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Barely red today, swelling is almost completely gone. I’m happy I don’t quite look like Sloth from the Goonies anymore. Well, mostly.

I wasn’t able to completely get rid of the reflections, but the general look of the sunset was captured.

http://gallery.me.com/peh#100064&view=grid&bgcolor=black&sel=0

I saw the doctor on Monday, he wasn’t exactly sure what I had. He said it could be a fungis or bacterial infection, or an allergic reaction of some sort. No bug bites or signs of trauma were found. So he prescribed an antibiotic ointment to put under the eyelid and on top, and I’ve been doing that ever since.

So far the swelling has gone down some, but it is noticeably more red. If it is not showing marked improvement by Thursday, he wants me to call an eye doctor that he referred me to. So we will see!

So on the 4th, I went white water rafting with Deepa and twelve other people that I didn’t know.  It was a lot of fun and would love to do it again.  I went overboard three times:  the first time, I just cleanly bounced right out of the raft after we impacted a rock, the second time I was hit by Deepa flying backwards…that’s my story, anyway, and the third time we all went flying out when the raft turned sideways.  It is kind of a humbling experience when you have no control whatsoever of your body and you see your legs flailing out in front of you before crashing into the water.  During the third water encounter, I took in a lot of water, was hit by someone or an oar, and took a second to surface.  When I did, I saw Deepa floating near me (who can’t swim), so I grabbed her vest and pulled upwards to keep her head up.  In doing so I somehow pulled my thumbnail in a direction it shouldn’t go.   I held on for only a second or two before I was yelled at by our guide to let go of her so he could pull her back into the boat.  I’m still not sure if I was helping or impeding the “rescue” process.

Anyway, during the whole day my eyes were washed with the river water over and over again.  On the way home, my left eyelid started to swell.  It is still swollen Sunday night.   Because nothing else is swelling around my eye, I don’t think I got hit there in the chaos that ensued when the raft flipped.  I can only guess that I got some kind of bacteria in my left eye that has caused my eyelid to swell and become a bit painful.

The swelling is not that bad, just a straight line near my eyelashes.  I took a few pictures, but here is one for the curious:

See!  Not that bad, right?  I’m all about ignoring injuries until the limb is about to fall off, but if my eyelid doesn’t look better by tomorrow I’ll probably go see a doctor.  Eh, stupid body is falling apart on me.

Well I’m back.  Tired, jet lagged, and recovering from a fever/sickness I had in Thailand.  But most of all, I’m just entering my post-trip depression stage.    I said goodbye to a lot of old friends (Nikki, Justin, Mark, Chris, etc), and a few new ones.  This may sound strange, but I think in general I feel lonelier here in San Francisco than I do in Singapore or the DC metro area.  I think that is evident by how often I go to the gym and how late I stay at work here.  SF is great for my health/career, not so good for my personal life.  I’m not discounting the friends I do have here in the bay area, I am so thankful for them.  But it is odd how when I’m in a country 13,000 km away I have a really hard time finding any private time due to so many people wanting to hang out.**

Regardless, I’m so thankful for having the opportunity to go there for a month.  I’ve been living a dream of my own for a month.  I will never forget it.

On that note (sorry!), I’m going to try and grab a few more hours of sleep.  I can’t tell you how much I miss the gym and am looking forwarding to do hitting it again.  I am also going to start up some brown rice congee so I can bring it to work with me in the morning.  Back to eating healthy…all of the not working out, alcohol, and thai food have all worked against my fitness progress.   It is time to get that back on track.

This week I will be uploading a ton of photos and movies that I am really past due on from my trip.  I also plan on posting a lot more stories than what is here now.  So much to tell…need to get it recorded somewhere before I forget the details.   Good night!

**Actually, a big part of that may be due to Justin.  The master of in-person social networking, through him I had instant friends when I arrived last year.

After landing, I took an express train on the JR line to Tokyo.  I really didn’t have any idea of where I’m going, so I’ve been wondering around a bit without much success.  And I don’t feel well. 

I did just find an open wireless access point, so I’m using this to post real quick and to pull down some possible places to see via wikitravel.org.  Ok, well I better go…gotta run!

Not feeling well (more about that later), but I finally made it back to Singapore.  The Air Asia flight I was on was delayed, so my tight schedule just got tighter.  I did manage to get checked in for the flight home, so I’m very relieved about that. 

Now for a seven hour flight to Japan.  I’m hoping to sleep as much as possible on the way there.  I did not get enough sleep in Bangkok!

Justin and I are having coffee at a local cafe in Bangkok that you can’t get anywhere else. I think it is spelled “Starbucks”. ah, just kidding. We are at a place called coffee@8. Stopped here last time when Nikki was with us.

Last night we had a long night out on the town and our wallets are lighter because of it. Thank god for the ATMs that make them heavy again.

Will write more later.

So just to catch you up on what has been going on:  I went to Bangkok for what seemed like the shortest three days ever, back to Singapore, then went to Malaysia for a night (Johor Bahru), back to Singapore, and now about to undertake my last mini-trip…back to Bangkok.  Cambodia got dropped at the last minute, so Nikki went on with Sarah instead.  Nikki will be back today.  Unfortunately, she won’t be able to go to Bangkok with Justin and I since she heads back to the U.K. on Thursday.

I realize that I am adjusted and comfortable with the weather here now.  It takes me about three weeks to get acclimated.  It is a shame I’m going to throw that away when I return to the dry, cool weather of San Francisco.

Getting on the plane to Bangkok now. Sorry for the short post, but will try to post more as Internet access allows.