If You Prick Me Do I Not Bleed?

Well it looked bigger at the time!
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We always knew that planning the trip was going to be difficult - but the really tough decisions are less about budgets and travel logistics and more about which countries to leave off our route.  This was definitely the case over the past few weeks as we have tried to decide which Asian and Far Eastern destinations to include.

After much web research, guidebook scouring, and soul-searching we have decided that when we leave Europe our trip will include (although not necessarily in this order):

Nursing two bruised arms and a severely dented machismo!

A-List: Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand

B-List: South Korea, Taiwan, Brunei, Vietnam

Our choices were guided by a few basic criteria - exotic sights, cultural curiosity, always-wanted-to-visit, and trying to avoid too much of the same.  You might think that once the route has been chosen the hard work is passed, but especially with these destinations it really just started.  Next hurdles to clear are visas (which seem to be really complex - especially for a South African with 2 passports!) and vaccinations.

Almost all of these countries are the perfect breeding ground for a variety of bugs, viruses and bacteria quite threatening to human health - so prudence would suggest precautions.  But anyone who knows me knows how much I loathe needles - so the mental tussle between "Let's just take a chance, brave the bugs, and spare the needle" vs. "Do you really want to risk having your body/brain/CENSORED implode" wasn't as straightforward as it might have seemed!

Well we took the plunge - on Thursday we both left work early to take advantage of a convenient opening in the consultation schedule of the SAA/Netcare Travel Clinic.  I HONESTLY expected that this was going to be a simple consultation visit - just to find out what we will need to get and how much it will cost.  Even filling out the registration forms was fun - the receptionist couldn't believe how many countries we plan to visit...and her forms had only about a quarter of the space needed to list them all :)

Once the red-tape was concluded we met with the duty nurse who began rattling off a list of inoculations we will need which included (but wasn't limited to): Hepatitis A & B, Meningitis, Diptheria, Tetanus, Typhoid, Polio, Rabies, Japanese Encephalitis, etc etc etc.  Denise was quite happy that most of her's were already up-to-date...but I was getting worried!  Good thing I would be able to psych myself up for the pain before my next visit.....

Only the nurse had other ideas - so before you could say "Omigod that's an elephant-sized needle!" she had me up on the consultation bed and was prepping 4 needles.  Well I suppose I handled myself with the dignity and composure of a trooper...once I recovered enough from my near-faint to form coherent sentences!  Only cold compresses and a lollypop administered by the nurse could get me out of the horizontal position.  Suffice it to say that the subsequent discussion about malarial precautions didn't see much of my usually vocal contributions.

So we are now walking antibody factories!  No bug could get within ten meters and survive.  I need to return for another two rounds of Hep A & B boosters before we leave - and we both need to still get the rabies and Japanese Encephalitis shots (which we may have to do in Europe since the vaccine is hard to get in South Africa)...but why pack all the *fun* into one day huh?

Anyway I am sure that it will be well worth the effort once we get to these amazing places...but right now I am nursing two bruised arms and a severely dented machismo!