Anti-Malarials: worth it?

Friends, I vomited today and not for the reason you think. While I've broken about half the "safe food" rules* the travel clinic gave me, I did want to heed one bit of advice: take anti-malaria pills. This morning I started the course with one pill on an empty stomach in preparation for my trip northward in the coming days. 25 minutes later I'm vomiting in a supermarket toilet. Coincidence? Considering nausea and headaches were expected side effects, I think not!

But now what? Clearly I can't keep them down. There's another type of pill that's really expensive - like $5/pill and I take it my whole trip. Do I seek them out and invest? I'm pretty sure all these pills only have a ~50% rate of prevention and the chance of contracting malaria is small. After all, the folks living in the cities I visit get along without taking $5/pills. It's a pretty controversial topic amongst backpackers according to what google has shown me. What do you think I should do?

*safe food rules included No Street Food and obviously that wasn't going to happen. I promise I'm still using good judgment with what I eat and have accepted the risk as part of the reward.

Katie

Bangkok day 1: pictures

Too many stories to tell, so here's a couple of pictures from the Grand Palace and street Pad Thai. Yum! More to follow. <3

Hong Kong Day 4: pictures

Hong Kong Day 4: Lantau Island

Or: cold misty adventures away from Hong Kongrete.

I braved the weather to witness Big Buddha's shrouded figure.
I reluctantly decided against hiking only to find my 'wisdom path' turn into a trek halfway up Lantau Peak. I turned back the first time my shoe slipped on the wet rough hewn stairs. (No bueno!)
I heard the Buddhist monks chant while on the mountain if I held my breath and stayed still.
I drank hot milk tea in a shop while listening to "Circle of Life" and "I am 16 going on 17..." I may or may not have sung along.
I shivered my way through Tai O's historic fishing village and got lost among the "squatter huts."
I used up every last dollar on my Octopus mass transit card and had to negotiate getting the proper change for bus fare in broken English.
I swore off traveling anywhere my toes could go numb ever again (not really) (maybe if I had more coffee).
I officially spent more on coffee & tea per day than food. How much longer can I blame this habit on jetlag?
I said goodbye to a wonderful host and confirmed a new one for Bangkok.

I'm on a bus from Tai O to the HK airport. Even after typing out these experiences, I'm struggling to accept that I am actually backpacking Asia for two months and yes, this is my life. Good thing I have a few more weeks for it to settle in :)

Pictures to follow next post. I want to add more than one and last time I tried that, blogspot ate my text.

Keep the comments & emails coming! I write for you :)

Love,
Katie

Hong Kong Day 3: Dim Sum

Evidently food may be a common focus for me! I started the day meeting a dozen couchsurfers at their weekly Sunday dim sum lunch. Embarrassingly, I only just learned that dim sum refers to a wide variety of small plates of food (a local compared it to tapas.) I tried almost everything that came out and had the grandest time with all the different flavors. Everything was great except for the chicken feet fried with peanuts. I don't think tendons are my style :)

I believe some of the dishes were:
Har Gow: shrimp in rice flour casing
Siu Mai: minced pork and shrimp parcels topped with crab roe
Lohr Bahk Goh: mashed turnip pan fried with chives, dried shrimp and Chinese salami
Chung Fun: rolls of rice pastry filled with pork and smothered in soy
Lai Wong Bau: steamed buns with egg custard; another with BBQ pork
Chicken feet with peanuts!

Then part of the group joined me on a mad dash through crazy markets for coffee before taking the Star Ferry to Lamma Island. We only had an hour there so we stuffed ourselves (surprise!) with extremely fresh seafood: scallops with rice noodles and garlic, razor clams, calamari and fried rice with a bottle of Chilean Pinot. Then back on the ferry in time to see the famous hong kong light show and meet friends at a pub. We ended the night eating hot pot rice with beef and egg.

Today I am off to explore Lantau island before headed to Bangkok this evening!

Hong Kong Part 2: food text

Yesterday we ventured to Shau Kei Wan's main street, which is famous amongst HK foodies for its "snacks." I ate, to wit: Egg Waffles gai daan tsai: crispy pouches with a warm, soft filling.  Oh my Goodness so addicting. Fish balls & soft rice rolls with a soy, sweet and sesame sauce Golden fried chicken nuggets (I know!  Tasted like they use buttermilk with pepper) Then in the above pictures we have: Orange-y soup: spicy sour soup with mushroom Fake shark fin soup with some ginger sauce added Dumplings Fish dim sum Dumplings in soup, added red Sichuan sauce; I think the dumplings had pork and chives. Then later we stopped in a very old school cafe for hong long milk tea with coffee and French toast! Quick update for today- I'm on my way to meet a large group of couchsurfers for dim sum in the city.  Special thanks to my host and his girlfriend for showing me how they love to eat :) PS If you sent me an email for the mailing list, I tried to subscribe you using the form at the end of the blog.  Please check your email and confirm/deny if you want to be on the list.

Hong Kong Day 2: Food!