Israel - Hospital stopover

It seems Meg and I are destined to visit numerous hospitals during our travels. Saturday night, after just finished having a late supper, I decided to call it a night since I had meetings in the morning. I hadn't even had a chance to fall asleep when I began to feel extremely itchy. Initially, I tried to ignore it but then I began to suspect I was being eaten alive by bugs. I got up to investigate and discovered that I had a dozen or more "bites" over my arms, back, and neck. After a quick hot shower to help relieve the itching, I tried to go to sleep again, knowing the hotel was fully booked so I wouldn't be able to change my room and that I had to get some sleep for my meetings in the morning (it was now 2am). This time, I used the "cover every inch of my body with clothing" strategy. However, it did not work and I once again was forced to get up to investigate. Unbelievably, I had more "bites" and patches of my face, arms, and body were beginning to swell (I couldn't speak properly)! I was now beginning to suspect that these weren't bites at all but that I was having an allergic reaction to something - perhaps the bed sheets but I've never been sensitive to anything like that before. I notified the hotel staff who arranged to have a taxi take me to the hospital. Due to the swelling, the doctor thought the reaction was more likely due to something I'd eaten (I have no idea what it could have been though) and hooked me up to an IV to put steroids into me to bring down the swelling. By 7am, with my prescription of amoxocyllin filled, I was back at the hotel, just long enough to sleep for almost an hour (I slept in a chair - wasn't taking anymore chances with that bed). By 8am, I got up and got ready for an entire day of meetings. The swelling and itching were gone for the most part so, aside from the lack of sleep, I was in pretty good shape.

The office where my meetings were located was close to the West Bank border. You could easily see a number of the settlements and the fence that runs along the border. I thought it was very interesting that the Jewish and Muslim settlements were so close to each other. Also, Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, was celebrated at sundown on Monday so the clients at the office extended an invitation to Trevor (my boss) and I to attend a company toast - it was welcoming to be a part of a Jewish tradition.

By the time I got to the airport for my flight back to Bangkok that evening, I was ready to drop. It did not help matters that I had to go through f@&king El Al security again, being asked the same questions by four different agents before I even got to the ticket counter. I'm all for security but you'd think they'd make it slightly more efficient. Anyway, after "politely" voicing my annoyance and cursing vigorously in my head for 3 hours, I eventually got to my gate. In the future, instead of the direct El Al flight between Tel Aviv and Bangkok, I will try a different one-stop airline, even if it takes longer (that just goes to show how much El Al pi$$ed me off and what 48 hours of sleep deprivation will do to me).

Despite my trip to the hospital and the difficulty with the airline, Israel itself is a very beautiful country. I regret not making it to Jerusalem and will be sure to make time for it the next time I'm in Tel Aviv. There are a lot of concerns over safety when traveling to Israel but I never felt the need to be nervous so if anyone would like to travel there, I would highly recommend it - just be sure to take the direct Air Canada flight from Toronto instead of El Al....