Hanging out in Xiamen & Self Surgery for an Ingrown Toenail While Traveling

Greetings,

It’s Saturday, as a result this will be brief with random discussion on things including but not limited to tourism in China and ingrown toenails. I’d add photos from the sprawling University grounds we hung out on today or the wonderful food I shoveled down my throat but I won’t because it’s the weekend and no one reads blogs on the internet, especially in the summer.

I will note that when you are with someone who speaks Chinese, everyone is quite friendly. Also that I know why China doesn’t have many tourists or hotels for tourists or anything like that… They don’t need us. Whether Joe Blow Backpacker or Valerie & Victor Vacationer show up and drop money into the Chinese economy, it doesn’t matter.

In SE Asia, they are highly dependent on tourist money. Here they don’t need it at all and as a result couldn’t care less if you come, stay, love the place or loath the place. Most people (and there are a lot of them) earn a living totally devoid of tourists. Similarly, unless you are in a touristy part of Canada or North America, it’s the same thing. Ever been to a hostel in Vancouver? I walked into one ONCE and I got swine flu, the place was so grungy I even ripped some propaganda off a post it board just to touch the door, gross. Also it was like $25US and near East Hastings aka the worst neighborhood in Canada.

Back to the ingrown toenail. If you have an ingrown toenail, it hurts. It’s way worse than a blister and only gets worse. I decided to “man up” last night and ripped it off low enough that it wasn’t growing into my skin, then took some scissors and cut the rest of the nail off. I will say the pain has subsided but is still there, obviously as I ripped / cut part of my nail off. I am regularly adding antiseptic, I do believe this will pan out well in the long run. The gent I’m traveling with has a bad one and it oozes puss.

Finally, I will note that sleeping in a dorm isn’t so cool but not “that bad”. You wake up just the same only it is way cheaper and also doesn’t promote getting “settled”. Part of the problem with changing hotels all the time is that you unload your pack sometimes in a hurry and then the thought of packing it makes you procrastinate the inevitable and prolong a trip in a town that should be a quick stop, more on this later.

Enjoy your weekend,

P.S: This hostel sucks, there is no one here but this guy from Germany who is cool and this Belgium couple donned in burlap talking about social nursing, someone pass me a strong one. For the first time in a while, I thought to myself “I’d love to be in Vang Vien right now”.

P.P.S: All the trains to Shanghai are still full, this kinda sucks.