Finally, she writes again!

Hello everyone, hope you are all well?

I have not been so luck unfortunately. On the aforementioned 13 hour train from Ayutthaya I started to cough and it gradually got worse and worse. The next day when we arrived in Chiang Mai we just checked ourselves into a guest house, although we had to walk around for ages because all the ones in the rough guide were closed for refurb or not there, and everywhere else said they only had their most expensive rooms which we couldnt afford.

In the end we stayed at Eagle 2 guest house run by an Irish woman who is married to a Thai man, she speaks the best Thai I have ever heard on a farang! There rooms were 240b a night which Caz said was too dear so we stayed in a dorm. There was only 3 beds in it and it was clean with a shared bathroom which was just outside the door to our room and only cost 80b a night. That's literally 1 pound 10 or something! VERY cheap. We stayed in and crashed out as we were both tired from the journey. Then the next day we found Rama Guest house which is run by an American guy and his boyfriend! The rooms were nice and were only 200b a night so we stayed there. I have never heard so much noise in my life! Pool being played by drunk, loud men and women all til very late outside our window. (We were on the ground floor) Then the sound of a Thai woman shreaking whilst having sex for several hours. A bell was rung about 45 times at 5 and 6 am which made dogs howl and bark. This probably wasn't helped by the fact that along with my cough I got a fever. Very high temperature, although I was shivering cold sleeping in thick socks and a hoody! Also had a headache and diarrhea! Fantastic!! The next day I pretty much stayed in bed while Caz pottered about on the internet and booked herself a trek for the next day. By this point I was sitting on the toilet and throwing up in the sink! Yay! (Sorry if this is too graphic for you all!) So at 9am Friday morning (After, thankfully a slightly quiter night) Caz was picked up and taken on our Trek. I decided to leave Rama Guest House though and moved our things to a guest house down the road which had quiter rooms, we had been recommended it by an English couple who live our here and run a restaurant, Ray and Trina. I got myself a big double bed and satellite TV! I watched all manor of crap such as Home & Away and Forensic Detectives about people being killed and solving the murders! Great stuff! But then there was the good stuff, Cat Dog and Sponge Bob Square Pants!!! :o) I was sitting there laughing out loud to myself. I checked in at 11am friday morning and did not get out of bed other than to vomit etc until 4:30pm saturday afternoon so I could go have a shower and meet Caz! The only thing I ate and kept down was half a slice of toast on thursday, then next time I ate was at about 5:30 Saturday afternoon, again half a slice of toast with baked beans! Oh well, at least it was something and I wasn't sick! My sister noted a relationship between my sickness and me taking Doxycycline (The very strong antibiotic-anti malarial I am taking) so I have stopped this for the time being to try and stop the near constant nausea and sickness. On Saturday night Caz told me all the woes of her trek! It was one disaster after another after being tipped into a cold lake by a stupid french couple, nearly being killed whilst on an elephant, being so tired she thought she was going to need a helicopter to get her out of the jungle, eating rancid food, being so cold at night that she wrapped herself in every article she owned, including two hoodies, tracksuit bottoms tucked into socks and she was STILL freezing! So it sounds like I was very lucky I was too ill to go eh!! After we had eaten we went back to the room, Caz was delighted there was a TV and we watched it until gone 1am despite being tired. We woke up late this morning (Sunday 28-10) as we defo like our sleep and were both worn out from trekking and being sick. We eventually walked into town to eat. About 2pm. As my food came I just looked at it and felt sick. I was also SOOOOO exhausted, I felt like a had a 'dead arm' when I didn't have anything like that, just tiredness from the virus. Caz thought it was time we got me checked out as it has now been 6 days since I got ill and I had hardly eaten anything in that time. So we went to the local private hospital. Firstly they asked all the details of what was wrong, then they took my blood pressure -which was high 140/90, weighed me -I had lost a good few kilos, took my temperatue - which was normal and then I saw a DR. Again she asked the matter and straight away said to stop taking the Doxycycline as it was most probably that making me ill. Then she said I would need a chest xray and blood tests for the cough. I had those and waited only about 30-40 mins for the results of both! Amazing! She called me back in and said the chest xray looked fine so the cough was just in my throat now and that my white blood count was low 4000 instead of the normal 5000-10,000 but she said this was because I had had a virus. She prescribed some tablets for a cold because I already got cough medicine this morning which I showed her and said I could go and should drink lots of water and rest. I went to pay with a very worried look on my face but including the blood test, xray, drs time, medical equipment and medicine the bill was 1,005 Baht which is under 15 quid! Very glad I went as was cheap (haha) and now have some peace of mind even if my family are worrying!! :oS

Am going to try and sort out what we are doing next as we have been here for a long time and I have not done anything and Caz only her trek but I know I need to take it very easy.

I will keep you updated with my whereabouts and hopefully the next time I speak tou you I will be feeling much better!

Take care x