I've been debating on whether I want to put my physical issues related to travel abroad on the blog because sharing photos of my current foot situation might result in this entire blog getting reported and shut down. I'll give a written summary and y'all can let me know if you want me to post the carnage photos. I'll say this, I'd rather have the leeches than what I am presently experiencing.
In short, many of us experienced a higher-number-than-is-typical amount of bug bites while we stayed in Ban Nam Hom--waaaaait a minute!
As I'm writing this post. I feel LIKE A COMPLETE IDIOT because I was about to write, "these bites remind me a lot of chigger bites," so I did a quick query to see if chiggers (actual name: Trombiculid mites) exist in Thailand, and boy, oh boy, did I learn some useful information.
In 2016, 99 species of Trombiculid mites were confirmed and recorded in the revised checklist of chigger mites in Thailand. Recently, the number of chigger species recorded as currently being present in Thailand has increased to 156.(Source: Chaisiri, Kittipong & Stekolnikov, Alexandr & Makepeace, Benjamin & Morand, Serge. (2016). A Revised Checklist of Chigger Mites (Acari: Trombiculidae) From Thailand, with the Description of Three New Species. Journal of Medical Entomology. 53. 321–342. 10.1093/jme/tjv244)
These bites remind me a lot of chigger bites because THEY ARE VERY OBVIOUSLY CHIGGER BITES. GERBERS, YOU FOOL.
Dropping this resource on the blog for future reference, but I'm gonna walk us through some signs/symptoms and the do's and don'ts for chigger bites:
- How Do Chigger Bites Happen?
- After hatching, baby chiggers wait on plants for people or animals to pass by. When they do, the chigger attaches to them using tiny claws. Once attached, it pierces their skin and injects its saliva (spit). The spit contains digestive juices that dissolve skin cells. The chigger then eats the dissolved cells, which provide the protein it needs to grow into an adult. After a couple of days the chigger falls off, leaving a red bump on the skin
- What Are the Signs of Chigger Bites?
- Chigger bites are itchy red bumps that can look like pimples, blisters, or small hives. They are usually found around the waist, ankles, or in warm skin folds. They get bigger and itchier over several days, and often appear in groups.
Sorry, you're getting the carnage photos--as a learning tool! These are TEXTBOOK chigger bites.
Blisters, pimples, and small hives...CHECK
Found around the ankles and get bigger and iticher over the folliwng days...CHECK
- How are chigger bites treated?
- Unlike mosquitoes and ticks, chiggers don't carry disease. So they are not harmful, only annoying. You can usually treat chigger bites at home.
- Scrub chigger bites well with soap and water to help remove any chiggers that are still attached to the skin <--should have done this more purposefully much sooner.
- Holding a cool washcloth over the bites can be soothing.
- Calamine lotion or anti-itch creams can help with the itching.
- Antihistamines (allergy medicine) taken by mouth can sometimes help with itching (this is why I was on diphenhydramine the other day
- Do not:
- When Should I Call the Doctor?
- Call your doctor's office if:
- Over-the-counter creams or lotions don't help the itching. CHECK
- A bite looks infected (watch for warmth, redness, swelling, tenderness, or pus). CHECK
I have a telehealth appointment at 5:30AM to address this issue :)
To summarize: Hey students, we all have chigger bites. Scrub your feet, legs, arms with soap and water, get some hydrocortisone cream, do your best to avoid scratching, and for the love of all things sacred, consider wearing closed-toe shoes and long pants if we anticipate being outdoors around long grasses and plants. And if your feet look as bad as mine, let me help you get set up with our institutionally-provided international telehealth insurance so we can get you treated!
I'd considered doing a post on traveler's diarrhea (what causes it, how to treat it), but I'm like...pretty tapped out on the gnarly health stuff for the evening so we'll save that one for later.
Let's talk about how much fun we had at the Best Thai Cooking Course!
I did a very thorough post about this experience in 2023. It was an optional activity in that program, and about half the students joined Han and me--we had such a good time in 2023 that we decided to make it mandatory fun for everyone this year :) and I think the students would agree that it's a great inclusion on the itinerary.
I will refer you to the 2023 post for what we learned during our market tour, but I will share our menu, some photos, and a sincere appreciation to Chef Perm and his staff for facilitating such a fun and valuable experience for our group.
Schedule:
- Start with local market tour; learn about local produce and how to differentiate good items from bad (e.g. eggs onions, etc.)
- Learned how coconut water / cream, and milk is harvested
- Water - from a green coconut (young)
- Cream - squeezed directly from a mature coconut (brown)
- Milk - cut with water; typically 50/50
- low-fat (80 water / 20 cream)
- high-fat (20 water / 80 cream)
- Travel to cooking site
- Walking tour of garden to pick Thai chilis, Butterfly Pea flower, various basils
- Cook and eat!
Menu:
- Soup (choose 1):
- Tom Yum Kung - a common and popular Thai soup served with many meals. Features Thai chilis, mushrooms, chicken and/or prawns, and other herbs and vegetables
- Tom Kha - coconut soup that is creamy and mildly sweet
- Vegetarian Pad Thaicontains rice noodles, bean sprouts, chives, egg, and a peanut sauce
- Main (choose 1)
- Gai Pad Med Mamuang - Stir-fried Chicken with Cashew Nuts
- Pad Kra Pao - pork and holy basil stir fried
- Curry (choose 1)
- Green curry (my favorite Thai dish)
- Panang curry
- Mango Sticky Rice
Lots of photos:
The group at the end of our cooking class
Chef Perm providing an overview of the market
Explaining different types of local produce
Helping us differentiate good from bad
Aiden smelling a century egg
Learning about coconuts
Garden tour. Photo credit: Noi
Butterfly pea flower (for tea and for coloring)
Jack looking dapper in his apron and hat
Cooking demonstration
Cooking demonstration
These flames were on purpose. Photo credit: Han
Mango sticky rice
Pad Kra Pao
Green curry
Pad Thai
Tom Yum soup
The group at the end of our lesson with the staff
After completing the cooking course and thanking Perm and his staff, we went back to the hotel for some free time. I spent my time out on my balcony doing homework (completing review of student's reflection journals) and catching up on yesterday's blog post. I eventually relocated to Roast8ry Lab, a hip artisanal coffee shop where every cup is a work of art:
Satan Latte
I realized that I was three days into a trip to Chiang Mai and hadn't eaten Khao Soi yet, a quintessential part of northern Thai cuisine, so I did some quick research to find a good Khao Soi place for dinner and sent an invitation out to the group. It ended up just being me and Han, and we had a great time debriefing the trip thus far, discussing ideas for future itineraries, and enjoying delicious Khao Soi.
Khao soy. Yum.
After dinner, it was time to wrangle the students for our trip to Thapae Boxing Stadium for an evening of Muay Thai. This is an optional activity for students, recognizing that not all students may be interested in attending a Muay Thai event. I do a very thorough job covering some of the really cool and unique aspects of Muay Thai in this previous post, so I''ll leave it to you to learn more.
Here are a few photos:
It was a nice evening out and I'm glad the students had a good time. I should probably get to bed since my telehealth appointment for my **chigger bites** is in 4 hours...off to Chiang Dao tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment