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Published: April 11th 2008
Our last few days in Chiang Mai were spent shopping up a storm and taking an essential cooking course... something that is on every tourists 'must do' list while in North Thailand.... so our last blog left us arriving back from the Elephant Nature Park... me still sick, and Rinna getting on the booze with the staff of CM Blue.
You Want Me To Poo In WHAT?!
*Skip to the next section if you are eating breakfast! LOL*
A new day dawned and I wasn't feeling any better. By this stage, after almost 6 weeks of constant diahorrea, I had just about had enough. I was feeling like it was time to go home. We made the decision that I should probably head to a doctor and get things checked out. I had gone from having an annoying travelers 'thai belly' to feeling exhausted, tired, nauseous and a general feeling that things were not right.
We decided to walk to a recommended hospital that was close by. We tried to flag a couple of tuk-tuks but they wanted 100 baht + for the 40 baht ride. The bad mood I was in outweighed the sense
of just paying the money, so we walked. About 15 minutes later, with sweat running off both of us we arrived at the hospital, told them my problem and were ushered to the 6th floor to some 'diahorrea specialist'. I was surrounded by 6 nurses who fussed around me weighing me etc, I was ushered into the doctors office where I was promptly handed a tiny little jar (about the size of a film cannister) and told to go get a stool sample! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Not only do you want me to 'poo on demand' but I have to aim into an opening that I would barely be able to fit a 20 cent piece in?!
Off to the toilet I went feeling totally overwhelmed and miserable. I had no idea how I was meant to 'just poo' or how I was going to even get it in the miniscule hole provided! This is something that noone had ever thought to teach me! Thanks Mum! LOL
15 minutes later, and nothing in my little cannister I headed back to the nurses tears streaming down my face! They were all surrounding me and saying in their cute
little thai/english voices "please dont cry... its ok" ... meanwhile I am standing there thoroughly miserable. I was ushered back to the doctor who assured me that I had two options... a endoscopy and colonoscopy OR antibiotics.... It was a tough choice but the antibiotics won in the end! His diagnosis was that it was probably 'just parasites in my stomach... picked up from food I ate... probably in Laos'.... JUST PARASITES???? Oh is THAT all??? Cool!
1500 baht and 5 different lots of drugs to take each day later... we headed back to the guesthouse. After resting for a little while we headed to the Sunday Walking Markets....
Sunday Walking Markets
The Sunday Walking Markets is a market that is set up on a Sunday (obviously) on a main street in the Old City. The streets are shut down to traffic and stalls line the streets.... Trent and I had been here last time but had only seen a small part of it... Rinna and I managed to explore it all for a few hours. We purchased a few bits and pieces for gifts, but had to cut it short as we had planned
to meet Alisha (USA) and one of her friends that was also volunteering at the Elephant Nature Park (they had a day/night off and were staying in town). We met at our guesthouse for a quick drink and then headed to a recommended Italian restaurant just near Tapae Gate called Da Stefano. The food was lovely. Afterwards we just headed back to the guesthouse as I was still feeling pretty awful.
Shopping up a Storm
While planning our trip I was fortunate to meet a lovely couple from the UK - Paul and Elsje. Paul was doing some research on Travelblog for their upcoming trip and had contacted me to ask some questions, as their trip was very similar to my last one. We hit it off over email, and after a few emails back n forth realised that we were going to be in Chiang Mai at the exact same time... and BOTH staying at CM Blue House... how weird is that!!
Once they had arrived we arranged to catch up with them to have dinner and do some shopping. Well lets just say we shopped up an absolute storm. Firstly, we caught a
tuk tuk over to the Night Bazaar (all 4 of us squashed in to a tiny tuk tuk!) where we proceeded to shop until we literally dropped. I had my eye on a handbag since arriving in Chiang Mai but was unable to get the guy to go beneath 1500 baht. We eventually found it at another stall, and with the help of Elsje, I managed to get it for 1000 baht... she was sure a tough negotiator ... she put me to shame!! I really thought I had the whole bartering thing down pat until she came along!!!
We had planned to do Muay Thai later in the night but after all the shopping, some quiet drinks (softdrink for me cause of the antibiotics) and a quick meal we called it a night.
It was at this stage we decided to end the holiday a few days early as I was suddenly craving my own bed, and had enough.... Rinna was also dying to get home to her family. We decided to skip our flight and catch the overnight train back to Bangkok a few days early..... so our last day in Chiang Mai was spent at
a cooking course, followed by a mad dash to catch the train...
Reet Rinna & Ross' Cooking Adventure
Last time I was in Chiang Mai I did a cooking course with A LOT OF THAI and loved it. We were going to go back there for this one, but decided to try something different and chose to do our course with a place called "THE BEST THAI COOKERY SCHOOL". It was the same price - 800 baht - and the beauty of this place was that you had a choice of what dishes you wanted to cook. It started with a tour to the local markets to look at traditional Thai foods that we would be using in our dishes. The Chef/Owner of the business was a total crackup.. I think he considers himself the next big comedy act, and was hilarious... especially when laughing at his own bad jokes... he was alot of fun!
Rinna and I partnered up with a guy from Scotland called Ross, and we chose which dishes each of us would cook. There were about 6 courses, plus we also got to watch the chef make some extra dishes (including
Mango/Sticky Rice, Papaya Salad & Spring Rolls)... The day was pretty fun. There were about 14 of us all facing each other in a big square with our own workstations. All the food was handed to us preprepared and we just had to cook it.... By the end of the day we were SO full, and had had a pretty fun day....
At the end we were dropped back to the guesthouse where we grabbed our bags and caught a tuk tuk to the train station...
Finally.... an Overnight Train that wasnt Hell!
After all my trips to Thailand and a strike rate of 100%!b(MISSING)ad smelly trains, I finally hit the jackpot with my last ever Thailand overnight train! This train was clean, modern, spacious and had CLEAN toilets!!! I was pretty excited!!!!! I won't say much more as you have all read a million stories of mine on the overnight trains from hell.... and this one was uneventful! We arrived tired, smelly and grumpy into Bangkok at 7am..... and Bangkok will be my final blog of the trip... coming soon when I find the time!!!
Reet xx
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karin0040
non-member comment
Well Reet
you sure have experienced it all!!! Will miss your blogs when they finish.