Four Days

Yes, those four days were tough, but I can’t really complain when I am traveling around the world and there are people right next to me who are refugees from Burma or displaced from their flooded homes. A couple days before our time in Chiangmai was over, I started to feel sick. I didn’t slow down much though because I didn’t want to miss out on anything, but eventually a fever, sore throat, and some serious post nasal drip took over and I was down. Fevers are pretty common for me when I am sick, but being in Thailand I couldn’t help but pray that this wasn’t some strange foreign disease. Thankfully, I did some research and things seemed to be in the clear as far as I can tell. I even bought a thermometer just to make sure I wasn’t dangerously hot.

This certainly wasn’t the optimal time for sickness since we were just about to embark on the long road to our next destination, Bali. Here is what I had to go through while in my feverish, miserable state:

Day 1
~I wake up feeling okay but by the evening I am definitely not feeling right.

Day 2
~I haven’t convinced myself I am sick yet so I continue as normal until I literally can barely keep my eyes open.
~Janie nearly forces me take some Tylenol to bring my fever down
note: I do not take medicine ever when I am sick. It has been almost two years since I have taken any pain reliever or anything of any sort, until now that is.
~I stay in bed the rest of the day
~For some reason I keep picturing myself at my Grandma Dorothy’s house in bed, eating cinnamon toast and hot soup, and watching TV (maybe because I was sick at her house a lot when I was a kid?). I’m craving macaroni and cheese. I wish I was swimming in the ocean. I’m hot.

Day 3
~We have to check out of the hostel. Perfect, no more bed for me. I crash in a coffee shop (okay, it was Starbucks) for nearly the whole day and I don’t buy anything (trying not to eat any sugar).
~I have now developed a decent sore throat. Sore throats and I don’t get along very well, I hate them. I feel like dying whenever I have a sore throat. I would rather have my arm cut off then have a sore throat, so you can imagine the state I am in. I take Advil.
21:00 – get on a “VIP” night bus to Bangkok.

VIP = seats that recline a little extra, air conditioned, free soy milk?, blanket

night = we sleep on the bus all night
~Yes, sleeping on a bus in a feverish state is miserable, but I managed to sleep a decent amount in strange contorted positions that made every limb of my body go numb.

Day 4
6:00 – arrive in Bangkok
~I am still sick, now my body is sore from the bus, my sore throat is the worst yet. Kill me.
~We take a taxi to go find some breakfast and since we can’t agree we go three different places. Janie gets yogurt and fruit, Trevor gets an eggMcMuffin, a Starbucks cinnamon roll and a mocha (classic Trevor) and I don’t think I can handle anything solid so I mosy into a 7/11 (which are everywhere in Thailand) and find me some chicken flavored instant porridge. It was either that or seafood soup but it didn’t taste too bad, kind of like baby food.
~I take my temperature. No fever!!! I take some Tylenol for the last time.
~We head to the mall. We use the bathroom to brush our teeth, wash our faces and freshen up for the first time in 30 hours. Janie goes to a salon and gets the shampoo and hair dry package. She just can’t stand to be dirty. We eat ice cream (whoops, no sugar?). We see a Thai movie with English subtitles which was actually really good. After dinner, we go to the airport.

The movie we saw was about the boy who made a lot of money creating this fried seaweed product. When we saw it at the store we had to try it!

Airport
~Our flight isn’t until 6:00 tomorrow morning but since we would have to be at the airport at 3:00 we decide it isn’t worth getting a room for the night
~We thought we could check in early and sleep on the cushy seats past security but we are told we can’t check in until 3:30. Shoot.
~We find a section of cold, hard metal seats to plant ourselves on. I am determined to get some sleep so I brush my teeth and make myself a bed and pillow on the cold floor using all the clothes from my backpack. I put on earplugs, headphones over my earplugs, and a bandana over my eyes and I fall asleep in minutes. I only wake up once because I am freezing and need to put some extra clothes on. I don’t wake up again until 3:30. I must have been tired.

~I haven’t take any medicine for a while and my sore throat is pretty much gone!
~We finally check in, make it through security (if only flying was this easy everywhere; they don’t even make me take my baggy of liquids out of my backpack!), and I crash on a cushy couch, complete with pillow until we take off for Bali.

So, we finally arrived in Bali. We were picked up at the airport and driven to a little bungalow in Ubud. I finally got to shower and wash off all my feverish sweats and bus and airplane germs, put on some clean clothes, and sleep in a comfortable bed (the cardboard mattresses in Thailand just can’t compare). We are seriously in paradise. This morning we cut up mangos, papayas, bananas, and watermelon and I had a big bowl of fruit for breakfast. I have decided to do nothing today. I think my body is appreciating some highly-deserved rest. Everything is going to be just fine.