One night (and day) in Bangkok

Sawasdee ka everyone!! And greetings from Bangkok, the City of Angels, and the city that apparently never sleeps. The city where cats and dogs rule the streets, tuk-tuk drivers are very convincing, and where, if you stopped to eat at every street vendor, you'd never make it more than 2 blocks in a 24 hour period!! My big question tonight: Is it possible to subsist on sticky rice with coconut milk and mango slices? I hope so!!! My other pressing questions is: Do I have to come home?!

After a flight which is better left undiscussed (seriously, 30 hours on a place, plus lay-overs is just not a section of my life I want to relive! Thankfully, I slept most of the last leg, having spent the first 13 hour leg from Chicago to Tokyo playing "who's arm rest is this?" with an obnoxious French guy from Montreal!), I arrived in Bangkok at midnight last night (Dec 22). Upon exiting immigration (note to self: next time you arrive in a country with free 30 day Visas, check to make sure you're staying for <>

I'm staying (for the next 4 nights) at the Baan Chantra Guesthouse, which is located on Thanon Samsen (between Soi 6 and 8 - another lesson from experience - always carry a card with your hotel address on it in Thai so that cab drivers can find it...). It's a very nice place - AC in the rooms, comfy beds, TV. I wasn't sure i was going to sleep, but I fell asleep immediately (2am), and soundly.

This morning, following a breakfast of red curry and a mystery meat (pork?) and veggies, I decided to walk south towards Khao San Road (like Thamel in Kathmandu - total foreigner/backpacker hangout). Half-way there, I was accosted by a small Thai woman who wanted to know if I needed directions. I guess the dazed look on the face of the foreigner looking at a street map gave it away! Actually, I wasn't lost - I simply wanted to know which street I was on! Anyway, I spent quite a while chatting with this nice woman, which was very helpful as it turns out today was a very special holiday in Thailand - it is election day for the Parliament. That said, turns out it was also an excellent day to be wandering around as tuk-tuks to tourist places was really cheap, and entrance to the wats was free. The downside is that the entire country is DRY - no beer anywhere in Thailand today. I wound up hopping a ride with a tuk-tuk driver who, for 20 baht (about 80 cents) took me around to various wats (as well as the obligatory stop at 2 shops where he would receive commission - one for gems and another for suits). I got to see the standing Buddha at Wat Indrawihan (30 metres high), and made a few offerings there, and then the lucky Buddha. Turns out I probably got scammed in being dragged around town in the tuk-tuk, but you know what? For 20 baht, being jet-lagged and a bit dazed and confused, it offered me a chance to see Bangkok (at a ridiculously insane pace behind a crazed Thai driver!) and relax a bit.

Bangkok: Unorganized chaos. I swear there is nothing organized about this place! It's loud, polluted, frantic, crowded, and somewhat dirty.
But it's GREAT! I really like this city. My white running socks don't like the dirt, but hey, that's what laundry is for!

I had the driver let me out at the amulet market and I spent an enjoyable time browsing through the stalls, looking at the various new and old amulets. How you can tell a true "old" amulet from a fake is beyond me. I did buy two of them: one turtle, which I think is the yant Paya Thao Luean, and a small tiger with yant inscriptions on its back.

Around 11:30am, it was time to head to the Bang Sue metro station to meet up with Dave, an Aussie I met through the Sak Yant website, who was willing to take me to meet sak yant Ajarn Kaew near Wat Noi. I actually met Dave right on the metro - I couldn't miss him! So we grabbed a cab at the metro station and headed towards Ajarn Kaew's office. Once there, Dave introduced me, and told him which sak yant I wanted. We did a wai at the shrine in the building and then went and grabbed a cold drink, at which time Dave explained the protocol to me regarding receiving a sak yant. It's very ritualistic, and one has to always make sure the rules are followed - bowing at the proper time, what to do when the blessing is given, etc. What I wasn't prepared for was the pain!!

A sak yant, for anyone who doesn't know, is an ancient protective tattoo that is done by tapping a needle on a bamboo stick into your skin. The application is done by a monk, and sak yant master's are called "Ajarn". Sak Yant - Sak - meaning "to tap" or, "to tattoo", and Yant, meaning "Yantra". Originally derived from the Sanskrit word "YANTRA", the Ta and Ra letters are not pronunced in Thai Language, rather spelled as "yantr", including a symbol to silence the last consonant (called "Gaaran"). Whatever the case, Sacred Yant, Yantra, or Yan, however you prefer to call them, have existed since long before the Buddhist Era, dating back to pre Hindu times.

There were a number of people wishing to meet Ajarn Kaew, so he did a group blessing, then called me forward to be first. At first, he was going to apply the sak yant in oil (invisible) until Dave spoke up and said no, ink. I was positioned with by back to Ajarn, leaning my arms over a Thai triangular pillow. Ajarn Kaew started to work, marking the areas where the Gao Yord and the Yee Sip Yodt would go. It wasn't painful - just a slight marking up of the skin. Then, his two assistants stretched the skin on my upper back and he really went to work. Tattoos are nothing compared to this folks. This was NOT a pleasant physical experience!! This was actually worse than the ART therapy that I've been going through for the last 3 weeks for my shoulder!! He worked very quickly, tapping away at first on my lower neck along the spine, then working his way outwards towards my shoulders. About 1/3 of the way into it, I wasn't sure I was going to be able to handle it. My hands were clenched around my knees and everytime he shifted the stick and needle, I winced. What was amusing is that he and his assistants were having a great ol' time!! Laughing and joking (most likely about the wimpy farang girl wincing at the pain!) and talking with the others in the room when he wasn't chanting the mantra that goes along with the two sak yant. At last he stopped, and I was able to breathe again. I was supposed to get a Hanuman yant as well (a common Muay Thai protector), but he decided that Hanuman was too much of an angry animist yant for a female, so would not do it in ink. He did a brief outline in oil, and then I was done. He then took a Por Gae Ruseli headmask, placed it on my head and again incited a blessing and mantra to invoke the protection of the yants. Most sak yant Ajarn don't do this, so I was pleased and honored to receive this extra bit of ritual during my first visit. I turned around, wai'd three times to honor him, and got up to go back to my place. I was called back shortly, only to be given an amult of Ajarn Kaew's own making - an amulet of Hanuman. So although Hanuman is too strong and angry for me as a protector on my skin, it's ok for me to carry him (?) around with me.

All in all, it was quite the experience, one I will never forget. I'm not sure I'm ready for another one in the near future though! The pain, although worth it, was definitely something that should not be brushed off!

I took a cab back to the hotel after thanking Dave and dropping him off at the metro station. I had planned on going to Chatuchak Market, close by to Bang Sue, but with what amounts to an open wound fresh on my back, the last place I really needed to be was a huge market with thousands of people! So I came back to the hotel, changed, and decided to walk to Khao San Road. I spent a few hours walking in Banglampu Market, and on Khao San Road. It's crazy - stalls selling everything under the sun everywhere!! Absolutely crazy! I love it! Shopping-spree extrodinaire! I didn't buy much actually - 2 t-shirts, and I got my hair braided (ok, tacky-tourist thing to do, but it's going to be great for training next week - it won't get in the way!!). I was crashing with jet-lag big time around 7pm so decided to stop and get something to eat (duck and crispy basil) and then came back here. As it stands, my poor little brain is started to fail and is in need of a break after a somewhat hectic and full day.

What's on the agenda for tomorrow? I'm actually not sure! I found a place that will rent me a mountain bike for $10 for the day, so I might do that. Although biking in this city scares me slightly, especially since they drive on the opposite side of the road from us! But it would be one way to get around. It could turn out to be a river-ferry day, exploring down there. Or more shopping. Who knows!! I'm not on a schedule and can do what I want!!

Until later! Chok dee. Photos are posted on Facebook, for those of you who are on there.

6 days!!!

6 days!! Only 6 days left til the long flight to warmer climates, to sun and the beach and 3 solid weeks of training!!!

I made the mistake of stepping on the scale yesterday. Yikes. Not at all happy about that!!! I'm definitely going to Thailand and training with the idea of losing the weight I've put on in the last month or so!!! Argh. Not being able to train doesn't help. But lethargic living breeds more lethargic living. It's a vicious cycle, which often includes bad food on a regular basis. I so need to get back to regular eating and back on track to losing weight. The last 1-2 months, since my fight, have been horrible. I'm hoping that Thailand launches me back into the fitness mode.

The other night, I booked hotel rooms in Bangkok and Railay Beach through an on-line service, Agoda. What a great service! It makes life so much easier to know exactly where I'll be staying for every night while there. Bangkok is turning into a busy week. I'm getting my sak yant on the 23rd. I've been lucky enough to have a personal host bring me to a wat outside of Bangkok to get my back done. I can't wait!! It's going to be quite the experience. I'll make sure I get a video and photos (at least!). I've got a couple of days of site-seeing and shopping, then a day in Ayutthya and buying daabs. Then down south. Yeah!! Totally awesome.

The last couple of days I've been just giddy. Totally giddy. It's finally hitting me that I'm leaving. Bye bye!! Leaving on a jet plane! Ya, 24 hours on a jet plane at that!! I think I've blocked the flight to Nepal from my mind - I can't seem to remember how bad it was to sit on a plane for that length of time. Must be self-preservation or something.

resort room booked on Railay beach

7 more sleeps!!

Today I booked a room at the Sand Sea Resort on Railay Beach in Krabi. I figured that after the fights on Koh Lanta on January 11th, I'll pop across the bay to Krabi and check out the awesome beaches, caves and rock climbing on Railay. I've gotten all sorts of suggestions of things to do while there (it's great to have friends who have traveled extensively in Thailand before and who share the same sort of traveling likes and dislikes as I do!). The photos of the area are absolutely amazing. I so can't wait. It'll be a nice break between days of training in Phuket as well - a chance to get away from the camp crowd and off on my own for a bit of exploring and beachcombing.

My shoulder is starting to feel better. It only truly pains me if I put force on it by pulling or pushing. Otherwise, it's only sore in the morning and by the late evening. Yeah! I'm headed to the gym this evening to do some cardio, shadow boxing and maybe some kicking on the bag (if it doesn't rotate my shoulder too much). Fingers crossed that I'm not in too much pain when I come home tonight.

It's official...

The next 10 days are going to be unbearable! Waiting around to leave for Thailand is not going to be alot of fun, especially since I can't spend my time at the gym, working off anxious energy. Argh! That said, I'm getting alot of loose ends tied up, alot of reading done, and have watched numerous movies. Thankfully, by the time the weekend comes along, we have a number of Christmas parties to waste my time, and I have to mark final exams and assignments. I'm not sure that will be sufficient to keep me from packing and repacking and repacking again every day in anticipation! Doing dishes tonight will keep me busy for, oh, 1/2 an hour. But I really don't want to do dishes. What else to do?

I went for my first ART (active release therapy) session this morning. Only one word describes the experience - PAINFUL. I'm sure that it's going to help heal my shoulder and neck, but oh my god!! Pressure point therapy when you're already really sore is not a good experience. It was helped slightly by the fact that my therapist was really good looking and he was also a really nice guy! But still, OW!!! Right now, I've got one spot on my neck that refuses to calm down and is still aching quite a bit. I have a physio session tomorrow, then another ART session on Thursday. I'm hoping to go to the gym tomorrow at lunch to at least shadow box and do a bit of skipping. We'll see how I feel.

packing... and repacking

In the last month, I think I have packed and repacked my bag for Thailand about 25 times!! Today, I couldn't figure out where I put the extra SD cards for my camera. I've whittled down my packing to only one pair of convertible pants/shorts, 2 dry-wick shirts, a long-sleeved dry wick shirt with UV protection, underwear, sports bras and socks. I have to throw some training tops in there as well, but I figure I can buy anything else while there. And my towel is packed. The towel that has traveled to Europe, to Nepal, all across North America, etc. It has stories to tell, is faded and worn, but is my one creature comfort during trips abroad!

I spent the afternoon shopping for misc items like the dry-wick shirt, underwear, etc. And a book for the plane ride over. My shoulder is now aching from carrying bags and walking without it in the sling - not painful, just aching like it's been used all day. I'm actually pretty happy with how it feels today. I had to take off the tape that was stretched across my back - it was getting way too itchy and uncomfortable.

Note to self: when you injure your body, taking the time to heal properly is well worth it!!

I think I will go for a run tomorrow. Fresh air would be a good thing. A week off feels like a lifetime of being a slug.

subconscious enigma

How exactly does your body know what to do when you're asleep? I ask this because during the last week, I've not been able to sleep on my right side, for obvious reasons. Even sleeping on my left side has its problem when gravity takes my shoulder over. But to not lie on my right side, while awake, is a conscious decision. What happens when I'm asleep? I wake up having tweaked my shoulder a number of times during the night, but never have I woken up sleeping on the right side. How does that happen? How is it that during sleep, my body knows not to roll over on to that side?

Both Abbey and I had a good night's sleep last night, the first one in a week. He's happily munching away on kibble with sardines this morning before we head out for a walk and a coffee. So far so good - he doesn't seem sensitive anywhere, although the strange rash on his belly is still there. I think we're in the clear!

12 sleeps until Thailand. It doesn't seem possible actually. We went for Thai food last night and I learned a valuable lesson this morning - ease your way back into spicy food if you haven't had it in a while! We had 4 dishes, all of which were full of chilies! I'm paying for it this morning. I can't wait to eat fresh Thai food for 6 weeks - fruit, seafood, sticky rice. Yum! It's all good!

hey medical system! take a lesson from your neighbour veterinary hospital!

Nalene health concern (Globe and Mail)

So it looks like our old favorite drinking aid, the Nalgene bottle, has been pulled off the shelves by MEC. As I look in my cupboard, at last count I owned minimum 8 of these bottles, both Nalgene brand and other knock-offs, all containing the evil Lexan. What do we use for water bottles now? Stainless steel?

It's been a long, hard, stressful week. Tuesday night, I thought all was going well with Abbey's recovery from his tooth extraction. Around midnight, he was whining and standing on the bed staring at me. Thinking he just needed to pee, I took him out. 2 hours later, same thing. But after getting back into bed, I touched his stomach, trying to convince him to lie down and he screamed out in pain. That was enough to scare me and I called my vet to get the emergency number. 2:30am in the morning, I'm driving to the Ottawa Veterinary Hospital and checking him in. They immediately took an X-ray (note to human medical clinics: learn from vet hospitals! medical attention happens immediately!) and discovered he had a severe case of bloat (colic) and needed emergency surgery to decompress his stomach. I left him there and spent a sleepless night at home. The next few days were up and down with him developing more and more problems - weird pancreatic values, long clotting times, blood in his urine, a strange rash on his abdomen. Thankfully, the bloat did not occur, but these other problems were odd. Our final thoughts are that they were complications from either a drug or the anesthetic during the tooth extraction. Yesterday he was finally getting better, eating, up and socializing at the clinic. I went and saw him last night and he was exhausted - we had a nap together on the visitation room couch! The day before when I visited he had been in pain, slow, not social, etc. So seeing him last night almost back to his normal self was a huge relief. I picked him up today and he's sleeping soundly on the couch. I think the next couple of days will be fairly low-key for both of us! I'm so happy to have him home safe and sound. It's been a huge stress to have him away from home, especially since none of the vets were sure what was wrong. And he'd seen minimum of 4 vets during his time at the hospital, none of which was his own regular vet! That's hard on both of us. But he's home, feeling well and almost back to his normal self. Yeah!!

On top of the stress of him being in hospital, I've been at physio every day this week, attempting to get this shoulder back on track. Today it's doing a bit better, and I've been told to forgo the sling while at home and use the shoulder a bit so the muscles can start to strengthen. I've also got a few exercises to do each day to get it back into shape. It's still in alot of pain, especially down the side of my neck and into the trap muscle, but I think I'm going to stop taking the pain killer and just take Aleve.

Wow, what a week. TGIF definitely!! 14 more days until I leave for Thailand, which is almost shocking. The next two weeks will go by fast - Christmas lunches, Andy's coming to town for a couple of days, exams to mark. Yeah! Then off, off and away into the wild blue (warm) yonder! I should be go to train by the time I hit Phuket. Maybe not to do MMA, but certainly to be back on the bag, running, and maybe doing some sparring. I'll be so happy to get back into the gym. Being inactive is very, very frustrating!

woozy doggie!

On my couch lies a very stoned dog! I took him to the vet's this morning to have one of his molars removed and just picked him up. The tooth came out alright and should heal up very quickly, but right now he's still a bit woozy from the anesthetic. Poor thing! He looks so dopey!

2nd physio session this morning indicates that my trap muscle isn't working correctly - either a result of nerve damage or simply being damaged itself. It's not holding up the shoulder properly which is contributing to the lopsidedness of my shoulders. I decided not to take pain killers last night and regretted it today - I discovered how many different parts of my shoulder and neck are sore!! Ouch. The good thing is that my physiotherapist says that by the end of next week, provided I progress well in healing, I should be able to be back at the gym doing at least shadow boxing and lower body work. Yeah!!

I think I need a new job. The concept of "positive reinforcement" is lost at my place of work. Every time I get called into my boss's office, I feel like I'm going to catch shit. This new position is not fun for me, nor for him by the looks of it, so I think I may have to go back to research. It will take me out of harms way, make me one of the pack again (it's true - there are safety in numbers), and allow me to go back to getting work done and not stuck in meetings all the time. I thought this could work, but I don't think the environment is right. I actually think I was set up to fail in a number of ways. Maybe not consciously, not deliberately, but the environment is wrong, not supportive, too insecure. So maybe it's time for a change back to research, back to my roots, followed by a search, later on, for something different. I don't know. We'll know more after tomorrow's meeting.

I'm bored, anxious, fidgety. I'm not used to being home in the evenings, unable to go to the gym. It sucks!! The gym is like a 2nd home to me (sometimes it feels like a first home!) and not being able to train is driving me insane! Or maybe it's just being stuck at home, injured, fed up with work, eager to leave for Thailand. I'll go google Thailand and then check out Carrie's blog some more to keep me on the happy track to leaving for the warm climes of Asia.

adventure with a shoulder, day 2

I went for physio this morning and, once again, had a quite astounding reaction to the slope of my shoulders. Barb, my therapist, asked me "have you always been that asymmetric?!". Nope! So she did a bit of probing and diagnosed the separation as 2nd degree, as well as a separation of the sternum-clavicle (SC) joint, which further explains why my shoulder is so low. She was actually impressed and said it's rare to see such an injury as usually, with that much impact, the clavicle breaks. So I don't know if I'm lucky or just a freak of nature! So a course of physio, every day, is in order - ultrasound, interferential, massage, etc. And with my arm in a sling for a while, plus the pain killers. I get the results of my x-ray tomorrow. I also have the name of a good ART specialist, so I will try him as well.

No training. No running. I can try spinning, provided I don't use my right arm.

This totally sucks. What are the chances of doing this much serious injury to myself 16 days before leaving for Thailand?! Horrible, horrible luck. Fighting in Thailand is now out of the question. Training should be ok, but I'll just be getting back to it by the time I arrive in Phuket. I just want it to get better, be as strong as before, so that I can train and be able to work as hard as I want to. Right now, I'm just in pain, from my shoulder up into my neck and a bit across my collar bone. I don't know what happens when I stop taking the pain killer, Toradol, and go back to normal Aleve or Advil.

TORADOL (ketorolac tromethamine) is a member of the pyrrolo-pyrrole group of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). The chemical name for ketorolac tromethamine is (±)-5-benzoyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-pyrrolizine-1-carboxylic acid, compound with 2-amino-2-(hydroxymethyl)-1,3-propanediol (1:1), and the chemical structure is:

Ketorolac tromethamine is a racemic mixture of [-]S and [+]R ketorolac tromethamine. Ketorolac tromethamine may exist in three crystal forms. All forms are equally soluble in water. Ketorolac tromethamine has a pKa of 3.5 and an n-octanol/water partition coefficient of 0.26. The molecular weight of ketorolac tromethamine is 376.41. Its molecular formula is C₁₉H₂₄N₂O₆.

TORADOL^ORAL is available as round, white, film-coated, red-printed tablets. Each tablet contains 10 mg ketorolac tromethamine, the active ingredient, with added lactose, magnesium stearate and microcrystalline cellulose. The white film-coating contains hydroxypropyl methylcellulose, polyethylene glycol and titanium dioxide.

The tablets are printed with red ink that includes FD&C Red #40 Aluminum Lake as the colorant. There is a large T printed on both sides of the tablet, as well as the word TORADOL on one side, and the word ROCHE on the other.

shoulder in agony

17 days before heading to Thailand, with the main goal of training, and I manage to bang up my shoulder. My right shoulder. i got swept during a rolling session at the gym yesterday afternoon and came down right on my shoulder. pain was accompanied by a snap-crackle-pop. stupidly, i kept rolling with it hurt (lightly, thankfully). i tried celebrex, aleve and scotch to dull the pain, but to no avail. last night, trying to sleep was brutal. i had to sleep on my back with a blanket holding up my arm. today, i went to the walk-in clinic at the university. the doctor totally flipped out at the slant of my shoulders!! she poked and proded and finally suggested that i have separated my shoulder. peachy. so i have to go get an x-ray, keep my right arm in a sling to keep the weight off the shoulder, and take pain killers. FUCK!!!!!! how much does this suck?? i am not a happy camper right now.