Stung by Hornet Along the Walk to Kawah Rengganis @ Bandung [Indonesia]

Bad luck used to surround me when i am overseas (think car accident at Jeju Island, major ailment at Maldives) and without any significantly unusual incident in my past few trips, i thought the aura of misfortune has finally been banished to the far end of the world.

Not yet - it descended on me once again in my recent journey to Bandung at Indonesia! Things were running smoothly and i was happily taking picture after picture along the hike to the pretty undeveloped Kawah (Crater) Rengganis. 

I heard a whirring sound and the next thing i knew, i felt a sharp pain on my head! My immediate response was to flick off whatever was on my head and that's when an unexpected second jolt of pain shot through my ring finger! Guessing i shouldn't provoke whatever was on my head further, i quickened my footsteps to chase after my family a few hundred meters away! 

Thankfully, we were near to the village and a villager, upon seeing that "thing" on a my head, stopped whatever she was doing and ran into the hut to grab a "tool" to remove the "thing"! 

Needing to know what the "thing" was (and for the purpose of this blog post), i told my sister to take a few pictures on her phone for record. 

Can someone enlighten me on what this is? I doubt it is a bee since it managed to sting twice and i strongly believe it to be a hornet! Judging from the pictures on internet, it could likely be an European hornet or an Asian giant hornet! 

While ordering another villager to purchase a pill from the village shop / clinic, this makcik skilfully swatted the hornet off my head and proceeded to rub raw garlic on the affected area.

She didn't forget my finger too and vigorously rubbed the garlic against the spot where the hornet had stung me. Pill arrived and i gulped it together with water my sister had brought along. 

Picture with the villagers who helped one way or another (i had that smiley face on as i was bloated; i choose to believe it was the hornet venom). To be frank, i was so touched by the villagers' kind gestures as they honestly didn't have to yet choose to help as much as they could to reduce my pain and discomfort! Needless to say, i will prefer to call them my saviours for whom i am eternally grateful too. 

Throbbing pain with a slight swell on my ring finger; i could still proceed with my journey and in fact enjoyed Kawah Rengganis so much that i could count it as one of the must-gos for travellers visiting Bandung! Shall share more about it in due course. 

By the second day, the swelling had expanded to cover the entire ring finger with a redness not seen on other fingers and it was darn itchy. I refrained from seeing a local doctor as i am worried the language barrier might worsen my condition and only visited my family doctor when i am back in Singapore.

Pain didn't subside and there was a stiff tenderness whenever i moved the finger. Strangely, the head was totally in "working condition" and i couldn't even identify the spot where the hornet had stung me.

Redness surrounding the fingernail - my real reason for visiting the family doctor was because the swelling was preventing me from carrying my weights and doing my exercises and it didn't help to realise i have reached a new high on the weighing machine! 

The medications (antibiotics, anti-itch, anti swelling) work fabulously and i think i would be able to go back to my exercise regime tomorrow! Yipee! 

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For the itinerary of my five days, four nights inaugural trip to Bandung, please click here.