All We Want for Christmas is Some Panadol

My family was more than a little excited for our recent holiday to Hong Kong. We needed it. Between work and school, it had been a whirlwind ride for the past five months. Everyone was exhausted. My wife, in particular, looked forward to a change of scenery as 2012 had been the worst year of health in her life. My daughter couldn’t wait to meet the princesses at Hong Kong Disneyland. My son, well, he’s one, so he’s pretty much happy to do anything, and since he just started walking, he was just raring to go. Me? I was just happy to hang out with my family and do whatever it was that my wife had planned.

What no one planned, but what ended up happening, was that we all learned how important your health is when you are traveling.

Everything started beautifully. The flight was smooth sailing. The hotel was heavenly. We got a great dinner recommendation and had a delicious first meal. Heck, I even broke out of my cheapskate mold and bought my wife some nice jewelry. Jewelry!

We woke early on our first day of trekking and hit one of our major tourist destinations: Ocean Park. We had an absolute blast! It far exceeded our expectations, and everyone walked away happy. I tell you this because, in hindsight, I should have realized what you probably already have. Things were going far too well. Something was about to change for the worse. It was inevitable.

That thing that changed for the worse was our health. It happened quickly. It happened completely. And it changed everything.

It hit my wife first.   As we sat down for dinner, she commented to me that she felt feverish and achy. To be honest with you, she didn’t look so hot.  (Don’t tell her I said that.) At first I didn’t want to believe it. I mean, we were on holiday, right? You’re not supposed to get sick on holiday!

We got her to bed early, but it was too late. She spent a miserable night running back and forth to the bathroom. And the next day she couldn’t even get out of bed. All travel plans ceased. The kids and I spent a lazy, aimless day wandering around the hotel, exploring what we could: a dirty playground with a bunch of shady characters hanging around, the 41st floor “Meditation Room” which gave amazing views of the city, the mall across the road. Not stuff that would have made anyone’s “Top 10 Hong Kong Family Attractions.” We were basically killing time.

And killing time is not something you want to do when you are in a foreign city that has lots to offer. If we only had our health we would have been eating Hong Kong’s famous dim sum and drinking milk tea. If we only had our health we would have been meeting up with our friend who lives there and who would undoubtedly have taken us on a unique adventure only a “local” can. If we only had our health we would have been hanging out with those Disney princesses!

But we didn’t have our health. So we hung around in the hotel.

Unfortunately my wife didn’t get any better the next day, so we took her to a hospital - all the clinics were closed since it was Christmas Eve - where she was given a full range of medicine to cure what appeared to be a stomach virus. That could have ended our problems right there.

But that would have been too easy.

No, as we were waiting for doctors to check out my wife, I noticed that my daughter was feeling quite warm. We had her checked. Sure enough, she, too, had a high fever. Oh, joy!

Just to prove to us all that she wasn’t well, she threw up in the trash bin of the Starbuck’s as we stood in line to grab a quick bite while waiting for doctors to see her.

So, after picking up her baggy of medicine, it was back to the hotel. More killing time.

We tried TV. We watched all kinds of shows throughout the day. Stuff we would never dream of watching when we’re in Singapore. And do you think it was on our agenda for a Hong Kong holiday? No. In an attempt to inject a little fun into a long, dull day, we rented an animated movie. That was fine, but far from the original travel plan for the day.

And we weren’t done. There was one more lump of coal in our “Christmas Travel Plan Stocking”. My son developed a high fever with lovely diarrhea and vomiting as added bonuses. I was starting to feel like Florence Nightengale.

In the end we wound up extending our stay in Hong Kong. If we hadn’t, the only sightseeing for most of us would have been the hotel toilet and the hospital! Everyone rebounded, and we did eventually see those princesses. And they were worth it, let me tell you.

My takeaway from this little travel tragedy of ours was that, when traveling, what’s most important is that you have your health. And coupled with that is that it pays to stay in a nice hotel, because if you don’t have your health, you’re going to spend a lot of time there.

Lots of people I’ve shared this story with have told me that they have, at some point in their travels, had a similar experience.

Do you feel my pain? Can you relate? Or was Santa just punishing us for being naughty this year?