Guesthouses and Chinese Medicine

These were our various sleeping quarters in Mai Salong. When we arrived in Mai Salong I had two very awful insect bites. My left arm from wrist to elbow was red, feverish and swollen as well as my right hand. I had tried drugs which had no effect so I had the idea that since I was in a Chinese community that perhaps I could find a herbal poultice or something. I asked the owner of our guest house and he said he would call the nurse. I explained my reservations about this which were mainly that drugs weren't working. Then I asked him if he knew of anyone who did cuppng. He got excited and hauled out a kit to do this. It was a more modern one with many sizes of cups and a pump to take out the oxygen instead of burning cotton inside. He gave me clean scalpel type thing to pierce the site of the bite and placed a cup on my arm. He was very careful to sterilize my arm and the cup. Holy smokes! Never having done this I had no idea what happens. My skin pulled up to the size of a big grape and started weeping from the bite. I couldn't believe your skin could expand so much without bursting. The procedure left barely a mark on either spot and within 24 hours I was back to normal. Usually when I get bites like this I am sore and swollen for a few weeks and its really uncomfortable. I have yet to figure out which insects cause this reaction except that I know its not mosquitos.

Well enough of my medical problems.....

The white cottage or bungalow as they are known here and the bottom red building are the same guesthouse. We stayed in the white one which was in the back garden at first but we culdn't get one again after doing our border run. The owner expanded and expanded until he eventually built his building right over the road. We had a room in there one night at the price of $3 for both of us but the motorcycle traffic at 5 am was too much to bear so we moved up the road to the other red bungalow. The view from the deck was wonderful and we were the first people to sleep in it as it was brand spanking new!