Thank you for local plum wine

The trip is official, I have had my first injury.

The most common travel nightmare is getting hurt to a point where you cannot continue and are forced to cut the trip short. In reality this happens to very few (knock on wood), and most of us just suffer small inconveniences.

Mine is a strained foot muscle. And yes, that is a self-diagnosis. The only reason I have contemplated going to a doctor is to get myself a crutch, but I think if I worked the right channels I could get someone to make me one from bamboo for a few bucks. I am not entirely sure how I hurt it; I had spend 3 days trekking on rocky, ankle-twisting trails and was just fine, but spent one night walking on cobblestone roads in sandals, and the pain slowly set in. There was no definite moment of injury, rather it was a slow progression of pain that did not clear up after a night's sleep. Maybe I was weakened from the trek, and the sandals pushed it over the edge.

I can walk, but it hurts. Yesterday I got a reflexology massage, but I am starting to suspect it may have done more harm than good. The principles of Chinese medicine hold that each point in the body is connected through a circuit of meridians, so if you want to fix one part you focus on the corresponding part. So to fix my right foot, they worked on the right hand and the left foot. It hurt like a bitch, which I'm told is evidence of injury in the corresponding part. They did some gentle work on the hurt foot as well. Right after the massage my foot felt great, but it has hurt just as bad ever since.

So today I am laid up, forced to do nothing all day -- poor me, huh? There is a nearby lake that I'd like to rent a bike and explore, but I'm not missing anything major. My only worry is that it will not heal right and plague me the rest of the trip. If all goes as planned, tomorrow will be spent mostly in transit with minimal walking. After that its a crap shoot.

So for now I sit in my hotel enjoy the free internet and local plum wine.