The $145 Doctor

Saturday – December 13, 2014

Siem Reap, Cambodia

When we last left our intrepid adventuress she was complaining about something. I guess that's redundant since she seems to be complaining about one thing or another.

After the tepid beer and a light rest I went down town to 'Pub street' that also has a multitude of places to eat, next door to a similar multitude of places to buy things that will look good on a shelf back home and soon meld into the background and just be a dust collector three vacations from now.

One of my favorite dishes anywhere, much less Cambodia is Fish Amok. Fish cooked in a coconut mile broth and served in a banana leaf like a stew. About 50/50 broth and fish. I went to a restaurant named Amok and ordered. I am not sure if my memory is totally failing (certainly a possibility) or the dish they made was 'Tourist Amok' which is much more likely. There was the banana leaves, but inside the big one was a pile of fish, and the smaller one held some sauce but the percentages would come out to be more 80/20, and frankly it's the sauce that makes the dish for me, not the protein. I'll have to go searching anew, perhaps tonight.

I was such a big girl. I stayed away all the way until 10 pm. At three am I woke with a Tyrannosaurus inside my head trying to eat it's way out. At seven am I told the Concierge that I was interested in seeing a doctor. He said they had a very good hospital in town but it was expensive. I asked how much he said $145, I said “A mere pittance if he can relieve me of this pain.” maybe not verbatim, but close. The hotel van took me to the hospital which was pretty nice I have to admit. By the look of the hospital I would not worry about getting treatment there.

A quick form filling out forms ritual as well as the temperature and blood pressure ritual. At least they didn't add in the – step on the scale – torture. Then the doctor met me in his office and I sat down and explained last Sunday events and prescriptions. He said that the only real way to know what was happening was to get of the cat and having it do a scan. By now that Tyrannosaurus was evolving to the smaller Velocoraptor. He said it was common for illness' and injuries to come and go as far as symptoms and this was probably a high or a low depending on your perspective. He said 400 mg of Tylenol three times a day was what he would suggest. Honestly it was pretty good advice. It hasn't worked totally, but it still was pretty good advice.

I was pointed to a different door and stood there with my money in hand. I walked over to a likely counted and asked who do I pay when the nurse from admitting came over and said there was no charge. The doctor said he didn't do anything, so no charge. Wow! Well Toto, we certainly aren't in Kansas anymore, much less Washington State.

The rest of the day I did what I should have done the previous day and just lay under a big umbrella, drank alcohol free drinks with small umbrellas and went on vacation from my vacation.

This morning my three am wake up dinosaur was back. Not the same as yesterday, but still one you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley. 500 mg of Tylenol didn't even wound it. At five I gave up and arose. Hot shower, Starbucks best and being vertical I'm not sure which worked but in half an hour it was extinct. Perhaps it was indeed the healing waters of the Angkor Paradise (tour bus) hotel. Maybe it was the magical elixir burnt and ground beans in hot water. I am kind of thinking that maybe the mere process of getting my head above my heart reduced the pressure some. Whatever it was I was carefully skipping down the stairs by seven.

The plan was to meet up with a taxi driver at 8 to go to an outlying temple not on the tour bus route. As eight fifteen rolled around no car or driver rolled on in. Eight thirty I gave up on him. It was too late in the sun position for good photos by then anyway. The temple is two hours away and by then the sun would be overhead and the shadows less than optimal. Instead I got a morotcart driver and went to the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed. Get there before 10 when the tour buses pull in and you'll have the place to yourself. That used to be the instructions to seeing it. “They” read the same thing I did. They were already there at nine fifteen. One fellow traveler cum photographer said it was crowded at eight am.

I wandered around and did a good bit of sitting, waiting for a break in the hordes for that millisecond when I could hear my shutter click and have no humans in the frame. I didn't stay very long. The population census was growing by the minute and some of the best places for photos were closed for renovations, and there were now wooden walkways and steps in place of the dirt and stone of eighteen months ago. I guess it really has been discovered.

We were back at the hotel by a few after eleven and I think this afternoon is going to be a replay of yesterday with a 4:45 date with a tuk-tuk to do Angkor Wat at sunset.