The danger of Mosquitoes and cellulitis

Coming to Thailand for the first time? First time in the tropics? Let me share an incident that seriously threatened the health of my right foot and how I never travel to Thailand now without a Boots the Chemist product called Jungle Formula and some antihistamine tablets.

About five years ago I was staying at the Café Royale in Pattayaland Soi 3, when, during the night or during the previous evening, I was bitten by something. I have never worked out whether it was a spider, mosquito or mamasan – all of them equally poisonous. There were two distinctive puncture wounds side by side on the top of the foot and another a little way up on the lower shin. I didn’t think much about it and the next day I set off for a quick drink at that bar directly opposite the Cattery (Penthouse) in Soi 2, where there is always a small group of the barely breathing (all with well lived-in faces) sitting at the little bar by the pavement, slagging off those of us who frequent Boyztown. Have you ever sat there and listened to that group (who resemble a troupe of actors promoting Last of the Summer Wine)? Why? Why do I frequent those places, which I do once or twice on each trip to Thailand? Another is the Sin Bin Irish bar in Soi 1. Why do I go there? Why the bloody hell do I go there and drink two or three beers before dinner when quite clearly it’s a hetero bar where one would be well advised not to disclose one’s sexuality!
“You’re staying where?”
“Café Royale.”
“But that’s a hotel for fuc……..”

I think I make these occasional expeditions into the dire ‘straights’ just to take a breather from the gay scene with its screechy ladyboys and greedy mamasans. I wonder if any of you ever do the same. Do you ever feel that you just want to sit quietly in a bar that is not specifically gay and relax over maybe one or two drinks before returning to the chase?
I sat and listened to the tripe from those propping up that bar in Soi 2 and found myself shaking my head in despair at the level of conversation, some of which was directed at the gay community around the corner. They have a new name perhaps it’s not a new name, but I have never heard it before) for gays: “Poodle walkers!!” How many of us have bloody poodles? I have never seen a poodle anywhere near Boyztown! Imagine the looks and comments as you march confidently into the Ambiance with a huge French poodle on a leash!! The Soi 2 bar? Awful and the menu is farcical; littered with nuances and bylines such as: Big Breakfast - if the cook can be bothered to cook it! I have promised myself never, never to return to that place. Why the hell didn’t I cross the road to chat to Dudley – a gentleman, and very welcoming where gay clientele are concerned, although the Cattery is awash with frighteningly muscular heteros!

Returning to the bites on the foot. In scratching (never scratch mosquito bites) I must have allowed bacteria to enter the tiny wounds and within days my foot was twice the size; it was a deep red and my leg from the knee down seemed to have filled with liquid like a pair of incontinence longjohns! The skin was red hot, angry, fiery and very, very tight. I couldn’t get my right foot into my shoe so shuffled around the bars in carpet slippers! Cellulitis had set in. Christ, it was dreadful. Never, never delay getting that condition sorted. A kind soul sent me directly to a wonderful doctor in Jomtien, Doctor Mongkol. Superb. An injection straight into the left buttock followed by an oral dose (“Ever had an oral dose before, Sir?”) of flucloxacillin antibiotic. After a few days there was a noticeable improvement and the foot returned to normal after a fortnight.

Now, when I am in Thailand,before going out in the evening, I spray Jungle Fever (Deet) around the top of my shoes and a little on the top of my baseball cap, and at the first sign of a bite I cut my nails (think about it) and take an antihistamine tablet. Seems thus far to have reduced complications.

Another marvellous post! Thank you.

If they were puncture marks, I hardly think a mamasan would have stopped so low - although the depths to which they sometimes sink and the venom they spew have definitely increased over the years. Equally, if they were puncture marks, how likely is it they would be mosquito bites? In all my decades in Asia and years in Thailand, I have never noticed distinct picture marks with any of the thousands of bites I used to suffer.

And whilst I have encountered some very large black spiders in Phuket, I thankfully did not suffer any wounds as a result, even with one in my bedroom. I remember one morning going for a long walk on Nai Harn beach before breakfast at the old Phuket Yacht Club, now renamed at least twice since. Access to rooms was from open corridors and as I entered my room following breakfast, I felt something slithering over my open flip-flops. Assuming it was a cockroach, I called down to reception to ask that someone come and spray the room. That was promptly done, whereupon I changed and went to spend the morning and later a light lunch at the pool.

Relaxing on the bed before deciding what to do in the afternoon, I noticed a clearly dazed extremely large black spider emerge from behind the television. I quickly called reception again, a gorgeous young man appeared with the spray can again, looked at the wall and said."Oh, a spider!" as though it was a most normal event. He sprayed again whereupon it in a flash disappeared behind the furniture. But that was not the end. After a small nap, I awoke to find the aforesaid arachnid back on the wall and again crawling at snail's pace. It was then I summoned up the courage.to get a towel from the bathroom, caught the beast and flung it out of the window. No bites, though!

I wonder if by chance your injury could have come as a result of a snake bite? I imagine puncture wounds would then be pretty obvious. If your visit was 6 years ago, that would have followed the great floods in the final months of the previous year. There were several articles in the media about how quite a few smaller snakes had found their way out of private collections (and yes, these were the slithery ones, not those with 2 legs). Perhaps one had taken up residence in the sewers of Pattaya!

However caused, I am only glad that I have never had to suffer the trauma you went through. But like you, and as a mosquito magnet, for years now whenever in the tropics I always drench myself with a milky-like liquid named Jaico. Made in Belgium, this is sold throughout Thailand. Since I started using it, I have rarely had mosquito bîtes.

A reminder of what can happen!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zF-3wgcDRk4

Years ago, on Pattayaland soi 2, a corner beer bar named Shamrock, had a prominent sign
banning gay men from the bar. The sign has since been removed but some gay farangs still go,
even though they are clearly not wanted.
Shamrock is literally a minutes walk away from the main Boyztown soi.

2 things:

Firstly the Shamrock Bar never had a sign saying NO GAYS - what they had was a "humorous" sign saying "Don't bring your "boyfriend" in here". I'm quite thick skinned and it never offended me because I assumed it was directed at the female whores from across the soi rather than gay guys who by no stretch of the imagination would wish to frequent that establishment in any case. Either way it didn't bother me.

A friend and I actually did go in the Shamrock one early afternoon and I found the clientele very friendly. A bunch of them had been out fishing on a boat and had caught some fish which the landlord had prepared, battered, and deep fried and they shared that with us (total strangers) along with some chips - and not a satang was asked for.

Secondly, Poshy has plainly not been around Boystown long enough or he would know that when old Terry had what is now Oscars (but was then My Life bar) he indeed had a poodle - and what a talented poodle it was, as it would travel on Terry's motorbike (or even on a motorbike taxi) with its back legs on the seat and its front paws on the handlebars!

And just to prove my memory is not going, the poodle was called Coco !!

Quote:

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Do you ever feel that you just want to sit quietly in a bar that is not specifically gay and relax over maybe one or two drinks before returning to the chase?

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Never. If I want to sit quietly, I do so at home. If I want to drink while not at home, I got to 7-Eleven. When I go to a bar, it's either with gay friends or to meet new gay friends.

I get bitten by mosquitoes quite often in Thailand. Apart from one case of Dengue (? - three bouts of fever and red skin in decreasing intensity a week after return to Europe in 2010), no problems. I barely see or feel the bites (but I have a Farang friend who get huge unsightly spots).

No snake, spider or scorpion bites, but the occasional ant bite (I always wear flip flops, now I watch my step so I don't step into an ant road) and two wasp attacks (2013 and 2016, several stings in quick succession, and so fast that I first didn't see what exactly happened).