I boarded the plane in Venice at 11:25, 1 hour late. As I sat reading my book, I realized I was scratching a spot on my arm. Damn mosquitoes. A few minutes later, my shoulder began to itch. I reached under the collar of my shirt to find the mother of all mosquito bites on my right shoulder. Within the next few hours, 4 more bites appeared on my shoulder, 1 on my lower back, 1 on my hip, 2 more on my arm, and 4 on my face. I felt like a flea-ridden dog scratching incessantly. Nearly 12 hours later, during a stop-over in Bangkok, I was going mad from the itchiness. I sat down to have some breakfast and my face felt flushed. Shit! I had stopped taking my malaria pills a few weeks
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