I had finally arrived in Thailand. Despite all I have heard about the sex trade and the lady boys, I was by no means prepared for what I saw. Patong Beach, the town that is the most famous for its nightlife in Phuket, lived up to its reputation. I arrived late at night and the partying at the clubs and bars were in full force. After dropping off my bag at Patong Beach Backpacker Hostel, I wondered around town. All the main streets were packed with bar goers of all ages and Thai girls were everywhere pressuring you to sit and have a drink. I wondered down one side street which was a mistake. As I walked further and further down the street, I noticed everyone was a guy or a lady boy. Recognizing I went down the wrong street, I quickly back tracked and got out of there. I found the bar seen very creepy. There were 80 year old men dancing with Thai girls who looked 18. Every bar, young girls would come up to you asking you just to sit down. I’m all for parties and having a good time, but this was too much as it was so sleazy. There were a few bars that seemed more normal and more fun like Rocky City which had a live cover band. After witnessing the nightlife, I made my way down to the beach where I witnessed people sending of flying sky lanterns. This is basically a hot air balloon made with paper that is lit like a lantern and sent off into the night sky.

The next day I relaxed on the beach out in the hot sun. The white sand beach was amazing just as many had said before. The water was hardly refreshing as the water temperature was around 30C. The beach was covered by beach chairs looking like your typical resort beach. Vendors walked up and down the beach selling drinks, clothes and lotions. On the beach, you could also rent jet skis.

When the heat was too much to bear, I returned to the hostel where some backpackers were watching movies. There I met Nick the Norwegian, Kelly from England, Alix from California, Adam from Sheffield, Mike from British Columbia and a couple of Germans. There was talk about a ping pong show where girls do various things with the vaginas. These “things” included blowing a whistle, shooting balloons much like a blow dart, ejecting ping pong balls, ejecting fish, inserting water with Coke coming out and many more weird stunts. Most people at the hostel had seen or heard of these acts before, so the Germans and I decided to experience it firsthand. As weird it was and as impossible as it seemed, they did it.

The next day, I made my journey to Koh Phi Phi. There wasn’t much to Patong Beach and it was not how I envisioned it. I said my goodbyes to the new friends I had made at the hostel and continued my journey.

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur very early in the morning after leaving Shenzhen late in the evening the night before with a short stopover in Singapore. From the airport, I took a bus to KL Sentral and took the monorail to Bukit Bintang Monorail station. After getting some directions from a local, I found my hostel on Tingkat Tong Shin, just a block away from Jalan Alor where all street food stalls were located. Arriving very early in the morning, none of the staff was there but one of the residents of the hostel, John, helped me out. I dropped off my bag at the hostel and John gave me directions to get to the Batu Caves.

I caught an air conditioned bus to the caves which took about 45 minutes. Right outside the caves was a giant statue of a Hindi deity. Towering 42.7 metres, it is the tallest statue of Murugan in the world. It was made of concrete and painted with gold paint. Next to the statue were 272 steps to reach the entrance of the caves. As you climbed the stairs, there were monkeys climbing with you. They were literally everywhere. Some monkey had baby monkeys hanging off them. At the top of the flight of stairs, it offered a great view of Kuala Lumpur in the distance. The cavern of the cave itself was massive housing many Hindu shrines inside. Of course, the monkeys were also around. Some tourists seemed more interested in the monkeys than the caves and shrines. The shrines were quite spectacular as there were many figures carved and painted that decorated them. There were also monks praying and blessing their followers. I did find it strange however when I approached some people to help take a picture for me. Often they would look at me very strangely and back away. I thought it was quite obvious what I was asking but from the reactions on their faces it didn’t seem that way. I eventually did find some foreigners who understood me to take some pictures.

I returned back to the city from the Batu Caves and wandered around Chinatown. Petaling Street is the main street in Chinatown which is famous for its markets. Being in China earlier, I found the markets a bit more expensive. What they had was very similar as you would find the same sunglasses, t-shirts, belts and wallets as you would find in Shenzhen. It also seemed that I found more people in Kuala Lumpur that spoke Cantonese than I did in Canton province. Knowing that I would be back in China, I didn’t buy anything. I also knew that whatever I bought, I would have to carry it around on my back for the rest of my trip.
Making my way back to my hostel, I found it incredibly hot. Coming from China where at some parts of my trip I was wearing five layers, I found it quite difficult to adjust to the 36C weather that I was experiencing. Getting little sleep on the flights, I decided to rest up and take a nap.

At the hostel, I met Doris from Singapore and Nadia from Korea. We walked through the city to KL Tower which is the tall tv tower. The tower itself is on top of a giant hill which makes it look like it is taller than the Petronas Twin Towers. Once reaching the tv tower, we elected not to goto the top. Instead, we wandered around the base of the tower which there really wasn’t anything there. We then made our way to the Petronas Twin Towers which were much more spectacular. We first entered the Suria KLCC which is a shopping centre home to many posh stores. It was a breath of fresh air as the shopping centre was air conditioned. We then proceeded out to the KLCC Park to get a good view of the twin towers. The park itself was quite beautiful as there was a swimming pool, playground, pathways and many fountains. We took many pictures from a bridge in the park of the twin towers. Just being there was sort of surreal after seeing the towers many times before in movies. Unfortunately, you can’t actually go up the tower except for the Skybridge which you have to line up early for.

That night, we returned to the hostel and had dinner at the street food market. Like always, I tried to go with what the locals typically eat. So that night I had Curry Mein which is a curry noodle soup. Needless to say, it was tremendously spicy meal. With the night temperatures not dropping much and the extremely spicy soup, I was sweating like crazy and even coughed at the spiciness of the meal. The Singaporean and Korean also found it spicy but not to the same degree.

After dinner, the girls returned back to the hostel. Being only in Kuala Lumpur for one night, I returned to the night markets on Petaling Street where there were a lot more vendors than during the day. From the market, I tried to find the old train station but was unable to even with a map. I had to be very careful as I had been warned that KL is not very safe after dark and by that time, it was close to 11pm at night and the streets were pretty much deserted at night. So, I was running up and down the streets looking for the old train station until I gave up. I ended up finding Merdeka Square or Independence Square where there were surprisingly many families out with their children despite the late hour. Many of them were playing with toys that launched vertically and glowed in the night. Afterwards, I returned to the hostel. I wanted to experience the night life but opted not to as the girls were not up for it and I was quite tired myself.

I woke up early in the morning to go line up to view the Skybridge. Originally, Doris and Nadia were going to join me but they decided not to as they were too tired. When I got there at 8am, there was a massive line and I worried that I wouldn’t be able to see it due to my evening flight. After lining up for about an hour, I got my ticket for 1:30pm. I walked around the area to kill time before going up to the bridge. The views were great but not that spectacular as it wasn’t that high. But just being on the bridge was very cool. It essentially was a very high +15 bridge, but it’s the most famous and coolest one in the world. It would be cooler if it had a glass floor.

My brief stop in Kuala Lumpur was over as I returned to the hostel to pick up my bags and took a monorail and coach to the airport. At last, I was only a few hours from Thailand.

So the big day finally came. I woke up at 5:00 in the morning for the first time probably since needing to board a flight or something like that. Who thought I would be waking up that early to torture myself instead of taking off for some adventure. But I guess I was waking up for an adventure, a challenge to conquer. From the pains of the training runs, I carefully taped up my feet and nipples, selected a thinner pair of socks and greased up chaffing prone areas with Vaseline. Boy can I say those training runs paid off. Too bad I didn’t know any better before, that way I would have avoided weeks of idling due to injuries which limited me only to a maximum distance of 26km. I had a small breakfast that consisted of fettuccini with meat sauce that I had prepared the night earlier. I then laced up my shoes, double knotting them and made my way to Bridgeland for the start of the race by C-Train. To my surprise, the train was packed with other runners. Some were in deep concentration, some were sleeping, and some looked as if it was just another day. When I finally arrived in Bridgeland, I had to stand in line to check my bag in. Despite leaving early, the horn to signal the start of the race sounded while I was still in line. Fortunately, race time is recorded by an electronic chip that is tied to my shoe which is detected when crossing the start, finish and other timing points. After I finally checked my bag in, I plugged my headphones in and loaded up some motivational run songs I had picked out the night earlier like Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out For a Hero and Eminem’s Lose Yourself. The start area was like Deerfoot Trail during rush hour. It took quite a few metres after the start line before it was even possible to run. Along the sidewalks we were greeted to groups of supporters as they clapped and cheered. Some small bands had even up along the route to help carry us on. The first ten kilometres was a breeze and as I passed crowds of runners. I had even caught up and passed the 4:15 pacer despite the late start. The crowds started thinning out at Memorial and Parkdale as many of the runners made their U-turn back to Bridgeland as they were only doing a half marathon. Even the steep Shaganappi Trail hill did not faze me as I powered on. Fatigue started settling in as I ran through the university grounds but I did not stop. I crossed the midway mark of 21.1km at 2:05 which was bit slower than my usual pace, but I didn’t have to contend with the crowds, Shaganappi Trail hill and running another 21.1km in my training runs. I finally had to stop briefly and walk for a bit at the 24km mark but I kept on going. At this point, I kept on starting and stopping. The 27km mark a fellow racer mentioned that there’s only 15km left. She was absolutely right. As simple as it may sound, thinking of the smaller numbers made it sound so much better. I had run 15km with no issues numerous times before and this should be no different. Counting down at this point was the way to go. With that mentality, I pushed on through Varsity and down Shaganappi Trail and turning back on to Parkdale Boulevard which lead to Memorial Drive, the homestretch. Less than 10km left. At this point, I grabbed two cubs of Gatorade at every aid station and cooled off with a sponge as well. Fortunately it was a relatively cooler day than what we had been experiencing the last few days. During the final stretch, my knees and ankles ached with pain. Runners were passing me as my walks became frequent with nothing I could do. At the 39km mark, I had to stop as the pain in my knees started to become paralyzing. Three more kilometres. Any other time, three kilometres would have been accomplished in my sleep. I gathered everything I had, and ran and gave it my all towards the finished line. As I entered Bridgeland, I could hear the crowds cheer and clap. Words of encouragement coming from complete strangers. With a hundred metres left to go, I could hear the presenter announcer my name as I drew closer to the finish line. A few painful strides later, I threw my hands in the air as I did it. I had completed a marathon. I was then congratulated and given a finishing medal that doubled as a belt buckle and was asked if I was okay. My knees and ankles were more than sore and I was in pain. Being close to tears because of what I just accomplished, I said that I was okay. I passed the field hospital setup at the finishing line to the aid station serving Gatorade and chugged two full cups. I moved to the racers only area and broke down onto a grassy area to stretch out. Never have I had to endure such physical pain to accomplish a goal. Now knowing that I can finish a marathon makes me think that everything is now possible especially to think I did not start running until mid-February. I’d like to say I don’t think I could have ran this marathon without all the supporters, organizers and volunteers along the route as they were just incredible. Thank you for helping me reach my dream. Death Race 2010, look out, I’m coming for you!

It’s been over three years now since I first started working in the Municipal Building. Much has changed as the department has grown. I’m no longer the youngest assessor, and to be more precise, not an assessor all together. From a job that only had a few young faces, to one where other departments constantly comment about our youth. Many faces have come and gone. Some have gone back to school, some retired, some moved to Corporate Properties and some have moved into the private sector. I still remember the first few days working out of the L4 training room converting supps into CIAO with Gavin and Brock. Our small weekly FNDC outings that often started at Bottlescrew Bill’s was always something to look forward to. There was the memorable Oilers Stanley Cup run where my cubical was turned into a shrine with flags and other paraphernalia. I even wore my Oilers jersey every day Edmonton played whether it was a casual Friday or not. The convenience of downtown will be missed with the hundreds of restaurants and shops a short hop away. Free lunches and breakfasts during Stampede will be a thing of the past. I won’t be able to just hop on the C-Train to work anymore.

Tomorrow will be the first time working in at our new building in the northeast. It will be exciting getting a window seat with views of the mountains and the downtown. Actually seeing the sun will be a treat as I had an inner cubicle in the Municipal Building. A workout gym will be located on the main floor hopefully giving the extra boost to stay in shape. I’ll miss the good times in the Municipal Building, but ready for new ones at One Deerfoot Place.

I had the opportunity to shadow my brother for a day at the Royal Alexandria Hospital Emergency. Despite the TV shows, it was quite different than how ER portrayed the emergency room. It might be due to the fact that I happened to come on a slow day which gave my brother a greater opportunity to do more teaching.

My brother being the senior resident on an internal medicine rotation had two other junior residents working under him learning the skills of the trade. Through the day, I watched my brother see four patients. On a busy day, seeing ten patients wouldn’t be out of question. Being in internal medicine, my brother only dealt with patients with multiple issues. So he didn’t see the more basic patients who had a broken arm or those who needed stitches for a cut.

The first patient had possibly tried to commit suicide by overdosing on morphine. She had been very depressed having severe rheumatoid arthritis which was constantly caused pain and reduced her mobility. Luckily, her son found her at the right time and called for an ambulance. I found out that in cases of overdose, Narcan is the drug to prescribe as it cancel out drugs like morphine. It’s essentially the antidote for Morphine. However, it only works for a short period of time. Symptoms I observed included drowsiness and pinpoint pupils. Another sign of a morphine overdose is low blood pressure but our patient fortunately had normal blood pressure. I was also taught how to feel for arthritis and a few different forms of the disease. If you feel someone joints, for example at the knuckles, you should be able to feel ridges. But when people have arthritis, the ridges are not there. We also looked at the patient’s CT scan of the brain to look for any bleeding which would show up as white blobs and any holes or white spots which would be irregular. It was actually quite neat as all the patient’s prior visits, lab results and CT scan were on the computer. The only course of action for the patient was to wait it out for her to get better.

The next patient we saw was an older gentleman which my brother thought sounded like Grover from the Muppets. He came in with a very slow and erratic heart rate. My brother showed me his ECG and showed me how his distances between beats were irregular and his waves on the chart were quite small. The patient also had a long history of medical problems. When we saw him, his condition had improved and no longer had irregular heartbeats.
Soon afterwards, another patient came in complaining of back pains and trouble breathing. My brother determined that the pain was in the muscles so that there was nothing that could be done.

The last patient I saw had cerebral palsy which is a mental disorder which causes physical disability in development. One tell tale sign of this disease is that their muscles are always contracted. This patient had numerous tubes out of his body as he could not go to the washroom or eat normally. The nurses also could not get an IV started so a central line had to be done which is an IV put through the neck or the groin. In this case, one of the junior residents put in the central line under the supervision of my brother. First, they used an ultra sound machine to find the vein in the neck. By slightly inverting the patient’s body, it made the vein much larger and easier to put in the central line. Next, the doctors put on sterilized gowns, laid out the necessary instruments and sanitized the patient’s neck area with iodine. Freezing was then injected into the patient and the central line was put in. To my surprise, the patient slept through the whole procedure and did not move at all despite several needle pokes and pulling and tugging caused during the procedure.

One part that wasn’t too surprising was the amount of paper work that had to be done. A complete write up of history and complaints had to be written up and dictated. Orders also had to write up for each patient who in one case had almost twenty items and I’m sure that’s not all there is.

I learned a tremendous amount in the one day I was there and realized how much you actually had to know to be a doctor. Throughout the day, I was very impressed by my brother as he confidently had an answer to everything. It looks like everyone is in very good hands.