Singapore
17 Mac 2018, Singapura ⋅ ⛅ 32 °C
Arrived at 7am, got a taxi (with a shouting lunatic) from the airport to Marina Bay Sands. Was completely gobsmacked by the sheer scale of the place!
Went to the check in desk in tower 1 but my room wasn’t ready yet. Left my suitcase with the concierge and set off with my rucksack to Gardens by the bay.
Went around the Skyway (suspension bridge type thing up in amongst the giant metal trees) which gave a great view of Marina Bay Sands and over the rest of the gardens.
Then wandered round to the cloud forest and flower dome. Cloud forest is basically a massive indoor 7 story rainforest, complete with waterfall and atmospheric misting. Very beautiful! Flower dome was a bit overcrowded but has some very pretty flowers and trees non the less.
I then got my email to say my room was ready and so I headed back to the hotel.
The room was something to behold! On the 17th floor with a gorgeous view over the bay. Enough space for about 300 people... lovely bathroom with a freestanding massive bathtub and a massive king bed.
I dropped my stuff off, donned my swimsuit, bathrobe and slippers and headed to the infinity pool!
WHAT A PLACE
The views are stunning, people bring you drinks to your sun-lounger, there are palm trees and a pool that was just the perfect temperature to go with the 30 degree heat.
I chilled there for a good couple of hours, complete with prosecco and sushi (and a distinct lack of sun cream so I got pretty burnt).
I then got a message from Krystle who I know from dancing at Warwick. She lives in Singapore and offered to show me round.
We went to go get some bubble tea because apparently that’s what the locals do. I had lychee flavour with black pearls, so delicious!
Then we went for a wander around the bay to see the sights. Ended up being quite a walk, did 18km altogether.
After our walk we went back to the infinity pool so Krystle could try it out. We took lots of pictures and enjoyed watching the sunset.
We wandered in to town and stumbled across a light show in the bay. Using a combination of laser lights and fountains in the water they created a magical display.
We then went to go have some dinner at a hawker centre which is apparently the best place to get local food. It’s basically a massive hall with lots of different food stalls in it. Here we tried bbq sting ray and fried carrot cake (not actually carrot cake at all, basically a rice flour thing in some kind of sauce, very tasty!)
I was then getting sleepy as I had only had 6 hours sleep in 3 days so I headed back to the hotel, with one last view over the bay with all the lights on.Baca lagi
Travel day
18 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ ☀️ 33 °C
Up at 6.30am to head to the airport. Had less of a lunatic driver this time!
After I had checked in, grabbed some pancakes and coffee and settled in for a bit of a wait.
Set off on time for Manila, arrived half an hour early.
Got through the transfer surprisingly quickly and found myself at the gate crazy early.
The flight ended up being an hour late so I had a long wait.
Eventually landed in Iloilo at about 8.30pm so was about 9.30 by the time I got to the house. Had some food waiting for me and had a quick tour of the house.
Shown to my room where I am staying with Kirsty and Claire who are both nice nursing students but only here until Saturday so then I will have the place to myself!
Pretty much went straight to bed as I had an early start the next day.Baca lagi
Intro day
19 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C
Woke up at 6.30am to have some breakfast, nice selection of tasty snacks!
Then met Joy and Richard who showed us to a Jeepney, the main method of public transport in the Philippines (basically a stretched out version of a tuk tuk sort of van with a completely unfathomable route network and payment system).
We made it to the hospital where we were shown into the student’s room. We were then informed that we had to attend the morning ceremony, where songs are sung, mission statements read and awards/intros done outside the front of the hospital. This also included us being announced and introduced to the team, having to stand at the front!
We then did a tour of the hospital where we were shown all of the departments. It’s all very different to the uk (obviously) with lots of cramped beds, relatives helping with care and unbelievable heat!
We then headed out to town for a city tour. First we went to Molo square which has a historical mansion where we tried Blue Ternate (flower) ice cream which tasted like vanilla and flowers. We then went to look at St Anne’s church before getting a jeepney into the city proper.
From here we went to the city hall where we were made to watch some strange videos about various festivals and world record cycling events(?) that happen in Iloilo. After this we were able to try on some local performance costumes full of feathers and beads which was great fun!
Next we went up on to the rooftop to get a view of the city. Not that attractive but there was a nice view of the ocean and the river that joins it.
Then we headed for some lunch at an idilic little restaurant called Buto’t Balat. It was a little haven in amongst the city chaos with a pond and beach hut style straw huts. Had some delicious mango smoothies and a variety of Philippine food.
We then went to a supermarket to get local SIM cards, adapters and crocs ready for placement tomorrow.
Back to the house for my intro meeting and a local language lesson. Trying to learn Hiligaynon is very difficult as it turns out! Another one tomorrow to try and practice what we learnt. Then we had some dinner and a bit of chill time. I was also not so patiently waiting for my email to find out which hospital I was placed at. Off to bed for an early night ready for the first proper day tomorrow. Exciting stuff.Baca lagi
Internal medicine day 1
20 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ ⛅ 7 °C
Up at 6.20am for breakfast - hash browns and scrambled egg today.
Got my scrubs and stethoscope on, packed all my gloves and masks and headed to the hospital via a jeepney (which I still don’t understand).
Was shown to the internal medicine office where I observed handover. This was mainly done in English although I found a lot of it difficult to follow.
It seems as though the system is that residents run the wards and text their seniors to keep them up to date. I have only spotted 1 consultant so far!
I introduced myself to the consultant in Hiligaynon which he seemed very impressed with!
After the handover I headed to the emergency room but was told there were no “toxic” patients and that I should go to one of the medical wards.
I headed to MM1 which is a male medical ward. Here seemingly all medical specialties are covered under 1 roof. I found myself a resident to tag along with - Kevin, who was nice but not particularly talkative. Tried to ask questions where possible. Saw a few interesting cases. Also noticed a few things which stood out as different from how things are in the UK. For example, people intubated with no sedation, being bag valve ventilated by their relative (folks as they’re called here). No curtains to be seen for privacy. No hand washing or PPI. Every single patient on some description of drip regardless of why they were in. Also the ward was about 1008734 degrees and full of fans to waft all of the germs around!
Headed back to the internal medicine office and found free lunch!
Went back to the house and decided to go to a near by pool for a dip and a cocktail. 15 minute walk in the sweltering heat (apparently it’s 32 degrees, feels much hotter!).
The pool was gorgeous, we had the place almost to ourselves with about 8 work the world girls there. Had a strawberry daiquiri and some calamari, played in the waterfall and generally had a nice time. On the walk back I got a matcha ice latte.
We then had another language lesson which was much too fast and a bit pointless, but we did revise jeepney language so that we can all navigate by ourselves now (hmm).
Had some dinner and then decided it was about time I got back into some form of workout routine. Made up a WOD, found a space in the house to do it in, got some speakers and a timer and even managed to rope Emma into doing it with me! It was very warm and sweaty but fun non the less.
Sat and a tried to do a bit of research on places we wanted to visit before heading to bed.Baca lagi
Internal medicine day 2
21 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ ⛅ 3 °C
Up at 6.30 again, feeling much more tired today though!
Got a jeepney which went down lots of little back roads so spent a long while thinking I was lost.
Went to the internal medicine office for handover and a case presentation about normal pressure hydrocephalus. The poor resident got torn apart by the neuro consultant who insisted that NPH is a common presentation here.
Then headed to the female medical ward to try and see some different stuff but no doctors to be found. I was directed back to the male medical unit. This time, I was introduced to cases much more readily and saw quite a few interesting ones.
By 11.30 I was far too hot and had been abandoned by the doctor so decided to go meet the girls to get some lunch. Went to a nearby mall and had some prawn noodle thing which was very tasty, although I had no idea what I was actually eating! Also got dunkin donuts munchies!
Headed back the hospital and gave ER another shot, still no joy! Decided to try the other female medical ward and found a really helpful resident who was actually willing to teach me some stuff, result. Saw a really tragic case that made me a bit upset, can’t help but think that if they were in the uk they might have been alright. Spent a bit of time with the resident but then she had finished her rounds so made an arrangement to go on her rounds with her tomorrow instead, fingers crossed!
Headed back to the house with the girls. We then decided to go to a massive mall called SM city to get a few bits and bobs. Managed to get an Adidas peak cap, a play suit and a couple of vest tops, also some snacks for Friday when we are going on our first trip away.
Spent a bit of time in the evening having a look at borocay and planning our trip there, then headed to bed.Baca lagi
Internal medicine day 3
22 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ ☀️ -9 °C
Up early again, back off to placement. Went to the female medical ward this time. Attached myself to the postgrad intern (kinda like an F1) and helped her do a few procedures which was cool. Even learned some tips from her for different things. Went with a patient who had a stroke to have an X-ray, which involved pushing her all the way to a separate building, still being ventilated by her relative, no portable X-rays here!
Went back to the house and had a video call with Roger :) nice to have a catch up!
We then had bbq and karaoke night. Gorgeous bbq food and mango pudding. Had a few drinks and then the karaoke began!
Seemingly it’s tradition for newbies to sing. I was determined that I wasn’t going to do any, but eventually gave up and did a rap - numb/encore with Emma as my singer. It was actually kind of fun!
Had a few more drinks and played some card games on the roof. Really fun evening and good chance to get to know people. Then to bed for an early startBaca lagi
Isla Gigantes day 1
23 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ 🌙 19 °C
Up at 4.30 which was painful! Got a van between 10 of us to drive us to the boat port. I slept for the whole way, so tired! People on the trip were: Emma, Hannah, Tegan, Sophie, Emma S, Keziah, Claudio, Laura and Anne.
Lots of waiting around but eventually got shown to our boat. Had to walk across a dodgy looking gang plank and hope we didn’t drop our bags in the water!
The boat resembled a spider with floats out on sticks at the side. Not particularly sea-worthy. We had an hour and a half journey where we thought we were going to capsize. Got completely soaked through to the point where I might as well have jumped into the sea.
After a sketchy journey, we arrived at an incredibly beautiful island, with white sand and clear blue water. We were greeted with a fresh seafood lunch of clams, chicken stew and rice. The meal was made slightly uncomfortable by all of the stray dogs begging around us and red ants clinging everywhere. The rooms were cute wooden huts with 6 beds in each. Some electricity but no phone signal to be had.
We then went for a dip in the sea which was heaven. Perfect temperature, just beautiful.
Next we got changed and ready to go on a hike up to some caves on the island. It was a hard hour long hike, clambering over rocks with blistering heat and humidity.
Eventually got to the top and found some pretty magnificent caves - Pawikan cave or sea turtle.
Lots of interesting geological features and photo opportunities. 3 chambers with holes up at the top so you could see the sky. Stood on a precarious rock to get a great photo. Had to get help on the way down as there were some pretty tricky parts with big drops down the sides.
Made it down and rewarded ourselves with another swim in the sea.
Then had dinner, bbq pork and fish with more rice. Drinks and card games followed, which sort of escalated to the point of some people being completely smashed. Lots of fun and good to bond with everyone.
Eventually all got to bed at about midnight.Baca lagi
Isla Gigantes day 2
24 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ ☀️ -9 °C
Today we got woken up at 6am by some random rave music being blared out from somewhere near our huts. Tried to sleep through it til 7am when we had to be up.
Had breakfast of scallop adobo (local speciality), fried egg and... you guessed it, rice!
Headed to get the boat, had to wade out to butt level and then fight our way up the plank from the water. Had a 20 min journey to get to the first island of our island hopping day.
The first island was called Cabugao Gamay. Walked up to a viewing point where you could see a sandbar across the island. Took lots of photos but then it started chucking it down, and I mean like monsoon level rain! Took shelter in a little hut, although the rain was just blowing in sideways so we were all soaked anyway. We then tried to make our escape onto the boat. There was a problem getting the anchor back on board so we were floating around for quite a while whilst a poor guy was diving in trying to rescue the anchor. We eventually managed to set sail.
The next island was called Sand Bar and was essentially a strip of sand in the sea with a few trees on it. We went for a swim here, although the currents were very strong and there was some pretty big waves! Our boat went to take some people somewhere else and so we had to wait for it to get back. While we were waiting we decided to take lots of photos, make pyramids, jump shots etc. The tour guide brought us over some freshly steamed scallops and oysters which were delicious. After what felt like forever, with no access to any of our stuff including suncream, the boat eventually came back.
Next we headed to an island called Antonia. This was a bit more touristy than the others, but still pretty quiet. Here we went on banana boats and jet skis which were easily the most fun thing I’ve ever done! Didn’t fall off at any point either which I was quite pleased with as it looked painful! Managed to get the jet ski up to 52 mph (which is the top speed) which on water felt like about 100. At this point we all started to notice how sun burnt we were getting but by this point it was too late.
We then headed to our last island - Tankie Lagoon. Here there was a beautiful little lagoon hidden behind the rocks. The water was super warm and clear so we had another swim. Then some people went off to do cliff jumping. I sat this one out because the route up looked pretty treacherous. Everyone made it ok and all did the jump which was probably about 5m. Few cuts and bruises though I think.
After this, we headed back to our island. We had a bit of chill out time so some people had naps. I went and had a bucket shower to try and cool off and get rid of the sand that was everywhere. At this point the sunburn was really starting to set in. Burnt everywhere, very sore!
We had some dinner and a couple of drinks and then I headed to bed as I was feeling pretty exhausted. Some of the others stayed up to do karaoke.Baca lagi
Isla gigantes day 3
25 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ 🌙 10 °C
Up at the crack of dawn again for more seafood breakfast. I actually couldn’t bring myself to eat any more so I had a cereal bar that I had brought with me.
We were told the sea was likely to be rough due to high winds (great) so we needed to set off early as it would be a slow journey.
Waded out to the boat again, this time a lot more sheepishly due to the sunburn and cold water mix being quite painful.
The journey was quite rocky but not as bad as I expected from what they had warned us about. Got back to the mainland with enough time to spare to go buy tshirts from the tourist office and then back in the van for a 3 1/2 journey back to Iloilo. I napped most of the way, although the air con was freezing so I had to put all my layers on.
When we arrived back I just chilled and did a bit of washing. Spent a while with my feet up to try and get rid of some of the swelling that was accumulating. Got my stuff sorted ready for the week ahead and went to bed.Baca lagi
Medical ICU day 1
26 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C
Up at the usual time. French toast, bacon and syrup for breakfast today, yaaass!
Went to internal medicine handover as usual but this time was introduced by one of the residents who is in charge of work the world things. She showed me where MICU was and introduced me to the staff which was nice.
MICU is air conditioned which is AMAZING! And there are only about 8 beds in there so it isn’t too busy. Most of the patients seem to be stroke patients (still can’t figure out why it’s so common here) who are intubated and have full monitoring. Saw an “emergency” re-intubation in a patient that desaturated to 50% as a blood clot was blocking her ET tube. The resident seemed very relaxed about this and didn’t particularly do it with much urgency! Read through some notes and saw a few patients then headed home.
Once we were all back we headed to SM city mall again to grab a few bits ready for our upcoming weekend away. Got a new bikini, denim shorts and some products. Also treated myself to a frappe! We then headed back to the house to chill.
As this week coming is Easter weekend (Holy Week here), it’s basically a massive national holiday from Thursday to Monday and so me, Emma and Hannah are planning to go to Borocay then. We spent a bit of time looking at hotels and eventually got one booked which has a pool and looks quite nice (decided to treat ourselves). Once we had done that, I chilled in my room for a bit and then video called Momma. Was really nice to catch up with her, even if the video did keep cutting out! After that I went to bed.Baca lagi
Medical ICU day 2
27 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C
Up at 6.45 for breakfast of hash browns and fried eggs. Headed in, same old stuff. Nothing much was happening at MICU as it was all the same patients as yesterday and they were all now stable. There was a case report presentation on decompensated liver cirrhosis so I went to that which was actually a really useful revision session. I asked a question at the end and so the gastro consultant dragged me over and had a discussion with me which was great. We were also talking about nice places to visit in England.
After this I headed to the gym with Emma and Claudio. It’s right near the hospital which is super handy and only costs 80 pesos for a walk in slot. Taught them how to do clean and press and snatch which was great fun. Also managed to do the WOD from CFL in 31 degree heat with my swollen feet which was pretty painful! Also came out in loads of sweat blisters where I am sunburnt, ouch!
On the way back, we jumped in the wrong jeepney and so ended up the wrong side of the bridge that we’re told not to go past (oops). So then we had to walk back for half an hour in the searing heat. The route took us along the esplanade river which is actually really pretty so it worked out ok in the end. We also called at 7/11 to get mixers for bbq night.
Decided I had to give in and have a nap when I got back as I was so tired! Slept for about 2 hours, hope I can sleep tonight.
Got myself a bit glammed up for bbq night, eyelashes and all which was nice. Everyone was quite tired but still managed a few songs. I did the rap part to Usher’s Yeah which was super fun.
Then headed to bed, absolutely knackered. Have now recruited my flight socks to try and get rid of some of this fluid!Baca lagi
Medical ICU day 3/NICU
28 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ ⛅ 6 °C
Up at the usual time, omelette today. Had to wait ages for a jeepney this morning as they were all either super full or going to the wrong places. Got to the internal medicine handover and the ICU doctor was nowhere to be seen. Went to ICU after and waited for a while, still no sign. Decided to pop to the loo in the work the world office where I found Joy and Emma. Emma suggested that I come with her to NICU (neonatal intensive care) if nothing much was happening on MICU. Went along with her and it was actually a really great idea. Got to see loads of tiny babies, quite a lot of them really premature and some that had only just been born. Got to cuddle quite a few of them which was lovely! Some of them are really sick which was sad to see, one had an omphalocoele surgically repaired and another had a diaphragmatic hernia. After that we decided to head home. Did a bit of washing and had some lunch.
Emma and I then decided we wanted to go to a pool for the afternoon. Joy told us about the one at the Richmonde hotel which was near SM city so we thought we would give it a go.
It cost 500 pesos to get in which is about £6.80. It’s a very fancy hotel so I didn’t mind at all!
We got up to the 7th floor and were given towels and a drinks menu. Decided to treat ourselves and get some cocktails. Had Mai Thai first and then a Long Island iced tea. The pool was lovely and had jacuzzis in it. The only problem was they wouldn’t let me wear my tshirt (which I wanted to wear to cover my sunburn) in the pool as the cotton is apparently bad for the pool?!
Chilled there til about 5pm and then headed over to SM to get a few bits. Had to walk round to it which was actually about a 20 min walk but we found a few really nice looking cafes and the immigration office on the way which is useful for next week when we need to go. Needed to get some Zovirax from the pharmacy which turned into a bit of a faff as nowhere seemed to have it but I got there in the end.
Came home and had dinner then packed ready for Borocay in the morning. So knackered!Baca lagi
Boracay day 1
29 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Up at 7am to have breakfast and finish packing for Boracay. Got in a taxi which took about 30 mins to get to the bus station. From here we found the bus bound for Caticlan and prepared ourselves for a long journey. Luckily the bus had air con, WiFi and movies on including Harry Potter (although they were too quiet to here properly). Altogether took about 6 hours. Was pretty bumpy so napping was difficult. Made it to Caticlan ferry port to a scene of absolute carnage. Hundreds of people queueing in random directions and a ticketing system that made no sense at all. We eventually figured out that we needed 3 separate tickets from 3 separate windows, one for the actual boat ticket, one for an environmental fee and one for a terminal fee. Not sure why they couldn’t all be bought together in 1 queue but I feel like inefficiency is pretty standard here. Tickets bought we then had to queue again to get inside. We had to put our bags through airport style scanners and metal detectors. Eventually got inside and then had to fight our way onto a boat. Again, no clear system of how to do this so we stood somewhere near a boat that was pulling in and fought our way on! All in all we had spent about an hour getting from outside the terminal to this point. The boat itself only took about 15 mins. We arrived at a point at the south of the island and so had to get a private van to take us to the hotel.
Driving down the roads to the hotel, you could see why Boracay needs to be shut down for refurbishment. The main central parts are pretty gross with building work everywhere and puddles of water everywhere due to inefficient sewage drainage. We got to our hotel at around 4.30pm. Check in was then difficult as the initial credit card we had tried to pay online with didn’t work. We then had to pay 8000 pesos as a security deposit which equates to about 100 quid and is completely ridiculous.
Once we sorted that we dropped stuff off in the room and went in search of food as we hadn’t really eaten since breakfast. The beach is about 200m from the hotel and on route is a McDonald’s, handy for end of the night snacks! We got onto the beach to find the most beautiful white sand and a gorgeous pink sunset sky. Worth the days stresses. We found a pizza place called Shakeys where we could sit on the beach. I had a scallop pizza and we got a pitcher of beer to start the evening off. After food we went back to the hotel to get ready for the night out. We also bought a few alcopops to have while we were getting ready.
When we went out, we find a bar called Om bar where we could sit on beanbags on the beach. Here we had watermelon flavour shisha and cocktails. We made friends with a couple of Philippino girls who were on the table next to us - Elle and ?. As the night progressed we discovered that you could buy 3 meters of cocktail so we got a mojito one. From this point it started descending into chaos.
We went inside to dance and felt like celebrities because everyone (guys and girls) wanted to dance with us! Later on we went to a club called Epic which has a bar/dance floor on the beach. We wandered home at about 6am and got a McDonalds on the way.Baca lagi
Boracay day 2
30 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C
Woke up at 11am feeling very sorry for ourselves. Had missed breakfast and so attempted to venture out for some food. Made it to a place called Nigi Nigi Nu Noos (strange name) and tried to eat some carbonara. Didn’t go down that well!
We quite quickly retreated back to the hotel to go have a nap.
Got back up at about 3pm and decided to try and explore a bit of the island. Walked round to Bulabog beach which is on the opposite side of the island. Way less touristy but also not as nice. Sewage pipes seemed to all be directed at this beach. On the way back we got a bit lost and ended up in the middle of a load of houses. Eventually found our way back to the main bit and went to get some food. I attempted pancakes but still didn’t go down well.
We then sat on the beach to watch the sunset. Went out for food which also turned out to be a disaster. Went to a fish place where you choose your fish from a stall at the front and then they cook it. I decided to treat myself to lobster. We then tried to order some other stuff at the table because Emma didn’t want fish. The fish arrived, we ate it. Still no sign of Emma’s food though! So I spent quite a lot of money on basically just grilled lobster, although it was pretty tasty. We then had to take Emma to get McDonalds as she still hadn’t eaten! After this we went to bed to recover for the next day.Baca lagi
Boracay day 3
31 Mac 2018, Filipina ⋅ ☁️ 27 °C
Woke up early enough to manage to make it down for free breakfast in the hotel. Had scrambled eggs and toast with a few random vegetables thrown in. We then walked down to the beach to find someone to organise helmet diving for us. We found a guy called Bernard who initially was telling us it cost 3500 pesos. We knew that the people from our house had paid 600 so we stood our ground and eventually he gave in. We waited on the beach for a while and then were picked up by a speed boat to take us over to a platform 5 mins away in the sea. We then waited nervously on the platform, feeling a bit apprehensive when we saw the helmets. They basically work with the same principle as when you put a glass upside down in water it traps the air. They did have oxygen tubing to pump in extra though to be fair. Eventually we were summoned to go in and I went first. You had to climb down a ladder into the water and then hold yourself there whilst they lowered the helmet on to your head. It weighs 35kg out of water but only 2kg once you’re in. Helmet on, I was then rapidly dragged down and under the water by the diver who guides you down to the bottom. At this point you can just walk around freely on the bottom! Completely surreal and amazing feeling. From here I could then start to explore amongst the fishes. Hannah and Emma got down safely too. The diver had an underwater camera and so took lots of pictures for us. Emma also had hers and so we could take extras. They gave us pieces of food to hold in our hands which attracted the fish towards you. Sometimes they nibbled your hand a bit so it was also a bit of an exfoliation. There were so many fish everywhere. There were also some patches of coral which had some really cool fish in them. There was even a nemo! Spent about 20 mins down there before being told we had to go back up which was sad!
We went to go get lunch at a place called Hoy Panga. Their specialty was tuna but they did a variety of food. I had a seafood peanut curry thing which was beautiful. We also got cocktails so I had a lychee mojito. We then had a bit of chill time while we were waiting for Beth to arrive. Once she got here we met her on the beach and sat to watch the sunset with a couple of drinks. So nice to see her but so strange to think that we’re randomly in the Philippines together. Also met Vicky (who I already know), Ben and Sam (female) who Beth and Vicky have been bumping into around various places in Asia. We went to Nigi Nigi Nu Noos again for food and cocktails. This time I had calamari but wasn’t able to eat that much as I felt quite sick.
We then went back to the hotel to get ready. We had decided it was extra night and so we had to get super glam outfits and make ourselves fancy. I wore a sequin dress that I had bought specially for the occasion. Beth told us to meet her at mad monkey hostel. This is a chain of hostels which are known the world over for being crazy party places! It was a fair walk from our hotel so we decided to get in a trike tuk tuk which was lucky as I don’t think we would have found it on our own. Got to mad monkey to find a scene of utter carnage. Everyone was already smashed and had obviously been drinking all day! We found Beth and Vicky and went to get drinks. When we got to the bar we found a guy who had just bought 100 rum and cokes and was handing them out to everyone! Free drinks for us then. Eventually ended up having 3 of these free ones, winner! At midnight they stopped serving so at this point we headed back to White beach to carry on the night. We were heading in the direction of Epic again but found a cool bar on the way. Here the rum and cokes were 80 pesos (so almost free, basically £1). Had a couple there and then carried on to Epic. They had a music festival night on and so it was very busy to get in. Still got 3 free drink tickets with entry though. Plenty more drinking and dancing here. At some point I ordered some shots which was a mistake. They were some kind of rum but really strong and massive shots. 3 of us ended up having to go onto the beach to vom 🙈. The night ended at 6am again, with another McDonalds (need to get back on the diet when I get to the house). All in all a great time.Baca lagi
Boracay day 4
1 April 2018, Filipina ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
Woke up at about 1pm all feeling very sorry for ourselves (again). Decided to venture out to get food. Met Beth and Vicky and the others at Globy which was the place that we had pancakes at the other day. I tried to have a Pad Thai but was feeling pretty sick. We then went onto the beach to chill. It wasn’t that sunny so it wasn’t actually too hot for once. After our chill time and watching the sunset we went back to the hotel to get ready. Came back out for food and ended up eating at Epic which actually has really nice stuff! I had an island burger which had pineapple and guacamole on it. We also had some happy hour cocktails. We then went and found some beanbags to chill on with a drink. Stayed out til about 11.30pm but then had to call it a night. Said bye to Beth and the team and went back to the hotel.Baca lagi
Travel day
2 April 2018, Filipina ⋅ ☀️ 28 °C
Up at 7am to go get breakfast at the hotel. Had to wait for a while for them to check our room so we could get our ridiculous security deposit back. Once we had done that we got a tuk tuk down to the ferry port. This time we only had to buy 2 tickets and there was a guy with a microphone instructing people where to go, much better! Got onto a boat pretty quickly and back over to Caticlan. Here it was chucking it down and so we didn’t want to have to walk far to find the bus. Luckily spotted what seemed like the right one straight opposite. For some reason it was more expensive (only by 20 pesos) but we just went with it anyway. Managed to sleep a lot of the way back and watched a bit of Top Gear on my iPad. We arrived at the bus terminal at around 3pm and then had to try to get a taxi back to our house. The guy didn’t seem to know where it was and wanted to chat to us about everything on the way but we were so tired at this point! Eventually made it back to the house and met my new room mate Chloe. She seems really nice but is only here for 2 weeks so I might go back to an empty room again for a while, we will see! Had dinner and made a plan with everyone wanting to go to Antique at the weekend. Headed to bed to chill and watch some TV to get some rest ready for hospital again tomorrow.Baca lagi
Medical ICU day 4/ER
3 April 2018, Filipina ⋅ ☀️ 8 °C
Woke up at the usual time. Headed in with Emma this time as she has been assigned to internal medicine with me so I don’t have to be on my own! We went to handover and then headed to medical ICU for a bit. Lots of the patients were the same as previously although one of the previous ones now had a tracheostomy in rather than being intubated. There was also a young guy on there who had had some sort of brain bleed. He has really interesting eye signs and so we did a brief cranial nerve exam on him to see where the deficits were. We then sat and discussed his case after which actually made for some interesting learning. We then went to a case presentation on bacterial endocarditis which was interesting and informative but once again highlighted serious gaps in the knowledge of the residents as we seemed to know answers to lots of things they couldn’t answer.
After that we headed home for lunch and a nap as we planned to come back in later to do an emergency room shift. Slept for about 2 1/2 hours and felt much better for it, think I was still trying to recover from the weekend!
Spent a bit of time after that getting a bit stressed out as I was trying to plan the weekends trip away for 12 people and it was quite difficult to come to a consensus on what we wanted to do. Eventually got it sorted and everyone seemed happy enough.
Me and Emma then got a jeepney back into hospital for our evening shift at about 7pm. We headed to the emergency room which was noticeably busier than in the day time. There were patients everywhere including in chairs and on the floor and all of them had a bantay (relative/carer) with them so it was hectic. We approached the internal medicine desk but they weren’t particularly forthcoming or talkative (no surprise there). Quite soon after we arrived, we noticed a few of them rush to a patient to do CPR. We were really shocked at how poor their CPR was! We definitely would have done a better job ourselves. They then decided the patient was breathing on their own (although already intubated) and so stopped. We thought that it was probably an inappropriate attempt at CPR rather than a successful revival. We also got to watch an NG tube insertion and talk to a patients relative about their condition. After this not much was happening so we headed home around 9.30pm and went to bed.Baca lagi
Bearland
4 April 2018, Filipina ⋅ 🌙 14 °C
Woke up at the usual time, feeling extra tired though as I woke up wide awake for a while at 4.30am and couldn’t get back to sleep for a bit.
Rather than a handover today there was a presentation on neuro examination. This should probably have been reasonably interesting but the doctor presenting didn’t seem to really know what she was talking about. After about 45 mins there was a power cut across the whole hospital and so the residents all just seemed to decide that that meant the end of the presentation and headed off to the wards. We weren’t sure where to go and so we contacted Grace (the work the world internal medicine contact). She didn’t want us with her in outpatients and so sent us back to ICU. We explained that we had seen all the patients in there and so she sent us to male medical ward 1. The doctor for that ward wasn’t there and so she rang them, to which they said can we come back in an hour. At this point we were getting quite fed up and so we decided to go for a coffee and ice cream and to go buy some more data top ups for our phones - 300 pesos (£4 ish) for 2GB! We sat and chatted for a while and then headed back in. There still wasn’t particularly much going on so we read through a few patients notes and wandered around the ward. We tested each other a bit on the stuff we were reading which was quite useful. We then decided to go home and get lunch.
At around 1pm the housemates all met up and we took taxis over to a resort called Bearland. It’s about a 30-40 min drive away but has an infinity pool and pool bar! This place was lovely. We chilled there all afternoon drinking cocktails and taking lots of fun photos. There was also a jacuzzi which was great! It started to rain at one point and so we all hid our bags under an umbrella but carried on hanging out in the water. We ended up having to wait quite a long time for taxis back which got a bit annoying but got there in the end. We came back and grabbed food and then I headed to bed as I was super tired and maybe a bit tipsy from the cocktails! 🙊Baca lagi
Family medicine
5 April 2018, Filipina ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C
Woke up a bit earlier today, excited to try out a day of family medicine. This is basically providing community healthcare to people in rural places and covering GP types of things. We met Joy at the work the world office at 8am and went to the family medicine office with her to meet the doctor we would be with. He wasn’t there so she told us to wait there. Got to about 9am and still no sign of him. We were given a booklet about animal bites management to read by one of the other doctors in there so we looked at that to pass some time. Eventually at about 9.20am he showed up. We then followed him out to a taxi to take us to the bus terminal. We then got on a bus to take us to another town. This bus was a lot less fancy than the ones we had been using for Boracay, no aircon or WiFi sadly. We arrived at a town (of which I don’t know the name) and then picked up some snacks before getting on a trike to take us to the actually community place. The trike had very little space and Emma and I had to really squeeze in together. After struggling up a few hills we finally got to our destination. Here we found a tiny church with a clinic room attached to the back of it. We were properly out in the middle of nowhere. We were introduced to the person who runs the clinics and then told there weren’t actually any patients to be seen today, classic. We sat around for a while and then eventually headed off to another clinic further up the road. Also no patients here, apparently because of the “festival” that’s going on. From here we were taken to a view point which overlooked a river and was very pretty. However the doctor then told us that the reason students haven’t been allowed to do family medicine for the last couple of years is because rebels kept coming down into the towns and trying to kidnap people, great! We were told that they didn’t do that anymore so not to worry, too late!
Thankfully we left reasonably soon and headed back on a trike, this time to go to the festival.
Arrived at a town called Guimbal which is on the coast. Here we found boards of people all here to watch some boat racing. At this point we were told we were the only doctors here and that we were going to be the first aiders for the event! We were taken to a table and given some food and drinks, which the doctor wouldn’t let us pay for. We were then taken to sit with the other first aiders, a very surreal experience. We went to explore a bit and look around the festival. We were even more of a novelty here than at other places! Lots of waving children and people staring. After a while we were told to come sit on the beach with the other first aiders to watch the main event - the championship final boat race. It was all very exciting, some of the boats stalled and people would overtake, going round corners looked particularly tricky as they had to put their hands into the water to change the boat’s direction quickly. The race was won by the yellow boat and everyone seemed very happy!
We were then told to go and take a seat in the arena looking area ready to watch the show. We were given free chocolate ice creams and sat waiting excitedly. At this point they were watering the floor in the arena area and we weren’t really sure why. For some reason we were moved over to the other side of the arena which later became apparent that it was because we were moved to sit on the “celebrity” side along with various mayors and Secretaries of State! We then sat for a long time while various prizes were handed out, for the racing and some body and canvas paintings that had been done. We thought the show would then start... no! 2 guys came out with what looked like massive rakes and spent about 20 mins raking the pre watered sand, also have no idea why. Once this was done we thought surely the show would start. No, now it was time for the guest speaker. This was some secretary of state person who was first introduced for about 20 mins, then spoke himself for about 45 then someone else joined in. All in all they were talking for about 2 hours and it was basically all propaganda about what a good job they’d done! We were getting very fed up and wanted to leave at this point but this wasn’t an option as we weren’t even sure where we were. There was an odd moment of excitement when I felt something on my face, went to move it and realised it was a gecko crawling over me. It completely freaked me out and I may have screamed a bit and disturbed the speeches, oops!
Eventually the performance started. It was a reenactment of the Moro Raids (whatever they are). It was an award winning tribal dance from some competition last year. They were actually very good! Very dramatic, lots of crying and fake blood. This eventually finished at around 6 and so we were then able to start heading back. We had to get a trike to the main town, then a bus for 1 hour, then a taxi back to the house. Made it back at around 7.30 which was an hour late for dinner on bbq and karaoke night! We grabbed some food and then went to go shower and get ready because we had decided it was “extra night” where you had to dress up fancy. I wore my sequin dress and so did Aussie Emma so we were twinnies. We drank sangria, did karaoke and stayed up til midnight having fun playing cards and drinking games.Baca lagi
Rest day
6 April 2018, Filipina ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C
Decided not to go in today and had a lie in until about 10am. I then needed to go get my visa extension from the immigration office. Emma came with me as she needed hers too. We had been told to wear smart covered clothes and so we dressed appropriately. We got there to find that they wouldn’t let Emma in the room as she didn’t have covered shoes on! This caused a bit of a fuss as we needed to get them today. Eventually a woman came out and said that if she was paid 500 pesos she could do it for Emma and she wouldn’t even have to go in the room. We weren’t entirely sure if this was legitimate but she came out of the office so we kind of had to go with it. Had to also pay 1000 extra to get it done same day, otherwise they were going to keep our passports until next week! We had to wait an hour for it to be done so we went to a cute coffee shop to get a frappe and some brunch. I had banana Nutella waffles that were delicious. We eventually collected our passports and headed over to SM city shopping mall to get a few bits ready for the weekend. We headed back to the house and I sat and did a bit of planning for my Palawan trip next weekend. We then had dinner and went out for desserts as it was some of the girls last nights. Had so much cake that we could hardly move! Then headed home to pack and go to bed as we had an early start the next day.Baca lagi
Antique day 1
7 April 2018, Filipina ⋅ ☀️ 14 °C
Up at 4.30am to get the bus for our trip. 12 of us just about managed to fit into the van although it was pretty uncomfortable. I sat at the back and basically tried to sleep for as much of it as possible. It took about 3 1/2 hours so we arrived at Tibiao in Antique at around 8.30am with breakfast waiting for us. Once we had eaten we got changed ready to set off on our tour. To begin we were told we would need to take a motorbike ride and we’re each given a driver to take us, no helmets though as they wanted us to “feel the breeze in our hair” ummmm... We were driven to a ”museum” which was essentially a room with some giant clam pearls in it. Apparently worth lots of money but they don’t need any security guards there because God will protect them! We then were taken to the oldest bakery in the province which uses a proper brick oven. It was from 1953, so not that old to us. Here he bought us some snacks to take on our hike. We then got back on the motorbikes and headed to the foot of the hill where we were doing our hike. We were introduced to our guide Maralyn who was about 60, less than 5 foot tall and does the hike 3 times a day every day. It wasn’t too strenuous a walk, definitely not compared to the one at gigantes. Took about half an hour with some lovely views of rice padis and a few water buffalo here and there. Got to the top and saw the lovely waterfall. We were given time to go swim in the water and take some pictures which was very relaxing.
It was then back on the motorbikes to take us to Calawag mountain resort. Here we were told that our lunch table was waiting for us, in the river! We sat with our feet in the water and were served an incredible platter of pork, chicken, rice, noodles and vegetables which was designed to be shared and eaten using your hands. Such a wonderful experience. We were also serenaded by some locals playing us some songs on guitars which was cute.
Once we had finished eating we got ourselves set up for extreme tubing. Each of us was given a life jacket and helmet and sat in a rubber ring with some netting under it. We also sat on top of an extra life jacket which was mainly there to stop you from scratching your bum on rocks as the water was pretty shallow in parts. We set off down the river with some guides to help us get past tricky parts. There were some sections which were properly white water and it was quite difficult to stay on. I came off once but it was fine and I didn’t hurt myself at all luckily. All in all it was really fun! After tubing there was the option to jump off a rock. I didn’t fancy this so just sat and watched some of the others have a go. We then went back to the mountain resort where there was a “rain swing” and 4 hammocks stacked above one another. Perfect opportunity for some picture taking.
Next was the main event, the hot pots! These are basically basins which they put hot water in and fire under to make it extra hot. They add various leaves and salts to make it a kind of aromatherapy type of thing. We got to chill out in these for quite a while which was super relaxing. I shared one with Emma so we had a good chat while we were there. They also gave us salt scrubs so we could exfoliate!
We then went back to the huts that we were staying in. These were located at the Tibiao fish spa and so while we were there we got unlimited fish spa time! I had some dinner and then made the most of the spa. Opted for the medium sized fish as the big ones were a bit terrifying! After feeling that my feet were properly exfoliated, I headed to bed, absolutely exhausted!Baca lagi
Antique day 2
8 April 2018, Filipina ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C
Woke up at 7am to have some breakfast. There was a bit of tension in the group as half had decided that they didn’t want to come on today’s tour but had basically booked the same thing through someone else without telling us. Their bus didn’t turn up though and so they ended up sharing our transport anyway! We got a bus 22km down the road to the boat port. From here 6 of us got on our boat to go to Mararison island which only took about 15 mins. We arrived there to find beautiful crystal clear turquoise sea, white sand and big rolling hills in the background. We were shown to a little cabin thing where we could leave our stuff and given some drinks and snacks. Then we went to see the Mararison island children’s choir. This was set up after a cyclone hit the island badly in 2013 and was a way for the kids to socialise and get involved in music. They ranged in age from 7-16 and were all incredibly cute. They sang us 5 songs and at the end came running over to us all and gave us big hugs. They were thanking us because money from our tour goes towards buying them school equipment or shoes or whatever they need. They were very good too, my favourite song was a cover of Flashlight by Jessie J!
After this we went to get our trainers on to prepare for a hike. This was 2km each way up onto one of the peaks of the island. It was a very warm day and so this was hot hard work. The views at the top were stunning though so totally worth it. It was very windy at the top, so much so that I was a bit scared of getting blown off the top! The view was over towards the sand bar beach, but you could also see out over the rest of the island too. We stayed for a while to soak up the views and so a bit of a photoshoot and then headed down to see a different part of the island. This part was a peaceful little bay where we sat and rested for a bit. We then headed back over to the main beach to get our lunch. The girls on the other tour came and met us at this point as their tour guide hadn’t been able to get them any food! We ate and then had some time to swim in the sea. Our guide Toto warned us that there are sometimes stone fish in the shallows, so we had to shuffle our feet in so as not to step on them! The water was a beautiful temperature and it was really relaxing to just chill out in the sea. At about 2pm we had to head back to the boat back to the mainland. Here we met the other girls again and then all got the van back to where we had stayed the night to pick up our bags. It was then a very bumpy 4 hour journey back to the house! Once we got back we all pretty much ate dinner and went to bed. I felt a bit bad as 7 new people had arrived but we were all too tired to really talk to them properly! I spent the rest of the evening booking my flights to Palawan for next weekend to go and see Beth, then went to bed.Baca lagi
Obs and gynae day 1
9 April 2018, Filipina ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C
Up at 7am to have breakfast. French toast, bacon and syrup, my favourite! Excited to see some babies being delivered. Was on shift with Prachi who has been on O&G for ages so she was going to show me the ropes. Had to get changed into fresh scrubs and then made our way onto the ward.
Here there is a private room for paying patients and a delivery room with 2 beds in it for those that can’t afford to pay. Next to the delivery room is basically a holding room for women to labour in. There are 3 “beds” but usually at least 5 women in there, some of which have to stand up. They are shouted at and told to be quiet if they make too much noise!
They are assessed intermittently for cervical dilation and only when they get to 10cm are they moved into the delivery room. There are no partners allowed and so these poor women have to go through it all by themselves. Saw 2 deliveries both of which had episiotomies, both seemingly unnecessarily. Once baby is delivered it is taken into a room next door and assessed then put in a little crib away from Mum. There are posters everywhere about the importance of early skin to skin contact and breastfeeding but this just doesn’t happen. Some of the babies are in this room for hours before they get given back to their Mum and so don’t get fed. We spend our time in between deliveries cuddling the babies and trying to comfort them.
One delivery happened in the holding room as the baby basically just fell out! There was no sense of urgency to help the poor woman.
Stayed in the delivery room until midday and then headed back to the house. Had some lunch and then went to my room to relax for a bit. After this I sat and made plans with Hannah, Emma and Lisa to go to Cebu weekend after next. We booked our flights and hostel so now all of my weekend plans are sorted until I come home. I also did a bit of laundry from the weekend.
We had dinner and then decided we wanted to go out for a glass of wine. Went to a place 10 mins walk from our house in a hotel. It was a rooftop bar but unfortunately there was a thunderstorm and so it was raining heavily. We sat inside and had wine and cocktails which was really nice. Headed back at around 10pm and video called Roger which was really nice. Had a good catch up for over an hour and then headed to bed.Baca lagi
Obs and gynae day 2
10 April 2018, Filipina ⋅ 🌙 27 °C
Had an afternoon shift today so was able to have a lie in until 10.30am! Got up and had some breakfast then chilled out for a while until I had to go in. Was on delivery room again but with Cristina today who is a midwife. Saw 3 deliveries today, 1 of which was actually completely normal and quite nice, no episiotomy! One of them Cristina spotted in the holding area and could see the head so tried to tell the doctors to come in. They eventually tried to get the woman into the delivery room by which time the baby was half way out! Bit of a shambles really. Cuddled a few babies and finished at around 5.30pm. Then headed back to the house for dinner. We then went out as a group to get massages. It was at a place called Spa Riviera which was a jeepney ride away. There was an overwhelming smell of lemon as I went in which actually made me feel quite sick! We were given robes and slippers and got changed ready to go. We decided to have hot stone massages which actually felt really nice. The main issue I had was that my masseuse kept burping and coughing throughout and so it wasn’t really very relaxing. It did last an hour though and only cost about £7, not bad really. Got given some peppermint tea after but mine was far too hot to drink. We then got in a taxi back to the house and I went to bed.Baca lagi