Thursday, January 28, 2010

Mosquitoes love me.

Okay, lots to catch up on! Well, lets start with the most important:
FRUIT SHAKES.
I love them. A LOT! I've had 2 already today and it's only 2:30pm. I got strawberry first, and just wanted to stick with that because I loved it so much! But now as an experienced fruit shaker my fav flavors are:
Mango
Strawberry
Lemon (tied with strawberry)
Pineapple

I am still waiting to try dragonfruit, papaya, and many others!

We got RIPPED OFF at a hotel in Ao Nang. It took both Scott and me a while to get over that, but now that we've been staying in cheaper places we can more easily justify how all that went down. Luckily it was only 1 night. We spent the last 2 days in rock climbing HAVEN: Ton Sai. This place is RUGGED. I felt like I walked into Hawaii in the 50's when our boat landed. It was full of dreadlocks and braids, gypsy pants and stink. Everyone was SO chill and life is cheap over there! It was thrilling to watch these human beings scale the limestone like they did, truly phenomenal. I imagine there no better place to climb in the world! These walls were directly over the ocean with peaks and beaches all around. We had BBQ chicken which was SO DELICIOUS (I don't know WHAT they marinate with!) and corn on the cob. They skewer the corn into long sticks and then shove it in the sand where you are laying.

Oh, I got hurt in the water. I was just wading around and the next thing I know, SPIKES all through my finger. When I pulled it out of the water, my finger was black where the spikes had gone in. It hurt like crazy and I thought I was going to die of poison. A little dramatic maybe, but it's true. So I ran to one of the pedicure/massage ladies on the beach hoping she would pull the spikes out with some tweezers or something. Well, this man came over, and it was obvious he had seen this injury before, and he knew how bad I was hurting. He immediately began searching for a stick and found a sandy one. Then he got a lime and started squeezing it onto my finger, and then tapping (forcefully) the stick onto my finger. It felt like he was pushing the spikes in, and I the acid stung, so I tried to pull away. But he wouldn't let me. After probably 10 min of pounding that stick on my finger, the pain finally went away :) The spikes are still in me, but if we understood his English correctley, I am supposed to leave them in, and they will work themselves out with time. At least my finger isn't black anymore!

The mosquitoes were mean to me. I counted over 80 bites on ONE LEG this morning. There must be 300+ throughout my whole body. I am just waiting for malaria... But yeah, they itch pretty bad and just make you crazy! I could hear them in the night. We slept under a mosquito net, but the netting wasn't too tight, they must have gotten in and then gotten trapped. Anyway, Scott and I were both eaten alive, and we are not happy about it.

In 20 minutes we will leave Ao Nang for Bangkok. We have a small, bad bus for the 11-13 hour ride. Luckily we slept so poorly (with the mosquitoes last night) that hopefully we will be tired enough to sleep regardless. We hope to do a Thai cooking class and get massages from blind people (more sensitive to touch) in Bangkok. And we're glad to get to a big city on a Sunday so we can go to church again!

Love!
Stefanie

7 comments:

Heather said...

OH, this was a hard post to read. I feel for you with those horrible mosquito bites. And the black hand/spikes? Lucky that guy knew what to do for you.

Interesting fact about the blind massagers! Good luck finding a church.

Julie T said...

Ouch! We so feel your pain! And I know how you HATE mosquito bites! You're lucky though-in Markies' case, that island man ran up and peed on her leg. Sure enough, the acid took the pain away. Let us know when the spikes come out. As wonderful and exciting as your adventures are, it will be wonderful to have you home in one piece!

PS Don't exit Thailand with too much haste! Everyone says they should have stayed much longer there and just snuck a peek at the rest!

Noelle said...

Oh man that sounds so painful. I hope the recovery works out for you like the guy alluded. Have fun on the long bus ride. You'll have to let me know if they have any interesting/inappropriate movies on your buses. Have fun at the floating markets! Wish we could have done that.

Phil said...

Hey Guys, I am glad to hear that you are safe! Stef, the spikes in the hand sound painful. Best of luck with the mosquite situation. Take care!

Dane and Korine Dellenbach said...

Ask for the Bunkers in the Bangkok english speaking ward. He was Dane's ward mission leader and is the nicest guy and has the greatest family.

NatalieD said...

Too bad you're not getting back a few days sooner. There is a casting call for "The Amazing Race" on Feb. 6 in Auburn.

SueAnn said...

The spikes and mosquitos don't sound too fun! Please keep taking those malaria pills. Like Julie, I will be glad to see you both at home and in good health.