Back to Thailand: Shit, I'm sick

When you were growing up, what did your mother always tell you about pushing yourself too hard, not getting sleep, and not treating your body well?  For starters, it’s not good for you... but also, you’re going to get sick, right?

Cue my body.  

One last outing in Bangkok with Tasha.

As soon as I left Siem Riep and Tasha and I made our way for Bangkok, my throat started to feel a little scratchy.  When we got into our room that night, the scratchy feeling had turned into an inability to swallow without some pain.  We had planned on going out that night as one final night for Tasha, as she was flying back home to England and I was going to Koh Tao the following night, but I didn’t last long.  

I felt badly when I went home around 11pm and left Tasha with some new friends we had met, but I really wanted to get over whatever I was catching as soon as possible.  I was heading down to the island of Koh Tao to get my scuba diving certification and I knew that diving while sick was a no-no.  Without knowing what I had, I started in on my last pack of antibiotics I had hoping that they would help me get better as fast as possible.

The next morning, I woke up positive that I had some sort of infection, probably sinus.  I always get sinus infections and they really suck.  I tried thinking positively, noting that I had 2 days before I was going to actually have to dive, and spent my last day in Bangkok with Tasha trying to take it easy.  We went to the big Bangkok weekend market for an hour before admitting that neither of us were really in the mood to shop because she was hungover and because I felt like crap.  

6am at the pier.

So, our uneventful day seemed to come to a quick end and I got my stuff together to catch my night bus to Koh Tao.  Tasha walked me to my bus and I said goodbye to my last friend from the big Vietnam/Cambodia group and boarded the bus.  I realized that this was the first time in over 5 weeks that I was traveling without any friends and kept my fingers crossed that I’d meet people in Koh Tao.

On my way to Koh Tao.

I expected the worst from the bus ride because as you all know from reading this blog, they’re almost always beyond terrible.  This bus ride, though uncomfortable, wasn’t that bad, probably because I planned for it to suck.  The only annoying part was that we arrived at the boat port at 3:30am and our boat to the island wasn’t until 7am.  I passed the time by watching one of the DVDs that I had purchased in Vietnam for $1.  At 6am, I passed the time by taking some photos of the sunrise.

When we finally boarded the boat, I dumped my stuff in the downstairs area and went onto the deck to watch the sun continue to rise and to add to my tan a little bit.  I practiced taking more photos with my SLR and before I knew it, we were pulling into the pier in Koh Tao.  The waters surrounding the island were crystal clear aquamarine and the sand was almost white.  I reached into my purse and took my antibiotic pill.  Time to get better, and fast.