Sick

Chiang Mai has the best markets of anywhere else in China. There’s only one market full of dodgey crap. The rest of it is the sort of stuff that I could be bothered carrying in my backpack I would have spent up big on. I spent my first two nights in Chiang Mai after our return from the trek wondering around markets. There was heaps of interesting snack foods around. Half the time I didn’t know what I was eating. Usually I’d just get one word descriptions such as ‘chicken’, ‘pork’ or ‘vegetable’. I didn’t mind. I was loving it. I was like a kind in a candy store going from one food stall to another buying little deep fried balls of something, then heading over to another stall for a leaf filled with something else, then a skewer with something else on it. It was all gold as far as I was concerned. Even the bugs – yes, the bugs. I’d tried these in BKK on my first night there and they’re actually a delicious snack. I liked grasshoppers and little frogs best. I don’t know what they put in that seasoning but it was yum. I didn’t think much of cockroaches or beetles though – too messy since you have to pry open the shell and scoop the goop out with your teeth. You could get a mixed bag of fried bugs for about a dollar – just like getting a bag of mixed lollies from the milk bar when I was a kid

A couple of days later I woke up feeling really average. I was sick. Boo! I reckon it was from a curry I ate late one night on the way home from the Reggae bar that had become a regular hang out but there’s every chance I ate something dodgey at the market. Noooo!! I struggled out of bed for an hour or two in the morning in an bold defiant effort. No good though. Soon I was back in bed and that’s pretty much where I stayed for the next three days.

For the first day of being sick I lay in bed as the odd fever would come and go. Whenever the fever came I felt like vomitting but I hate puking and I’ve only done it once due to illness in my adult life and I can probably count on one hand the amount of times I’ve done so from being drunk. I prefer to let the room spin than have a chunder. But every time this fever came on I knew my body wanted me to hurl. When I was alone I was able to focus and fight it off but later on in the evening Peach and Tess were in the room chatting in the middle of a fever attack. The noise of them talking was making me feel even sicker and I couldn’t concentrate at all. Next thing I knew I was dashing for the bin by the door and up it all came. Bugger! The room must have stunk cuz there was loads of it coming out. Always putting others first I unlocked the door and flung it open. Tess bolted out of the room. Peach stay to lend support before heading off to get a new bag for the bin. I’ve gotta brag here. My aim was spot on. There may have been one tiny splash on the floor and that was it. Immediately I felt better for a little while before the crapness started again. After another hurl later on and plenty of trips to the loo I was well and truly over it.

After 3 days I was sick (pardon the pun) of being couped up in the room so Peach and I signed up for a cooking course. I still hadn’t really eaten a proper solid meal and when we booked it the night before I was still pretty rough but I ended up pulling through ok.