Whirlwind

Well it feels like it's been ages but a lot has happened to keep us busy and preoccupied. For those of you who may not have heard, Kev's grandpa Bell passed away suddenly late last week, pretty crappy news to get anytime, and while being away it leaves us feeling a bit stranded - a little better now that we've talked to family though. Sorry we couldn't be there and thinking of everyone...

We didn't receive this news right away because we were off email due to illness. After my last post, Kev was feeling quite sick. We won't get graphic here but after an hour of "fluid loss" we decided it was time to head to the hospital. Our hotel was kind enough to get us there. The emergency room was quick and Kev was on a stretcher within a couple of minutes. He received an IV and some prescriptions after they determined it wasn't malaria or anything else and told him he could spend the night. I played translator since I'm better with accents, and when I suggested to the nurse that I would go back to the hotel in the morning she thought it better that I stay. Kev slept mostly, which is great of course and I slept some in a plastic deck chair by his bed. The mosquitos got bad though at one point so I got up and resprayed. The geckos had gone off shift for the night. I thought the mosquitos were just coming in through the open window but after walking I realized that the hospital was practically open air (with the exception of actual rooms) with entire walls missing/open. We've agreed that the hospital was a good experience (besides Kev being sick) getting to meet some locals, see what local health care is like, etc. The resorts we stayed at were generally much cleaner than the hospital though hospital staff spoke much better English - thankfully! I paid for Kev's prescriptions (4 in all, very thorough indeed) but the night's stay was free, which we couldn't believe but appreciated of course, especially since I hadn't been able to call our travel insurance company - let's not get me started on phone issues again.

The next day we left, Kev stayed in bed mostly though he was feeling better and I went out for food and other provisions. The next day we flew from Krabi Thailand to KL Malaysia, then rushed to the bus station to take a bus to Singapore. The border deal was a little less panicky this time since we were on a "Super VIP bus" that wouldn't leave us in the lurch. We didn't know where we were dropped off and where it was in relation to where we were staying. It was 11:30 pm, we'd been in three countries that day and in the hospital two days earlier, but all was well. We got a cab to a hotel with the same name as ours (there's 30 in Singapore) and the manager there was only too happy to drive us to the hotel we had booked, and give us a speed of lightening tour all the while. He was incredibly enthusiastic about Singapore and recommended some things to do.

The next morning I woke up sick and spent most of the day in bed with gut pain of some unknown sort. It was Kev's turn to run around looking for food, etc. We watched a couple of movies on TV - yay for being sick in a nice hotel - and went to sleep. The next day before flying out we managed to go to a mall for lunch and Sentosa island, a tourist wonderland, to see a Butterfly and Insect place and we rode a luge-type deal. Only after getting to the airport did we find out about Kev's grandpa. It was the middle of the night in Canada so we couldn't call until we arrived in Australia the following morning. We had hoped to sleep the night in the plane but had difficulties sleeping. Between the two of us we got about 45 minutes of sleep. I played about 20 games of electronic backgammon and we watched "Ali" on our personal screens.

Finally, we arrived at our hostel in Sydney exhausted. We ate, bought a few groceries and called home thankfully. We then had a nap on the beach and woke up freezing, the wind was blowing and the sun was very much hidden. We hit the hay pretty early. Today we came to downtown Sydney and have mostly just been taking care of bookings, etc. We're flying to Tasmania on Sunday and renting a car there for a few days before flying back to the mainland to Melbourne.

Our thoughts are with the family, sorry we couldn't be there.