Staying at a hospital in BALI! (& missing the flight)

 

After spending a week in Australia on our travel trip, we've planned to stay another week in Bali. We did as we planned and stayed in a surf camp! I've never surfed before and did not have the chance to try it on my last Bali trip in February.

The first morning, the first surf session. We had a perfect weather, the beach was not very crowded, the waves were nice. I managed to stand up a few times at the end of those 2 hours long surf sessions!

Then I thought, okay, one last wave before we go out of the water. Should not have taken that wave. While I fell of the board, I hit my feet on the board and broke my little toe!

Painful, but that was not the reason for my hospital stay.

The broken toe only kept me in the surf camp. So when my friend went to surf, I went to eat some street food instead, with a girl I met at the camp. From that day on, I suffered from diarrhea.

I woke up with horrible stomach pain on the day we had to check out. I spent to whole morning going to the toilet - throwing up & diarrhea (Sorry for beeing that honest). Plus, I got infected by my friend's fever & cough. I could not get up all day, & because the check out time was at 12 pm, I paid for another night so I could stay in my bed.

I felt worse & worse. We got a transport to the airport at 5 pm. We wanted to fly back to Australia for 1 day (6 hours flight) & then continue our trip in Singapore (8 hours flight). While driving to the airport, all I could think of was - HOW should I spend 6 hours in that tiny airplane while feeling so horrible? 

At the airport, it got even worde. I had to pick a plastic bag, empty the bag and run into a not so crowded corner to throw up, about 4 times (when there was no toilet of course).

My friend wanted to use the last chance to buy her mom some souvenirs. The shop was full of scented candles, soaps & stuff like that. You can imagine how I felt, smelling that stuff. I had to lay down some meters away from that store, in the middle of the airport. People were looking at me strange, some asked if they could help me, but I just told them that I'm ok and that I'm just sick.

When I tried to stand up to go to the security check, my knees immediately lost strength & I had to lay on the ground again. My friend didn't know how to help me, so we just waited some minutes.

I used my last energy and stood up. As soon as I stepped through that security gate thing, I immediately layed down again & then some security guys came to to ask If I'm OK. That was when I felt the worst, I could not help myself but cry. I cried and told my friend "I can't, I can't". That's when they brought me a wheelchair. I heard my friend and that wheelchait woman talking. My friend told her, she'll wait at the gate for me. The woman brought me to the doctor and told my friend "If the doctor let's her go, I will bring her. If not, you have to take your flight." I agreed with that. I knew I will get the money back from my travel insurance, but my friend will not because she's not sick.

The doctor checked on me & said, IF I can drink water, she will let me fly. But I couldn't. Every sip came out again 10 minutes later. So the doctor recommended to go to the hospital. I missed my flight & the wheelchair women brought me to the taxis.

The hospital was called BIMC. I'm not sure, but I think it was a hospital for tourists. Before they checked on me, I had to fill out some paperwork about my personality. They brought me to a backroom and wanted to give me a infusion, but because I was so dehydrated, my veins were like "hard" and the needle broke 4 times. The 5th time it worked, but the pain of my stomach was so strong that I didn't even care.

The doctors and nurses were all women. Compared to the other people I met in Bali, their English was very good! Plus, you could hear that they know what they were talking about. Inside the hospital, it looked like a total different place. You would not expect something like that in Bali. The rooms were super nice - comfy bed, big screen TV and very clean - especially the bathroom!

Even though they told me I could stay for breakfast, lunch & dinner, after they checked my blood after breakfast - with positive results, they told me that they will prepare the paperwork now so that I could leave. I did not feel much better & asked If I could stay in the bed for another hour, they agreed. After "checking out" of the hospital, they asked if I had a travel insurance, so they will give me the documents that I can forward to them. They are going to pay the $ 1'000 hospital stay back to me. 

During the night, my travel agency called me and booked another flight for me. They secured me that my Travel insurance will pay for the flight. 

So in my bad conditions, I had to look for an hotel to stay for 1 night. I just drove there with the taxi and luckily the first one I visited had a free room. The next day, i could finally attend my flight, feeling a lot better!

The good thing about this all was, i could fly to Singapore directly from Bali  (2hr 30 min) insead of Bali-Australia (6 hours) Australia-Singapore (8 hours)

I think it's been a good experience, especially because I love to travel. The next time, I know exactly what to take care of in a case like this. 

Stay safe!

Now on Youtube! Starting a Vlog

Minna san

I'm going to Australia next week! For 3 weeks, I'll be traveling around Australia, Bali & Singapore.
I bought a GoPro today to share my adventures in high quality! If you want to follow me on my adventures, you can check out my channel on Youtube.

I'm also gonna share the experiences i'll make, during my 6-month Japan trip I'll be attending in September, 2017.

I started my travel Blog in Switzerland, my home country!

As drawing Manga is one of my hobbies too, I'll share some Manga Drawing Videos!

I'm happy about every subscribe, comment, like & follow!

「The Japanese Hospitality 日本のお持て成し」

You may have heard, that the Japanese hospitality is pretty warm. They love to show foreigners their country and are very proud of it. 

I can confirm so, the reason is my letterfriend. My stay was located in Tokyo 東京, but she lived in Kōbe 神戸(about 3 hours distance). Anyway, I travelled with the bullet train (Shinkansen 新幹線) from Tokyo to Kōbe. She waited at the Shin Osaka train station for me, and we went to her apartment together. 

Her parents were already excited to meet me, they even made a "Welcome to Japan, Sabrina" cake! I did'nt expect something like this!

 

(Shinjuku, the place I stayed)

I could spend the night there, this was such a dream to sleepover in real Japanese family. The next morning, Mayo san's (my letterfriend) mother made us some Onigiri. What a feeling, sitting at the table woth a japanese family, feets under the Kotatsu 炬燵 (low, wooden table frame covered by a futon or heavy blanket, upon which abtable top sits. Underneath is a heat source which keeps you warm) and biting in to a still warm Onigiri おにぎり. 

 

(Riding the Riksha through Kyōto)

We spent some days together, she showed me the best spots around Kyōto, and even visited the Universal Studio Japan (USJ) with me. During my stay in Japan, i had the best time while travelling with my letterfriend. It's so much easier to travel and enjoy, when you are with someone that speaks the language, in a country where not everyone speaks english.

 

 

On my last day, I could experience the Japanese hospitality one last time for my stay. My flight back home was in the morning. I had to take the shuttle from Shinjuku Station 新宿区駅 to the airport. When I arrived at the Shinjuku Station, the shuttle was already full. Luckily, I was early enough to wait for the next one. I thought "hey, I should go to a japanese supermarket for one last time!" So I started looking for a Family Mart, Seven Eleven or Lawson. When I found one, there was a little stair to reach the store. As you can imagine, my suitcase was pretty heavy so I could'nt lift it up those stairs. On behalf of the low criminality rate in Japan, i thought I'll just leave it outside for a min. Before I entered the store, i picked my wallet and sorted out my last coins... So, a young, 18 years old girl, no make up & hair done, wearing a training suit and holding a suitcase and looking for her last coins. Must have looked funny, anyway a Japanese lady walked out of the store, holding for a second, then walked away. But she came back and gave me a piece of bread with two hands (respectfully). I took it, also with 2 hands and whispered "Arigato Gozaimasu!". As fast as she came, the fast she's gone. This story still makes me smile, whenever I think of it :)

 (Me and Mayo wearing Kimonos)

「One day at the Fushimi Inari Shrine 伏見稲荷大社」

I spent some days at the house of my letterfriend Mayo san in Kōbe 神戸. She made up a little plan to show me the culture of Japan, but it was a surprise. We woke up early in the morning to catch the train to Kyoto 京都. In the evening, after spending the day in Kyoto, our next destination was the Fushimi Inari Shrine. 

The final stations name was "Inari" 稲荷. We walked out of this little train station and the entrance of the shrine was just in front of us! I was surprised how small this little town is, even though this shrine is so famous.

My letterfriend booked a hotel near the shrine, so we could visit it the next day. I think it's s japanese thing, she booked 2 rooms even though we were only 2 persons. But for me, it was Ok :)

The next morning, we finally headed out to the shrine. There were many statues of foxes "kitsune" 狐. 

While walking upstairs, there was a group of school girls that were watching me. As soon as I got closer to them, they asked me if I want to take a photo with them (if you're a foreigner in Japan, this will happen to you pretty often)

Walking through those red tōris 桃李, is really a nice thing. It looks so cool, and sometimes you get to a crossing where you have to choose which way to go, (it doesn't matter which one you choose, all ways go to the top) some are faster, some take longer. 

 

One time, we reached a beautiful place where you get out of the tōri way and see some shrines. Then the tōti continue. 

 

At the end we walked back down a little street next to the tōris. There, we spotted an old lady selling something to eat, so we got a little hungry. When we got closer, I recognized that she was selling Mochi 餅! Mochi are little rice cakes, that usually are gummy on the outside and soft on the inside. 

The Mochis had the color rose, so I could imagine what kind of taste they had - Sakura さくら！(Japanese cherry blossom) there were only 2 left, ao we took this chance and enjoyed the end of this day with a little bite of Sakura Mochi ( ^ω^ )

 

The sun goes down in Tokyo

 If you want to see the city Tokyo from above, but do not want to pay something to get above like a Tokyo Tower or on Tokyo Skytree, then your option is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building! 

The Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building has a height of 243 meters. If you enter the building, go to the elevators - there's an extra eleveator which only goes to floor 45, which is free of charge!

You can look out of the windows and see the beautiful city Tokyo. There are even gift stores and Cafes! So amazing, I wish I had more time to spend there.

Unfortunately, there were some clouds at the horizon, orherwise I could have spotted Mt. Fuji!

Real life Hogwarts! - Universal Studio Japan

The name "Universal Studio" is well known by everybody. If you read my previous blog posts, you know that there is also one located in Ōsaka, Japan.

 

Japan is the country of Anime & Manga, that's why they got plenty of Anime parts in their Universal Studio Park. Like Evangelion Neon Genesis & Attack on Titan!

BUT! They have a Harry Potter section in the park, which you can enter after paying a little extra fee. It's totally worth it! Cause they got the Hogwarts castle and guess what's inside?

A 4D roller coaster/cinema! So you sit in a cinema chair 4D roller coaster, looking at a 3D screen and this machine even changes rooms! You got the perspective of harry potter flying through Hogwarts. It seems so real that you forget everything around yourself and really feel like beeing inside! 

 

Tokyo SkytreeThe number 2 highest building in the world!

Have you ever heard of the Tokyo Skytree? It is the second highest building in the whole world (634m)! (Number 1 is Burj Khalifa in Dubai - 829,8m)

If you'll ever have the chance to visit Tokyo, i highly recommend you to go to the Tokyo Skytree.
I went there at night, I've never seen something that beautiful with my eyes. You can see the biggest city in the world shining brighter than the stars. Until horizon, everything you see is city lights. The view is breathtaking and really worth it!

There are 2 observatory platforms that you can visit. If you pay a little extra fee, you can go to the 2nd plate (350 m) which is a little higher than the main plate (450 m). I did it of course and took a photo there. Check out below ;)

Btw. I think that was the coolest elevator in the world! The speed is 600 meters per minute, so you're on the top in only 50 seconds & there is a window where you can look outside of during the transport. So damn cool Japan!