I was sad to be leaving Nepal after almost a month and a half in the country, but at the same time I was very excited to head to Thailand.

First stop…Bangkok!

I had all sorts of grand plans for my time there as I only had 3 days in the city before I was to head down south to the Andaman Sea for a bit of island relaxation.

My hostel was beautiful, had ice cold A/C available at all times of the day, and I had the entire 4 bed dorm room to myself! Things were off to a good start.

That is, until the sketchy stomach I’d developed over my last few days in Kathmandu decided to take a turn for the worse. I think I probably picked up a bit of food poisoning in Kathmandu somewhere, as I proceeded to spend my entire first night in Bangkok vomiting my brains out. Lovely. Like I said I lucked out that I had the room to myself that night.

I barely left my bed in an attempt to recover. I had packed re-hydradtion salts with me in preparation for this very thing, but I couldn’t even keep water down. Not good.

When I finally stopped vomiting, about 12 hours later, I knew I needed to get some fluids in me or I could be in big trouble. Thank goodness for 7-11 where I was able to find something that resembled plain crackers, Sprite, and Gatorade. I started with the bubbly stuff, and, using a straw they gave me at the 7-11, I very slowly sipped the Sprite and, miraculously, was able to keep it down. Once I got some of that down, I moved on to the Gatorade. I needed the electrolytes badly. That too remained firmly in my stomach, so it was time for the crackers. Thankfully, also a success.

Overall it took my stomach a few days to fully recover, but the next day I was feeling well enough to head to the Chatuchak Weekend Market, one of the largest outdoor markets in the world with over 20,000 stalls. A bit excessive and a bit awesome.

You could find absolutely anything you could possibly desire here. Clothes, furniture, decor, shoes, jewelry, and food. The market allowed you to put your bartering skills to the test and get what you wanted for a cheap as possible. And if the bargaining wasn’t turning in your favor? All you had to do was move on to a place 3 stalls down selling the exact same thing and try again.

The following day I was still recovering a bit and just didn’t have the energy to do a bunch of site seeing activities….so I went to see the newest Hunger Games. Don’t judge me. It was awesome. And it was cheap. The ticket cost about $6 and a popcorn and soda were about the same.

Let me tell you, Thailand knows how to do the movies. This movie theater was on the 5th floor of a gigantic high end mall and the theater itself was luxury. It was absolutely enormous, had chandeliers everywhere, a McDonalds, Starbucks, and a bowling alley. It was also decorated with some…interesting decor.

I thought we had a lot of commercials before the movies in the US but I think Thailand takes the cake. They also have a little bit about 3/4 of the way through the advertisements where the whole theater stands to (what I assume is) the national anthem in celebration of the King.

It was the perfect way to spend the day recovering before my long travel day to the island of Koh Lanta! So ready to lay on a beach for a few days.

Have you ever gotten food poisoning while traveling? Were you buy yourself or did you have someone to look after you?