Indonesia 2011

Photos: My hotel in Ubud, Bali attached to the world's most beautiful restaurant - the Lotus.

The whole room and porch had marble floors. The porch had a nice writing table and dining table. The view from the porch was of the wonderful garden and breakfast area. The bed was comfortable, bathroom so nice and service and food were perfect.This was $60 a night and well worth it.

I was scheduled to fly from Toronto to HK, then on to Singapore and then on to Yogyakarta (pronounced Joe Jakarta), Indonesia on January 25th. I had paid for several onward air reservations and some hotel nights. But 11 days before, I fell ill with the worst chest cold I ever experienced. I was knocked down flat for the entire 11 days. I did get a five day antibiotic prescription which barely made a dent in my misery. I then had to decide whether to make this 36 hours initial journey and rest of the trip or to cancel. Because I always end up in Asia during the Chinese Lunar New Year, I know that for the entire month of February you cannot possibly change any reservation for air or train travel - the only option is cancel.

The alternative was to stay home indoors avoiding the wretched offerings of February. I decided to travel. When I arrived in Yogya., I had booked a really beautiful 4-5 star hotel called The Phoenix. It was a 100% renovated, modern, comfortable (max) colonial styled property in the middle of town for an incredibly low price (until I had to add one day and also a late check out which cost almost three times what other nights cost). I was concerned that I might get worse after the antibiotic wore off. I felt so terrible when I arrived that I could not establish alone whether I was worse or better. I asked the desk to find an M.D. for me. They have a special phone for foreigner medical problems on which I described my condition. They said they would have a doctor at my room in 30 minutes or less.

It was so like some old movie. The doctor pedals up to the door of this grand hotel within 30 minutes and is escorted to my room. He is young(ish), very thorough and professional and decides that I am not worse, but not improved either. He warns of indicators that I am getting worse and says I should go directly to a hospital, gives me 7 days of vitamins, collects his $70 and departs.

I did little the next days except lay in bed watching BBC, Al Jazeera, and a (horrible) Russian station go on about Egypt - until I did not care what happened there. Occasionally I would drag myself to the great pool and lay there for hours in the shade. I had no appetite at all and once a day would at least eat fruit for breakfast, and try to have soup or more fruit later. I eventually lost more than 10 lbs.

I was in Yogya mainly to go to the temple of Borobudur. I hired a car and driver and went out there. As usual, I do these things mostly for the drive and only a little to see one more pile of stone and another temple. The drive out there was really pretty. The troublesome Mt. Merapi is even visible from Yogya, but is highly visible all the way out. My driver swore it is still erupting constantly, but as the cone was wrapped in clouds, I could not see any effluent.

The temple was not a ruin - surprise. It is perfectly intact. It is a stupa shape, which is not esp. handsome - to me - and of minor interest. I struggled for breath to climb to the top, spent some considerable up there mainly contemplating Mt. Merapi, and the struggled back to the car.

Eventually, I left for Lombok. Of course, I have been there several times and I had plans of going to snorkel etc in more exotic places, but could not handle it, so I went to Lombok where I knew I would be comfortable.

From there, I took a high speed small ferry Back to Bali and Ubud. There I hired a driver to take me out to the botanical gardens which is a huge forest park where I walked slowly for hours. It is on a misty mountain peak. My driver took me over to the highest peak in Bali, Mt. Agung, and to some pretty and famous temples and small towns, and then back to Ubud. I took another driver and car up to Singaraja on a different route and stopped along the ocean at several pretty beaches. The rest of the time I hung out at the pool and walked and rested. It was not an adventurous trip. But it was not Toronto, was about 33 C. most of the time, and I did enjoy it.

As you can imagine, my cold was so severe and hard to recover from due to a known underlying condition. A few days after my return, I was scheduled to see a specialist at Princess Margaret Cancer Centre about starting treatment. I am probably going to be eligible to join a study which is supposed to be more gentle and effective than standard chemo. If I do not fit into the study, I will have no choice remaining except chemotherapy or to decline any treatment.