Bloody Hell Vaccinations are Expensive!

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        "Hmmm... Seven months backpacking in Africa. That sounds a bit dangerous." says the guy at the travel agent as I put my proposal to him. I shrugged... "how bad can it be?". He quickly checks the Swedish foreign affairs recommendation and it looks pretty bad. Not only will I be robbed, stabbed, kidnapped, robbed again and blown up by a terrorist, I will also be fortunate enough to contract: Yellow fever, Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B (and possibly C), something they call "tourist diarrhoea", Rabbies, Cholera, Malaria, Typhoid, Meningitis, AIDS... And that's just in Nairobi! "Bugger", I thought, they want more money from me to get vaccinations against these things. Oh well...at least now when I get blown up by the terrorists, I won't have the runs!

Anyway I went to check out the vaccination office which of course was overrun by unending (yet very orderly) queues of Swedes desperate to get their hands on a dose or two of the swine flu vaccine. "Wimps!" I thought to myself as I patiently got a queue number and went to the back of the line.




When my number was eventually called up I went into this office and was presented with this list of diseases and the price next to each one. Bloody hell vaccinations are expensive! Luckily for me (or maybe not.. we'll see later on) the guy had obviously had a long and hard day dealing with the paranoid public and was in no mood to argue. So I started going down the list with a pencil, crossing out all the things that didn't seem too bad. "Meh, rabies can't be so bad can it?" I asked the doc to which he just shrugged.

So now my xmas wishlist consists of yellow fever, hep A and B, meningitis and a couple of others :P

And while I'm dealing with the medical stuff I thought I might share an essential medical kit list from a couple doing a similar thing to me, but in a car: http://thelongandwinding.co.uk/_/kit.html    

Comments

  1. SarahNovember 26, 2009 at 7:43 PM

    wahhh you are african! the vaccinations that the swedes need are all in your blood :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. TjeerdNovember 26, 2009 at 8:07 PM

    Haha man if anyone can survive "robbed, stabbed, kidnapped, robbed again and blown up by a terrorist" then i'm sure its you! Good luck with the trip dude! When is the intended start if this epic journey?

    ReplyDelete
  3. bwana_shmaneNovember 26, 2009 at 8:33 PM

    heheh good to know you have faith in my survival skills tjeerd! am leaving on the 16th of jan nd getting back on the 15th of august. u coming back 2 sweden for xmas?

    ye probably Sarah, but then again some countries don't let u in unless u've been vaccinated against things like yellow fever.. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. TjeerdNovember 26, 2009 at 9:47 PM

    Ofcourse i'll be back over christmas, i'm heading home 14th of december. I'll give you a call when i'm in the country!

    Btw any idea how far in km you expect to be traveling?

    ReplyDelete
  5. bwana_shmaneNovember 27, 2009 at 12:20 AM

    ok cool.. we should hit sthlm then!

    Well the distance according to that google map route i drew (jus counting kenya to zambia) is just over 7000km.. hmm sounds like a lot :S heheh maybe I should have checked that before I bought the tickets :P

    ReplyDelete
  6. UnknownNovember 27, 2009 at 2:46 AM

    Are you going to wear a pedometer? :) Take Care !

    ReplyDelete
  7. bwana_shmaneDecember 1, 2009 at 1:04 AM

    brilliant idea Julia! definitely gonna get one. Will take a pic once a week or something nd post it when i can.

    More suggestions anyone??

    ReplyDelete

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