Jenna was the first. Fever, headache, frequent trips to the bathroom. Then on the morning we were to fly to Bangkok, Michael wakes up with a high fever. We postpone our flight, Capos leave without us. Later that day, Angelo succumbs to same debilitating illness. We are stumped. What did it? The fruit plate at the temples? The supposedly safe bottled water? The 45 cent beers? Perhaps we were cocky, thinking ourselves impervious to a little bacteria in this not-third-world-anymore little oasis. But no, whatever it was beat the living crap out of these three. Val escapes narrowly with merely a bee sting on her cheek and a nasty fire ant bite on her foot. I'd take those any day over what these guys had. The night we spent alone in Cambodia was rough. Michael got better then were reminded that we'd picked the absolute noisiest place to stay, right under a rooftop bar and next to another one. When you're trying to sleep off a fever and relentless "angry ass" as Jenna calls it, the last thing you want it the relentless bass of one track pounding over the screaming melody of another. At least two sources of music barged into our room, mocking our walls and tightly closed windows, defying their existence. A rough night ensued but Mike's fever finally broke at around 4 in the morning. And by 8:30 we were at the airport waiting for our flight out of there to Bangkok.
We limped into Bangkok, Mike barely making the trip. Checked into our guesthouse and another full day of rest for the man, who was much much better but not entirely out of the woods. (Hooray, Cipro!) After a much needed nap, Val leaves him to the BBC and After School Specials while she takes her one and only chance to visit Chatuchak weekend market, the largest market in the world. You can buy ANYTHING you want there. And for cheap. Exhausted, Val makes it there 2 hours before the market closes.
Today, Oct 9, we take Michael to the hospital, just to see if he is alright. He claims it was the best hospital experience he's ever had. It was like a hotel when we entered, staff greeting us with their usual Thai hospitality. We were signed in and waiting to see a doctor within 5 minutes. A sign at the nurse's desk read. "If you have been waiting for longer than 15 minutes, please contact a nurse at the counter." Love this hospital. Blood tests were done while we waited and within an hour, we were on our way, with a diagnosis and more medication. Mike is back on his feet, ready to be on our way tomorrow morning to Krabi, our jumping off point to the islands.
