The danger of Mosquitoes and cellulitis

[poshglasgow]

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.

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