The title says it all. š But hereās how it all went downā¦
It was the end of a long day touring temples at the Angkor Wat archeological site. My travel compadres and I were headed to our last temple where we planned to sit and watch the sunset. The perfect ending to our busy day. We got there and found some steps to sit on. Perfect! As I lowered myself down to the step I all of a sudden felt a quick, sharp sting on my toosh. I jumped up real quick and looked behind me just in time to see a scorpion scurrying away. Suddenly it dawned on meā¦.. I HAD JUST BEEN STUNG ON THE BUTT BY A SCORPION!!!!!
I told the friend sitting next to me, āAlex! I JUST GOT STUNG BY A SCORPION!ā He jumped up and had the thought to take a picture of the scorpion while I found my friend Sonya who was close by taking pictures of the temple. I told her what had happened and she asked if I was sure/if I was hurt/bleeding/if it had broken skin and I said I had no idea. She pulled me into an empty corner of the temple and I pulled my pants down enough so she could see where the scorpion had stung my toosh. (ššš) No bleeding, but she pointed to/inadvertently touched the spot where she could see a mark. I told her, āDONāT TOUCH IT!!!!!ā Hahaha I was freaking outā¦.. I told her I needed to go to a doctor. Because scorpions are poisonous, right?!?!
My travel compadres and I all hurried to find our tuk tuk driver, Wandi (no idea if thatās how his name is spelled but thatās what weāll go with. š) I explained what had happened with a little help from some pantomime gestures and when he understood what I was saying he waved his hand and said Iād be fine. (In the nicest way. He was seriously the sweetest guy.) Ummmmmā¦ā¦ I told Wandi I still wanted to go to a doctor JUST IN CASE. I asked if he knew where there was an urgent care (did they even have those in Cambodia?!) and apparently they do because he waved for us all to get into the tuk tuk and drove off.
We got to the doctor’s office and all piled out of the tuk tuk and into the lobby. I explained I had been stung by a scorpion and was afraid it might be poisonous while my friend Alex showed the doctor the picture he had taken of the scorpion for reference. šš (And please note that everyone working in the doctorās office spoke little to no Englishā¦ So that definitely didnāt help my nerves!!! š)
Sonya came into the exam room with me while our other travel compadres waited in the lobby. The doctor couldnāt be certain if the scorpion was venomous or not so just in case they were going to give me anti venom shots in my toosh and my arm and some oral pills to take for a few days. Great. If the scorpion venom wasnāt going to kill me surely a dirty needle or something would! š© š© Ok I admit, the office wasnāt THAT bad or sketchy looking but I was still freaking out. And you know what Sonya was doing this whole time?? LAUGHING!!! She kept asking if she could take pics and I kept telling her NO! She thought they would be funny to look back on later and I thought they wouldnāt be so funny if I ended up DYING from this! (ššš¤¦š»āāļø)
While we waited for the nurse to come in and give me my shots I told Sonya to watch him like a HAWK! Make sure he was using clean needles and being sanitary. š When the nurse got there he looked at my toosh in confusionā¦ Back up 10 days or soā¦ Before I had left for Cambodia I was doing laundry and packing for my trip. The laundry room at the building I was living in was in the basement. Aaannnnnd it was snowing outsideā¦ At some point I walked down the stairs outside to get my laundry from the basement and completely ATE IT. And I donāt mean I just fell or slipped a littleā¦ I slipped and fell at the top of the stairs and SLID ALL THE WAY DOWN on my backside. So I had a GIANT bruise on the right side of my rear. š¤¦š»āāļøš The nurse pointed at that side of my toosh and said, āScorpion?ā You better believe Sonya jumped up real quick to point out the spot on the other side of my poor toosh where the scorpion had stung me. All while Iām laying on my stomach trying to look back behind me and asking them to be gentle. ššš Omg you canāt make this stuff up.
$30 USD later I left the office with a sore toosh, sore arm, and 90% confidence that I wasnāt going to die from this. Haha thankfully I lived to tell the tale. (And because of that I kind of wish I had let Sonya take some pics š) Here’s a few others from that day…
Morals of the story: 1. Watch where youāre sitting and 2. If youāre having an experience thatās probably going to give you a good laugh when you look back on it down the road, let your friend take pics. š
Safe travels friends.
CE
