Welcome to day three of ‘what the hell is wrong with me now’ starring your increasingly cursed traveller – me. So to recap: I’ve travelled overland from Beijing to Bali, effectively triple backed on myself (what, Kualar Lumpur again?!?), travelled up to Northern Thailand, flew back down to Bangkok and am now making my way east through Cambodia to Vietnam. The first six weeks went fantasically and ensured my enthusiam for the rest of the trip was even higher than before I set out. Then a few things started to happen. First there was the ear infection that I picked up swimming in Pennang. This was cleared up quickly with the help of anti-biotics. Then came the enevitable case of the trots in Indonesia, quickly followed by the destruction of my camera in Thailand and now this strange illness that I suspect is a touch of food poisoning. Add to that a little general fatigue and a sprinkling of other assorted annoyances and you’ll have to forgive me if my enthusiam is more than slightly dulled at the moment. Apart from the camera, these past couple of days have been the worst. The other two times I’ve become ill were on travel days and so I missed very little. However, this last one struck quite literally in the grounds of one of my most longed for sights of this entire adventure. Almost totally missing out on Ankor has been devistating. It really has. No jokes. No making light of it. No playing it down. It has upset me. So what the hell is actually wrong with me? Well, since Thursday night / early Friday morning, I have been unable to keep any solids or liquids in my body. I’ve been taking on fluids together with rehydration salts and it is only now, late on Sunday afternoon that I can report progress. Friday, I slept most of the day. I went online, to post an update and the single picture of Angkor that I took. This eventually posted some hours later, as the hotels net connection was slower than a 56k modem used to be. Of course I didn’t wait around for that to complete, by that point I was back in bed. I felt somewhat better as I awoke on Saturday. Right up until the moment I stood up and was overcome by nausea. I tried to stay more awake on Saturday and manage my fluid intake, but I discovered two things. 1. What went in, came straight back out. 2. The water supply in my room would only function provided NO OTHER ROOM WAS USING WATER. Yes, the capital letters were intentional. The toilet would not flush, the sink taps would not work and nor would shower if water was being used anywhere else in the building. I can tell you that it is a sould crushing experiance to have to set an alarm every twenty minutes or so to see if you can now flush your vomit away. Oh, did I not mention that the toilet door could not close properly and the room was warm? To add injury to insult, I then managed to then cut my shoulder on a TV stand stand slightly overhangs the bed.If I put the tip of my middle finger on the end of the cut; I can feel it all the way down my finger and my entire palm. So it was out with the antiseptic, and in with the cursing. I tried to eat again at around 9pm, and for a while I thought I’d made it and kept it down. Then I packed my rucksack for this mornings journey and that incredibly strenuous activity had me running for toilet and praying to the god of flushing once more. Today began at 7:45 and with a 6 hour public bus trip. I made it. At times I effectively meditated my way through it. Eyes closed, head back and breathe, breathe. Thats right, just concentrate on the breathing and try to forget that the bus is bouncing around like Tigger on Red Bull. The others have gone on a bike ride this afternoon. I don’t think that my non-participation came as a major shock. That’s also one of the really annoying things about this. I like this group, yet I’m not getting to spend any time with them as I’ve needed to treat the toilet like my tag-team partner. I take an hour to venture out when we arrived. I went to a restaurant and had the plainest thing on the menu – rice. Its been over two hours now and its looking good so far. I do however feel as week as a newborn. Just dragging my carcase around feels like it takes far more energy then usual. Tomorrow we have another bus journey, and then arrive at the Killing Fields in the afternoon. I’m determined to go, body be damned.
Oh Nez, I’m so sorry to hear about Angkor Wat 😦 I’m sure you will return one day for the visit that you should have had. I hope you are all better now and enjoying your group and trip, and I look forward to your next update 🙂 the elephant sanctuary looks amazing, must have been a fantastic day! Love Charlie x
DigiDonkey 
Oh Nez, I’m so sorry to hear about Angkor Wat 😦 I’m sure you will return one day for the visit that you should have had. I hope you are all better now and enjoying your group and trip, and I look forward to your next update 🙂 the elephant sanctuary looks amazing, must have been a fantastic day! Love Charlie x
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