It all started with a speedboat ride. I've been out on the water in boats quite a few times in my life and have never experienced sea sickness. However, this time I didn't want to take any chances and gulped down the seasickness pill the tour company offered. The day was extremely beautiful. Bright and shining sun, clear and cloudless skies and a constant ocean breeze that whipped my hair around keeping the heat of the day from bothering me. I've learned that wind isn't always such a good thing, and on this day for this particular trip, it was terrible. We had an hour and half ride to the first island, Maya Bay (the island they use in films from "The Beach"). I figured it was no big deal if we encountered some rough sea since I took the seasickness pills. I was proven how wrong that notion was within ten minutes of our journey. The waves were roiling and rolling the speedboat back and forth and up and down so hard, it was difficult to hold ourselves to our seats. The boat driving in Thailand is as wreckless and fast as they drive on the road. Our boat kept bouncing up and out of the water and us along with it with a hard slam back on the seats that jammed our jaws down together. Our tour guides seemed to be having the time of their lives, laughing and acting like young little boys when they know they're into some dangerous fun. My seasickness pill seemeed to have no effect at all and my stomach started rolling with the waves. I kept my eyes shut, mouth closed and wished over and over again nothing would come up. Our bodies took more hard hits as we bounded up out of the water and slammed back down. At last, our boat began slowing and finally stopped. I was so ready to jump up and off this boat, except when I looked up, we were still surrounded by the sea. There seemed to be a problem with the engine and it took a few minutes of tinkering to get it going again. I groaned silently and we resumed our roller coaster boat ride. Around 20 minutes later, I heard the sweetest words I'd heard that day, "Ok, errybody! We arr 2 minutes away. Dat was da worst of it. I promise. Now we go with the tide when we go and it will be easier." I uncurl my body from the tense position I had been holding and stretched out all my limbs, knowing I was going to be sore the next day.
And sore I was. I felt like I'd been through a full body workout. At the end of the day, the beach I was on unleashed a massive thunderstorm and I decided to take advantage of the time and go for a nice aromatherapy massage. It was not as all what I was expecting. I figured it was the same as an oil massage but with scented oils. I'll never make that mistake again. The woman rubbed my muscles like she was trying to push them out of my skin and bent me in places I didn't think could bend. But at the end, I no longer felt the pain in my muscles from the previous day and that was all I cared about.
The next morning, I couldn't even move my body. I was in agony and for the first time since I'd been in this hostel, I was cold, very cold. I covered up and went back to sleep. Hours later, I woke up still sore. Blaming the massage from the night before, I got up and tried to move around. I managed to scarf down some breakfast before crawling my way back up the stairs to my bed. Throughout the day, my notions of why I was feeling so retched became clear, I had a fever. I have no idea how bad it was but my body was still so sore I could barely move. I tried writing and my words came out looking nothing like my usual hand writing. And my body altered between blizzard settings and hell settings of temperature. Stupidly, I assumed I would get better over night and booked my ferry and hostel for the next island I wanted to go to, Koh Lanta.
Needless to say, I wasn't feeling better. But I packed up, dragged my belongings downstairs and dazed my way through the most of the day. The gentle breeze and light rocking on the boat did little to assist in making me feel better. And much to my dread, I had to change ferries in Phi Phi and when we docked, I grabbed my things again and slowly shuffled my way off the boat. I began walking to the next ferry. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some debris in the water and looked down. Upon closer inspection, I noticed they were fish. Pretty blue and green tropical fish, just swimming all around the ...'scccciiiii, ahhh, crash and boom." Next thing I know, I'm on the ground and confused over what just happened. Obviously, I just fell. But I wouldn't figure out how as I was standing on flat ground. I looked down and over my wrist was a haphazard bleeding line, that anyone glancing without knowing the story, would believe I am self-destructive. I had managed to wrap my wrist around a sign as I fell and tore the skin to pieces. I hop up as best I can and quickly board my next ferry. A kind girl my age helped bandage me up and I tucked myself in to sleep my way to the next destination. It couldn't get any worse than this.
I was wrong. I had three long days of fever and my hostel was stifling hot since they didn't use AC during the day. As my fever went, I developed a cough and lost my voice...for four days. I learned to just point at things I wanted when I going out to eat instead of saying them. The servers usually have difficulty understanding me when I can speak at full capacity, much less when I'm squeaking out my order. Four more days of this misery. I had tried pharmacy medicines but nothing was working.
Two days into my cough, I began having ear aches and my hearing was faded. Fantastic! Swimmers ear! I knew how to deal with this issue. I get it all the time. Except I had been ignoring the pressure building up in that area for a few days, discounting it to whatever sickness I had going on. Nothing worked and the pain and pressure got worse in my ear.
I decided to extend my stay in Koh Lanta. It's relaxing atmosphere would help heal me when I stopped new problems stopped arising. The next to last night I had in my hostel was a true nightmare. At least at the time it was. I had taken some sleeping pills to knock myself out but something woke me in the middle of the night. I had no idea what is was and hazily looked around with my eyes half open. I became quite alarmed when I noticed a dark solid figure sitting at the end of my bed. As I had no voice, my screams came out as quite squeaks and did nothing to alarm anyone else. I felt out with my foot and connected with a solid wall of flesh. I squeaked again and kicked for all I was worth, finally kicking the fully naked guy off my bed. He mumbled out an apology and scurried off. It was difficult to go back to sleep after that and every movement and footstep sent me into a new panic. I know I had to startle a few people, as they would near my bed, I'd slam on my light and point my selfie stick at them and back into the bed corner. I tried to relax and reassure myself nothing was going to happen in a dorm of 20 people and my selfie stick in hand. I finally fell into a restless sleep and first thing in the morning, I packed my bags and left the hostel two days and moved on to my private beach bungalow.
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