Baliday...like a holiday only better

Back from an amazing holiday in Thailand and Indonesia with Ian, Saleema and Nodira!

Ian and Saleema flew into Thailand on Sunday, Sept 9th after an arduous 30+ hour journey. They spent a couple days at my place, exploring Vientiane, soaking up Lao massages, and trying some tasty local food. They both recovered remarkably well from the jet lag and perked right up after a day or two. I finished work on Tuesday and we headed off to Phuket Thailand to start our beach holiday!!!

Phuket doesn't have a great reputation as a holiday spot but is in on the beach and is an easy transfer point for most of the West coast Thai islands. We had a harrowing minivan ride from the airport. The most disturbing part for me though was how accustomed I've become to the insane driving. I guess it must be a survival technique, learning to accept just how helpless you are as the van driver squeezes between buses and swerves to avoid motorbikes.

View from the rooftop pool.

Two happy travelers

Pretty swanky digs

It's still rainy season in Thailand and Lao, so while we spent the next morning in the pool and sunshine, it wasn't quite the sunny beach holiday we had all been envisioning. The view from the pool on the hotel roof was pretty amazing though.

The next day we hopped on the ferry to Phi Phi island to meet up with Nodira and hopefully find a Thai beach respite. Alas, the rain clouds followed us and were unrelenting. Between downpours we managed some games of frisbee, some tasty meals and some pool lounging. But with sunshine being the priority, so far our vacation was falling flat.

Our cabana

So we gave up on Thailand, caught the ferry off Phi Phi and headed for Bali. Due to the stormy weather, our ferry ride was more than a little harrowing. I spent the trip seasick and losing my breakfast, while the others were mentally preparing an evacuation route, that we luckily never had to utilize.

We arrive in Bali that evening and awoke to an amazingly beautiful sunny day. We spent some hours at the pool lounging and getting our fix of sunshine, then ventured the 10 minute walk to beach to play in the ocean and watch the surfers.

All in all, we spent a week in Bali. Aside from lounging by the pool and at the beach, we managed a day trip to Ubud, the more culturally significant area of Bali and a day trip to Sanur for some snorkeling. We ate lots of tasty meals and ridiculous amounts of fresh seafood, had some pretty amazing drinks and contributed to the local economy with consumption of Bintang beer and banana splits.

Beach lounging at it's finest.

This one's for Greg.

Ian doesn't take direction very well...

Gelato!

Must hydrate, coconut style.

Rice paddies

Monkey forest....i.e. monkey bites waiting to happen.

Home away from home.

Post holiday stupor

Boogie boarding....planning the attack.

Action shot

One more Bintang please..

Too much Rupiah....and maybe too much Bintang.

Indochina Regional Conference

Indochina Regional Conference on Clubfoot and Cerebral Palsy is officially in the books. The 2012 ISPO
short course finished on Friday and I know that I speak for all of the COPE staff when I say Hallelujah! If I didn't appreciate all the work behind the scenes of international conferences before, I surely do now.

Luckily, this conference was on something I have a strong interest in and investment in teaching the local staff and learning myself. So I was invested in the conference well beyond just making sure the logistics came together on cue. I did my best to work with the presenters to ensure that their topics fit the developing country context and were appropriately targeted to reach the majority of the audience. I think this was the difficult aspect of the conference and while I do fear that a large amount of the information was well above the Lao staff comprehension, overall I think there were a lot of good take home points.

For me, the most important part were the hands-on sessions that happened Thursday and Friday. The P&Os had four cerebral palsy patients who needed AFOs. The 28 participants were split into 6 groups and every group casted a patient. The two instructors, Roy Bowers and Karyn Ross, also casted patients as demonstrations. Roy and Karyn are two P&O instructors from Strathclyde University in Glasgow Scotland. They both have immense experience in CP orthotic treatment and have some strong opinions about methods.

While I don't feel like anything they discussed was new to me, it was a great refresher and a great discussion of one particular method of approach. My colleague, Temali, a Paeds PT, and I plan to follow up with another training in early Oct to review the lessons taught and have the participants revisit their new skills.

The patients who volunteered for the conference were all great. Super cute kids and very cooperative, given that they were constantly surrounded by 20+ people. All in all, I think the conference was a success and well worth celebrating with a nice, long holiday in Thailand.

Busy Week

Well, it's only Wednesday and it's been a crazy week. We're hosting the ISPO conference until Friday and while it's going well, I think our whole team will be happy when it's over.

In addition to the stress of our conference, I had my purse stolen on Sunday evening. I'd just been telling all our international speakers how safe Vientiane is, so I felt rather stupid, as well as angry and frustrated.

Sadly, I lost money, credit cards, my kindle, my android, Lao phone, etc.......so it's been a rough week and I keep having to remind myself that it's just stuff and can be replaced.

The conference on the other hand has been a great success with only occasional delays and hiccups. Monday we were at a large convention centre with the Lao Minister of Health and the US Ambassador. I played MC, which was fine and all the speakers have given great presentations. Apparently the simultaneous translation we are paying through the nose for has been rather lacking and the Lao staff are struggling a bit. Language can be such a barrier for these kind of things.

We've put some work into helping the translators with concepts and terminology, so hopefully it's improving, and the hands on portions of the conference starts tomorrow, so that should be where most of the learning happens anyway.

Ian and Saleema arrive in 4 days and I'm getting excited. I think we've finally decided upon Phuket, Phi Phi and Krabi for our Thailand holiday. We're all envisioning lots of beach lounging, napping, and general relaxation. I know I'll be in desperate need by then!