Thursday, October 19, 2006

Giardia-ho

Yes, it's October, and for those of you who do not already know, this is the month of medical disasters for J and I. Although the last two years have been busts as far as near-death experiences, rare allergies, broken bones, falling powerlines and the like, this year we have made a resounding come-back with the dreaded parasite giadia lamblia!

Yes, giardia, as it is known, is a very common cause for diarrhea and terrible stomach pains in this part of the world. After forking over a hefty heap of Nepali Rupees to go on a white-water rafting trip down the Bhote Kosi river, northwest of Kathmandu, we decided that we were simply too sick to be useful to anyone else in the raft and cancelled at literally the last minute: After much discussion and frustration, I walked to the pick-up point this morning (19.Oct) at 6am to tell them we weren't going. We were really looking forward to this trip, and were super dissappointed to miss out, but plan on rescheduling for early next week when we're feeling better.

The thing that really sucks is that we're losing days in Nepal to this problem, which first hit me on the 16th of October after eating breakfast at our hotel (and hit J several hours later). I think it was the yogurt I had with my muslei in the morning, and since J had some, too, we both got it. Later that day, we went to a town called Nagarkot on the eastern edge of the Kathmandu valley at an elevation of about 7200 ft. From here, there are excellent views of the entire Nepali Himalaya, from Everest in the east to the Anapurna and Ganesh Himal sets in the west. No doubt about it, the views from atop our hotel were stunning at sunrise. Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy much of it, as I was extremely nauseous, had severe stomach cramps, and as I tried to walk back to our room at the Top View Hotel (where Justine was already taking care of business!), I began to lose vision and consciousness, having to sit down many times as I climbed down 5 flights of stairs, got lost, and finally found the bathroom by the hotel's restaurant. It was a pretty scary morning. To top it off, the country's commerce consortium decided to put all buses and taxis on strike that day, so we had to pay a crazy fee to some guy at the hotel to drive us the 1.5 hrs. back to our hotel in Kathmandu. Worst of all, because we were sick and buses weren't running, we missed out on a great hike from Nagarkot to Sankhou, half-way back to Kathmandu, through the terraced rice fields of the Kathmandu Valley rim. Such a dissappointment, but alas, we'll get better views of the Annapurnas and excellent hiking when we go trekking in two weeks.

Anyway, the purpose of the above paragraph was to discuss how we're losing days to being sick, which really sucks. We lost part of our time in Nagarkot (including the hike back), and now we've lost two more days because we cancelled the rafting trip, and today we wasted by going to the doctor's office to get medicine (it should be noted that since I, Mike, am feeling pretty much fully recovered, I didn't get the giardia medicine and only J did, but if my big-d comes back, I'll just go over there and get some). Now, the rest of our schedule in Nepal looks something like this:

20 Oct - Recover more and go to Bodnath, where the world's largest Tibetan Buddhist stupa is attended to by a huge number of monks and pilgrims.

21 and 22 Oct - Go to Patan, just south of Kathmandu. The city is an ancient Buddhist center with the highest density of temples and shrines anywhere, as well as excellent Newari (a Nepalese minority people) architecture that doesn't survive anywhere else. The 21st is also the first day of the 5-day Tihar festival in Nepal, which includes the Newari New Year on the 3rd day. Return to Kathmandu on the 22nd.

23 Oct - See the rest of Kathmandu, south of Durbar Square.

24 and 25 Oct - Re-try our river rafting trip. Return to Kath. on 25.

26 Oct - Take the bus to Pokhora, which is the starting point for the Annapurnas.

27, 28, 29 Oct - Hang out in Pokhora, getting ready for our trek by getting some supplies and taking a few day hikes to altitude.

30 Oct through 6 or 7 Nov - Begin the hike up to the Annapurna Sanctuaray (also called the Annapurna Base Camp), but head east at Chhomrong towards the spot known as Poon Hill at about 3150 m. From here, views of the Annapurnas and the rest of the western Nepali Himalaya are supposed to be the best.

8 and 9 Nov - recover with beer and good food in Pokhora.

10 through 13 Nov - Take a river kayaking clinic (with camping) on the Sun Kosi river near Pokhora.

14 Nov - recover

15 Nov - Return to Kathmandu

16, 17, 18 Nov - Chitwan National Park in southern Nepal. Return to Kath. on the 18th.

19 Nov - Fly to Kolkatta (formerly known as Calcutta).... Or maybe we're having too much fun in Nepal to move on to India.... stay tuned!

Notice that Tibet is a glaring omission from our itinerary (see Note from Justine, below). That's because China is jacking up the prices to visit and it would not cost J and I almost 1000 US dollars each to get there and back for a 5-day trip, which doesn't even include eating or sleeping or sight-seeing, all of which are super expensive, thanks to China. In the last week, Air China (the exclusive flyer into Tibet) raised the price of their tickets to something like 300 bucks for a 45 minute flight (one way!), and China doubled the price of the airport tax to $80. On top of that, the Tibetan visa (which is different from the Chinese visa... go figure) costs 60 bucks and the Tibetan Tourism Permit (which you MUST by before entering the country) costs an astounding 160 bucks! That's just to much to justify. We're making up for the loss, however, by going to Patan and Bodnath and have filled up the days with our giardia!

Thank you, October and Hotel Ganesh Himal, for these fond memories of Nepal!

-Mike.

[Two Discalimers: 1) no positive diagnosis for either of us, yet, but the doctor said he thinks it's giardia and 2) the problem may have stemmed from a fresh salad we both ate the night of the 15th.]

Note from Justine: Blame China. See "That's China's fault" in my previous post. But I can't wait to go back and visit you again soon!
Sigh, China.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oooh, I feel for you both. Giardia is found in water. So, it is probably the salad. There was a lady here who got infected from her well-water.

Anonymous said...

hey, sorry about the delay but I have been super busy. you should be getting metronidazole (Flagyl) 250 mg 3 times per day for 5-7 days; I would buy some (I assume it's available OTC over there, at least for the right price) and carry it with you for any possibility of symptoms coming back, b/c although most people recover w/in 7-14 days even w/o treatment, in a few people it can become a chronic problem unless eradicated with antibiotics. e-mail me if you need any specific question answered, I can always forward it to my friendly infectious disease doc, hope you guys are all better now -- (soon to be) doctor doctor you know who