What surprised me most about Bangkok was how modern and beautiful the airport was. After a lovely flight on Thai Air, which served delicious food and had all the modern amenities you could want I took one of the most frightening cab rides of my life. My eclectic purple haired overly-aggressive driver zoomed past other cars at about 75 kph faster thatn the spped limit on the beautiful and newly constructed freeways, missing cars by inches with every movement. He was very chatty but difficult to understand and whn I finally forced a break in his dialogue to ask him to slow down, he was completely indignant. "I've been driving for over 35 years and I never had accident" he yelled. "Wll I've been living for almost 30 years and I'd like to live many more" I responded. We quickly made our way to an area called Rambutri near Khao San Road. This place had everything that you'd imagine when you think of a SE Asian backpackers hitching post. Lights, noise, narrow streets filled with vendors of everykind, rickshaws, bicycles, people, so many people (most were obviously westerners or of European-decent), and joy. The Thais give the Balinese a run for their money when it comes to the smileiest place on Earth, and their positive energy is contagious.
The cabbie dropped me off somewhere near my hotel because the streets were to narrow to drive down. He blindly pointed me towards my hotel so I grabbed my luggaed and squeezed through the crowds and makeshift restaurants, bars and shops that spilled into the middle of the street until I reached my cheap hotel that my Slovenian friends recommended. They also suggested the 2nd hotel in Kuta that I'd stayed in and a stellar cheap restaurant where I had eaten. So far they were 4 for 4. The service was crummy at the hotel but the room was comfortable and had 'air con'.
That night I wandered the streets for a while, got another massage and then decided to try some pad thai from a lady on the street that the Slovenians had recommended. They had ranted and raved about this place, and they hadn't led me astray so far so I took their advice. Life is funny sometimes. It seems that sometimes our bodies and minds can predict the future. As I stood in line at the street vendor and watched the lady cook and serve heapings of pad thai faster than an assembly line, I began to question my decision and analysis my options. 'Do I want meat?' 'Of course you do'. 'But I'm not too sure about that.' "Wa you want?" she asked. "Chicken please". 'Damn' I thought. "Wit egg?", "Uhh.." 'No you don't'. "Sure". I paid her about $1 and she thew all the ingrediants in a pan and cooked away. A minute later I was eating my mountain of pad thai at a makeshift bar accross the way. I thought to myself, 'this doesn't taste right'. 'Quit being a wuss, you've already paid for it, just eat it.' I was only able to take down about have of the serving which the bar hands teased me about. Afterward I hit the hay.
Next stop, not Nepal:
My stay in Bangkok was suppose to be a little over 24 hours. That was enough time to see some sights, and sure beat an overnight layover in the Delhi airport. After my brief stay in Bangkok I would be off to Nepal to hike to Everest Base Camp (16 day hike). But something else had a different plan for me. The night while I slept I could feel something was not right with my body and by morning, i was SICK! Being sick while traveling alone is a daunting thing because in the back of your head you know that if things get bad they can go drastically wrong.
There was a guy named Jake who I traveled through Central America with after we did some environmental work in Mexico. Jake kept traveling after I went home and according to friends found himself in a terrible mess in El Salvador. He was a surf camp in a remote place on the coast when he started feeling extreme abdominal pains. The local hippie surfers tried to heal him with teas but when the pain was too much to bare him caught a bus to the closest town with a doctor. Somewhere on that ride the pain overcame Jake and he passed out. He woke in what appeared to be an auto shop on a metal table with a stitched incision where his appendix was. These men who didn't speak English felt that they needed to be paid for their duties and saving Jake's life. However, that amount was endless and essentially held him for ransom. Each day they would make a trip to the ATM where he would withdraw the maximum amount he could. They gave him a little water and no food. Finally weak and feeling like he was near his end, on their daily trip to the ATM Jake claimed that his card was not working and that he needed to call his bank. They agreed and he somehow got word to American authorities of what was going on and where he was. A few hours later American troops and local police busted in the auto shop and saved Jake.
This story I believe is factual and his helplessness is travel nightmare of any backpacker. Although undoubtably rare, they are a distant posibility. So when I started to get sick I took every precaution I could I tried to stay hydrated and keep my strength and focus, but my body was loosing control to something inside me. I became very weak and after a long internal debate decided I needed to do something. I packed my things and crawled down to the lobby.
Up to this point the receptionists had been very unhelpful but when I asked them how to get to the hospital they directed me to a clinic across the road. Within about 20 minutes I had seen a doctor who ordered me to go to the hospital immediately. He got transportation for me which was essentially a van with a leather lazyboy in the back. Surprisingly comfortable. I arrived at the hospital ER and they put me on an IV, antibiotics, pain killers and sent me to a room. Within minutes of getting set up in my bed I was out like a light.
Great views...from the Bangkok Hospital?:
Being very ill in a foreign country is difficult. Not only to you feel terrible, but you have the stress of not knowing what to do, where to go, and when you do end up somewhere if you don't speak the language you wonder what they are saying about your condition and how competent they are. When I arrived at the new and very modern Bangkok Hospital their International Ward was full so the put me in a typical Thai ward. My room there was by far the nicest room I have stayed in thus far. This made communicating a little challenging but having a team of people tending to me was very reasurring. Every couple of hours I was woken by a couple of nurses who would check my temperature,blood pressure, give me additional fluids and antibiotics, and bring me food. The food typically consisted of an over cooked filet of fish, potatos, soup (broth with diced beef chunks at the bottom) and some sort of strange beverage. Not great but I wasn't really into eating at that point anyway.
Later my first morning my Indian-Thai Georgetown educated doctor came in to explain that I had consumed some very bad bacteria that my Western belly wasn't equipped to handle and that I would need to stay in the hospital a few days. At first this was frustrating because I had already missed my flight to Kathmandu and had planned my visit there to be exactly the amount of time that I would need to hike to Everest Base Camp, but after a lot of sleep, trips to the bathroom, watching English Premier league games and cheesy 80s movies, and reflection on my balcony overlooking Bangkok I decided to make some changes in my itinerary. Although I was only a week into my trip I already felt like it was becoming a trip in which I was just trying to check boxes and get badges for my adventure quilt. I was so busy worrying about my next move that I felt I was probably missing a lot amazing things and people along the way. After 3 days of debating with myself I decided to nix Nepal and India from this trip, head directly to Turkey, lose my schedule and follow what doors this adventure opens.
When I was released from the Bangkok Hospital surprisingly the goodbye was a little bittersweet. Although I was happy to be leaving, I still wasn't 100% or even 70%, and I would be out on my own again 10,000 billion miles away from anyone I knew, and would no longer have a team of people catering to my needs. Also, because I was an international young guy in the Thai ward, by the end of my time I had reach somewhat of a celebrity status. Many of the nurses where inviting me out to dance parties, wanting to friend me on facebook, and take pictures with me (see below). But all in all I was happy to be moving West.
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