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Chinese New Year took us by surprise. Initial feelings were that the Chinese
had come over the border such was the extent of fire crackers which would hang
twenty feet long from upper floors giving an endless cascade of minor explosion.
The following day the streets were littered inches deep in the debris. New Year
was cause for much jubilation for those of us who would be returning home in
April. Synthetic San Miguel Chinese beer is bad for the system in large doses.
I ended up in hospital with a suspected ulcer, but it turned out to be acute
indigestion. In hospital at the same time was a number of soldiers thought to
have mild malaria and several with severe poliomyelitis. This became an example
to me of the way it is possible to acclimatise to nasty bugs. I think two new
arrivals died from the decease, two who had been in the Colony two to three
weeks were paralysed and those with mild symptons four to six weeks.