Cambodian hospital experience

We were planning to leave Sihanoukville the next day to Kampot, a nice sounding town by the river a few hours away. Anni had been having stomach problems for a few months now and it was getting more and more annoying, so we thought it would be a good idea to get it checked before moving on to the rural areas. You never hear anything too good about Cambodian health care, after all. All the guide books recommend an instant transfer to Thailand in case of an emergency, so we thought finding an english-speaking doctor would be impossible in small towns.

In the afternoon we walked to Sen Sok International University clinic, one out of two clinics in Sihanoukville who should have english-speaking staff around. After a few questions and a call to the doctor, who was in Phnom Penh at the moment, the nurse said that we should take blood tests. Terrified, because of not knowing anything about the quality of health care, Anni agreed after seeing the needles taken out of new bags. The nurse laughed a little and with a lovely smile she said "Single use. Don't worry." Anni felt ashamed.

We returned the next day for results and after some more questions and some basic checks with the doctor, he explained that Anni had salmonella and needed treatment and more tests right now. Ben had to go to the grocery store to buy orange juice, which was according to the doctor much needed to hydrate and to fight the infection, while Anni was lying in the hospital bed, getting bag after bag of liquids containing electrolytes and antibiotics pumped into her veins. Few hours later a guy came in. We had seen the same guy happily walking on the street only a few hours before. Apparently he had the same problem, though he was screaming from pain. Didn't sound too good. Anni started to be happy that her condition was relatively good.

It was a bit of a different kind of experience. The doctor was yelling from the other side of the room "are going for stool?" each time Anni got out of the bed. He also kept us well informed about why the other people were there and how they were feeling. But it wasn't embarrassing, it was just different to home, where doctors can't talk about this stuff to others. Actually we had an okay time with the nice nurse lady and doctor cracking unexpected jokes all the time. While waiting we had some long chats with him. He was interested in cultural differences, school systems and health care in our countries. He also told us that he had got his education mostly in Thailand and that in addition to his own language, khmer, he also spoke fluent french, english, thai and vietnamese. At the end of the conversation, he promised that in a week Anni would be fit enough to explore the temples of Angor Wat. Seven hours later we were let home to sleep, because the doctor had to leave for Phnom Penh with the screaming guy. The facilities in Sihanoukville were not good enough to treat him. We had to come back the next day to check again if everything was getting better and to get more results from new tests.

The next day we found out that Anni did not only have salmonella, she had also been collecting parasites in her intestines. More treatment and antibiotics again. We felt like Anni was in good hands, and instead of getting not enough treatment, we felt like that it was even a bit much. After all back home you are taken into a hospital in an absolute emergency and more often you're sent home after a quick inspection with a prescription for medicine. But this guy seemed to know what he was doing, and all the costs would be covered by insurance anyway. You can't blame anyone for treating you too good, can you? More important than the lost time was of course to get Anni feeling good again. This time we were released after about three hours and two bottles of fluids. Anni got a 130 dollar bill and a bag of medicines with instructions about how to take them.

We were ready for Kampot.

 

Swimming with stars

We left Thailand excited. We had heard only good things about Cambodia from fellow travellers. Everyone seemed to love it. We couldn't wait to see it with our own eyes. We booked a direct ticket from Ko Chang to Sihanoukville. We also booked a hostel ahead, because we would be arriving after dark. In a new country we like to get used to things first instead of exploring the city at night with a map and a guidebook in your hand. And it's easier to take a taxi or a tuk-tuk directly to the chosen hostel to avoid the worst of possible touts.

Our border crossing went easy enough. We got our exit stamps out of Thailand and a guy took our backpacks into a small cart and pulled them to the Cambodian border a short walk away. He asked for a 100-baht tip and we agreed to give 20 (50 cents) each. You do not need to tip in Thailand, but we think it's okay when we agree on a service like someone taking care of our luggage for us. You carry it yourself, or you pay something. A body temperature check, visa application, passport stamps, all the usual was done within less than half an hour. We still had passport photos left, so no worries there either. In the same bus was an older German lady, who was going on about how she had been charged over double the price we had paid, and her visa fee should have been covered by the ticket already. Nevertheless she had to pay for the visa at the border. It is still unclear to us what really happened there, but the lady did not seem to be very delighted. She kept going on about how she is constantly being ripped off. She was very proud not to have tipped anyone, because she lost so much money already.

From the border we jumped into a car owned by a person in the company which was responsible for taking us to the bus station towards Sihanoukville. We stopped on the way in a corner shop and the driver told us that we could now exchange our Thai baht into Cambodian riel. "Is good to exchange now, no is possible in Sihanoukville. No take Thai baht there". Right. "Is this a bank?", we asked, amused. "Yes, yes, private bank", he answered laughing. So it was obvious that it was again another quite common scam that you hear of all the time. The older lady and an older guy in the same car went directly to the counter and handed over their money. We thought about exchanging a small amount, 400 baht, just for the way, and the rest in Sihanoukville. We gave the money and without even telling the exchange rate the lady behind the counter started to count the riels. We asked how much the we would be getting, and after seeing the numbers on the calculator we wanted our money back. It was too ridiculous even for a small amount. She threw the money back at us. The driver was watching the situation, but never said a word about us not exchanging our money. We got back in the car and it turned out that the lady and other guy had lost about a third of their money, 16-20 euros out of 50. The rest of the journey the German lady was furious and refused to tip anyone.

Our bus arrived in Sihanoukville just at sunset and we saw about ten taxi and tuk-tuk drivers running towards the bus, competing for customers. Our hostel, Footprints, was located in the furthest corner of the city on Otres beach, about 6 or 7 kilometers out of town and even further away from the bus station. We took a taxi and looking for the hostel after a while we found out that it was located on the very end of Otres beach, already named Otres 2. Not much going on over there, which is quite what we like. The hostel was amazingly cozy with great atmosphere, with a selection of movies and good food. A bit noisy because of thin walls, but very good in every other way.

 

We spent most of our time relaxing on the beautiful white sand beach and reading books on the sofas. We also went to see the city and visited the local market and explored the surroundings by foot. It's quite small and easy get around walking. We were feeling a bit nostalgic about leaving the beaches soon for a few months, so we ended up following the beach all the way back. On the way we saw the popular Serendipity beach where most tourists decide to stay. It was full with sun chairs, music, bars, jet skis and not much for people who just want peace. Otres 1 beach was a little bit more to our liking, but still felt crowded. Once again we were happy with our chosen location.

And by the way, it was no problem getting rid of our bahts in Sihanoukville. Cambodia uses both riel and US dollars. So we got some dollars in a bank with a 3% commission instead of 30%.

 

One night we attended a party on the beach organised by few of the guys staying in the same hostel. It was a surprise party for their friend whose birthday it was. They collected money from everyone who wanted to join and they managed to get about 25 people. With the money they bought cheap booze and a cake. They also borrowed speakers and music player from the hostel! We joined the party, had a drink and talked to some people. After a short while we got a tip from an English guy that he had been swimming last night in the ocean and he couldn't believe his eyes when he started swimming. Right now, the ocean was full of bioluminescent plankton that glows in the dark when you move. (Read more about what it is: http://aquaviews.net/explore-the-blue/bioluminescent-plankton-what-makes-it-glow/# )

It was quite obvious what we had to do next. We had to go for a look. We walked to the shallows and started to splash the water with our feet. And we couldn't believe what we saw! Little shiny things were clearly visible in the crashing waves and also appeared with every splash we made! We had to get into the water. Apart from the party the beach was empty, so we walked a bit further away, took off our clothes and ran into the water like kids. It got better the deeper you went. These shiny things were everywhere. It looked like we were making little stars with every movement! We lost the track of time, just swimming and playing and being unable to believe how amazing it looked! We got out of the water when we were shivering with cold and just couldn't stay any longer. That was an absolute highlight on this whole trip. We walked back to find out that the party had pretty much ended already, but the guy who had told us about it was still there. We went to shake his hand and thanked for the advice before going to bed, still smiling.