The cooler that saved it all…
I’ve been blogging throughout this trip to Southeast Asia about how hot it is everywhere and how that can be quite a challenge with my insulin. What I didn’t know was that all the other countries we’ve been to are child’s play compared to Cambodia. This. Country. Is. HOT!
Seriously though, as it gets closer to summer here, the temps are rising and relentless. Most days here in Cambodia it’s been hovering around 100 degrees by the middle of the day. The only cold place is a hotel room, but with all the amazing sites to see, that’s the last place you’ll find me. I use my Frio wallet when we tour around during the day, refreshing it with cold water every few hours to keep my insulin from baking, while my stash of extras all stay in a nice, cool hotel room.
A few days ago though, I was presented with a whole new don’t-ruin-all-your-insulin challenge. We booked a two-day, one-night trip to go see a very special temple on the Cambodia/Thai border. We booked a private car for the trip since Jacob’s brother and his girlfriend were joining us for this leg of the trip (four people brings the cost of the car hire down significantly). The car was comfy enough and it’s AC worked ok, but it’s hard to really cool down the ambient temperature of a 1990 Toyota Camry when there are four people plus a driver in it, it’s 100 degrees outside, and you keep popping out of the car to see sights. I knew I’d have to get creative with storing my insulin.
Jacob’s brother had a cool travel backpack with him that was made of waterproof material, so for day one we packed it full of cold drinks we wanted for the trip, and I kept my insulin in there all day. It worked like a charm. When we first got in the car that day, the driver had kindly packed a small cooler of waters for us as well, a nice bonus for all of us, and it got my wheels turning for a plan for the next day.
That first night, after safely stashing our bags and my insulin in our hotel room, we headed out for dinner. Our driver barely spoke four words of English, and we were in a tiny town where the locals spoke…less than four words of English. I was preparing to get creative as we sat down at a local joint. My plan was to use hand gestures to explain that I wanted to buy some ice at the restaurant, and then show the driver the insulin and explain that I would need to put the ice in his cooler, and hope that he understood that it was important, and that the ice lasted all night and the next day. It was a stretch…but…I got so much more lucky than that!
Towards the end of our meal of wild boar and vegetables (I’m serious), our cell phone rang. It was the man we’d booked the tour with originally. He was calling to confirm with us that we had our tour guides all set up at the temple the next morning. In my head I realized he speaks English..and Khmer! Perfect. Jacob confirmed the tour with him then passed me the phone. I explained slowly to him what I needed to do, and he understood. Then I passed the phone to our driver while the tour operator explained it to him. He nodded his head and after we hung up, the driver looked at me, pointed to a glass of ice in front of him and said “ok ok.”
A large bag of ice arrived with our bill at the end of the meal, and we quickly transferred it to the cooler. I took the cooler with me to my hotel room with AC hoping it would last through the night - and it did! The next morning there was plenty of ice left to keep my insulin safe and chilled all day. We toured all the way back to our first city in the sweltering heat, in and out of the hot car all day and that little cooler kept everything frosty until we finally returned to our new hotel after nearly 10 hours in the car.
Total diabetes win for the Cambodian heat. Nothing like a little good luck and a little creativity to literally save your life! Here’s a pic of the little cooler that could:
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Yeah for the bi-lingual booking agent, and double-yeah for the ice. Now if you were in the UK you’d have to special-order ice … they seem to have lost the recipe