. . . and as well as the flu followed by bronchitus I've had my first experience with heat exhaustion this year. June was not a good month for my health.
A friend of mine, Mary, stopped by Doha for a few days on her way back to London from Nepal, where she had been teaching in an orphanage the last three months. Despite my cough I took a couple of days vacation to show her around Doha and the countryside. The first day we toured around in the car for a while before going south to see the sand dunes. We got out of the car, walked 100m to the dunes, took a few photos, then went back to the car for a half-hour drive to a hotel in Doha for coffee and snacks.
We got to the hotel, I sat down, then suddenly every ounce of energy just drained out of my body. My appetite went to zero and Mary told me later that the colour just drained out of my face. I couldn't keep my eyes open, and since in this particular hotel restaurant we were seated on Arabic-style couches, I just lay down for a sec to close my eyes.
I woke up about a half-hour later! I was out like a light.
I still felt like crap so Mary and I left my car at the hotel and took a taxi home. I went straight to bed and slept for another 2+ hours. After that I felt great, but we decided to just chill out at my place for the rest of the evening rather than risk it.
Man, heat exhaustion sucks. I don't think it was due to my outside exposure, we weren't out long enough and I was wearing a Tilley hat and drinking water the whole time. My guess is that the constant sunlight pouring down on us for hours in the car while cold A/C air blew in my face probably messed me up. Mary had started feeling a little queasy as well when arrived for lunch but felt fine when she got inside. Another twenty minutes or so and see might have been ill too.
I just thank my lucky stars this didn't happen while I was driving or we could have been in real trouble.
Oh, and Happy Canada Day everyone!
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