It was inevitable

The Temple of the Dawn

It was inevitable.

After eating Thai food in huge quantities and probably not being as careful as we should we got caught.   We have travelled to lots of places and eaten all kinds of food and have never had the experience referred to as Montezuma’s revenge, or Delhi Belly or lots of other less polite terms.  Now we have had it.

The timing was unfortunate.   Today we started our Indochina Encompassed tour with G-adventures.   So that meant today we went on a long-tail boat cruise and a tour of the Buddhist temples associated with the Royal Palace.   Not a place where it is easy to get to a bathroom in a hurry.   A Buddhist temple is not somewhere where you want to suddenly empty your stomach in a handy offering bowl.  So we left the tour early to go back to the hotel to be closer to facilities.   The cab ride with all the sudden accelerations and sudden stops nearly got the driver a bonus. 

The Suspicious Banana Pancake - might be the culprit

To make matters worse we left last night on an overnight train ride to Chang Mai.  Telen was feeling unwell, but was actually over the worst of it by then but I was right in the thick of things.  I made 12 to 15 trips up the aisle to the tiny little toilet on the train and somewhere in the night the nausea passed and I was left with just the diarrhea.  Come morning I was feeling better - just dehydrated and exhausted. 

Feeling not so good

Not an auspicious start to the trip.

We rode on a couple of overnight trains in China on our trip there.   I was expecting the same experience here in Thailand.  The trains in China were, to be polite, utilitarian.  There were six bunks to each compartment- each of which was wide enough for one Chinese person or one-half of me.  You had to bring your own food on board and there was really no place to eat it.  In contrast the train we rode on last night started with two large seats facing each other with a table between.  A man came by and took your food and drink order.  Then, when you were ready to sleep a woman came by – did a little Thai magic- and your compartment was transformed into wide bunks with an upper and a lower bunk, curtains, fresh linen and pillows.

We have an interesting mix of people on this trip.   As is usual with G-Adventures the majority of the participants are fairly young.  There are a couple of couples around our age one from England and one from Nanaimo.  There is a young man from Germany, and one from France.   There is a woman from Holland who I can see as being a problem.  She is chronically late, loud, aggressive, often drunk and with a vocabulary like a longshoreman.  There is another older man from England who looks to be in the later stages of cirrhosis and who is mostly drunk as well.  They make a good pair.  The rest are a mix of young people from England.

Chang Mai is a great relief from Bangkok.   It is a smaller city with fresh air and a much more relaxed pace.   People will stop their vehicles if they see you on the crosswalk.  We were very ready to leave Bangkok with its frantic pace, smog and dirt.  The area around Chang Mai is green, hilly and very tropical looking.  Such a contrast!

by one of the Buddhist Temples in Chang Mai

Now, we just have to recover enough to enjoy it!