be on the road.  I still have six weeks until I fly to the States and while the time is going quickly, sometimes it feels overwhelming.  I’m definitely glad I signed up for a three week tour to Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.  I think part of my problem is that Thailand is up I the air because I don’t know the process for getting my Myanmar visa.

Anyway, I went for breakfast and managed to pull myself together.  I decided to sit in a lounge chair in the shade by the pool overlooking the beach.  I was adjusting the back of the chair when it slipped out of my grip and landed on my finger.  So of course the waterworks started again, even though I was trying to be strong and brush it off.   Called mom again and dad was just getting home so I went online to show him my finger.  It was already bruising and he said I should have it x-rayed (since its my right pointer finger – making it a bit harder to type right now).  I soaked it in ice water for 20 minutes then asked the hotel if there was a hospital nearby (also asked a woman at the hotel who happened to be a nurse to have a look).  The best way for me to get there was motorbike.  On the way through town, the driver stopped at what looked like a small pharmacy but is actually a clinic or something.  I sat and waited for the doctor.  The nurses took my temperature (under my armpit) and blood pressure (111/70).  When the doctor pressed around different parts of my finger, he determined that it was just a sprain and put it in a splint.  There were about six nurses watching the process, one fanning me since there was no aircon; apparently some of the electricity wasn’t working.  The doctor gave me a few extra gauze strips and tape and told me to wear the splint for two weeks.  Ahhh, such a pain in the neck.

Due to the lack of electricity, the credit card machine wasn’t working, and my motorbike driver needed to take me to an ATM to get cash.  We ended up going to two machines since the first one wouldn’t give me as much cash as I wanted (neither would the second for that matter but it gave a bit more).  Then back to pay.  At this point, it was noon, so I asked the guy to drop me at a restaurant to have lunch since we were in the main part of town.  I went to the Italian place and ordered pizza and a smoothie feeling sorry for myself.  Luckily, I had my kindle, so I read while I waited for my lunch.  An hour later, the driver came back to take me to my hotel. Pretty sure I overpaid him, but at least I got a lot of stops out of it.

This afternoon I’ve just been relaxing, which was the plan for today, minus the finger.  I’d considered taking a tour to the sand dunes at 2pm and when there was a short downpour at 3pm was happy I hadn’t (guess everything worked out, right?).  Read and iced my finger.  Relaxed listening to music at the pool.  Enjoyed just hanging out.

Went for dinner at a restaurant across the street from my hotel and ended up running into a couple I’d met in Sapa and another couple from Hue – and I’m not even staying in the heart of town, nor was it a LP recommended restaurant.  Pretty small world in the Vietnam travel network.  Now I’m off to bed with my finger elevated.