21 Hours in Seam Reap
Besides the wedding we plan to attend in Bangkok, to me the #1 highlight of our trip to SE Asia was to see the temple complex of Angkor What outside of Seam Reap, Cambodia. Unfortunately, fate had other plans for us.
We arrived in Seam Reap about 7:30 Thursday evening. After clearing immigration and collecting our
bags, we met our new guide, Ri thy (pronounced REE tay), and driver Onnak,
outside of baggage claim and began the drive to the hotel. We had flown into a brand-new airport that
opened just two weeks earlier. The
facility is ultra-modern and the story is that it was moved over an hour
outside of town to reduce noise around the temple complex. Ri thy told us the other side of the story.
His family, and about 50,000 other families were displaced
to make way for the new airport. They
were offered small cash compensation or land in exchange for being forced
out. Ri thy showed me a video of the
parcel he was offered: barren,
wind-swept with no water or electricity.
He chose the cash option and is using it to send his 5-year old daughter
to school.
He and his family are now renting a small shop – very close
to the hotel we stayed at. His wife
sells baked goods and snacks on the street front and the family lives in a
small space (maybe 12x12) in the back of the store.
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| Ri thy with his wife and oldest daughter in their store |
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| Younger daughter sleeping in their one-room home in the back of the store |
Ry thy is a very interesting man. He was a Buddhist monk for 18 years until he married at the age of 38. He now has a wife and two daughters: a 5 year old and a 5-month baby.
The hotel we stayed at was like a beautiful oasis. The grounds were like a tropical garden and
our room expansive and filled with Cambodian antiques. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any photos as our
trip was cut short.
Shirley had a rough night.
Ever since our long flight from the US, she’s been having all sorts of
back pain. She also had not been
drinking sufficient fluids and by morning, I was seeing signs of
dehydration. A couple times before at
home she had become dehydrated and got her electrolytes out of balance. I had brought along some rehydration tablets,
but even with those, she was not getting enough.
By morning, she was in a lot of pain and was beginning to
show signs that her lucidity was slipping.
I called the emergency number for our Travelers Insurance to ask for
advice and they referred us to a local international hospital. I contacted Ry thy and advised to cancel our
planned excursion for the day. He was by
my side within five minutes and spent the rest of our time in Seam Reap helping
us. I will always be thankful for his
calming influence during a very trying day.
Our driver took us to the Royal Angkor International
Hospital. Shirley spent about 5 minutes
in triage before they moved her to the Red Room, which has a sign on the door
that said Resuscitation. I was not allowed in the room, but the alarms coming
from the monitors was not encouraging and the number of doctors in nurses
entering the room and the equipment they kept bringing in made me very
worried. When they brought the crash cart
in, I knew that things were not good.
In time, things settled down and the number of staff dropped
from about 8 to three. Dr. Pinchet came
out and advised me that Shirley had gone into arrythmia…most likely due to the
dehydration and having her blood chemistry get all out of whack. Her numbers
for Magnesium, Potassium and Calcium were all dangerously low. They had given medication and performed a
cardioversion to get her heart back into a normal rhythm. They also determined that she had Covid
(second time in two months) and also had developed pneumonia.
My first thought was that we were going to need to extend
our time in Seam Reap while she recovered, but the doctor advised me that their
ICU unit was full and they had now space to monitor a critical care patient
that also needed to be isolated due to Covid.
They were arranging transport to their sister hospital, the Royal Phenom
Penh Hospital, that was a much larger facility and rated as the best in the
country.
I had Ry thy and our driver take me back to our hotel, where I quickly packed and returned to accompany the ambulance. Thus ended our brief stay in Seam Reap.
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| Shirley being prepped for transport |
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