Edd had played doctor the night before and given me Imodium and paracetamol. I'd woken up in the middle of the night for a top-up, and at 5am was ready for another round. I got up again at 6.30am and was greeted by a friendly feline. I let her in on my way back to our room, she jumped onto the bed with us and purred loudly while we stroked her; she sounded like a lawn mower.

We decided that I wasn't just hot and dehydrated, I'd probably picked up a 24 hour bug along the way somewhere and just needed to ride out the time frame. We had an 11 hour bus ride to Chiang Mai, so Edd kept the pills in his pocket for easy access. We had some breakfast, or more like Edd had breakfast, I had a slice of toast and a Sprite. He'd asked the B&B to call a taxi, as I was in no fit state to walk the 3km's to the bus station with my bags on my back and a Thai man with a tuk tuk arrived 5 minutes later.

We got dropped off behind the bus we were going to be taking, paid him his 50 Baht and sat down at the front of it and our bags were whisked off to its hull. Edd went in search of snacks and I patiently waited for his return - I wasn't walking anywhere unnecessarily. I watched a Thai woman, totally overdressed in high heels, stockings, a short skirt, smart long-sleeve top and far too much make up, prance around looking very important. She had a bun in the shape of a fan on top of her head and it bounced as she pranced. Edd returned with a bag full of crisps, Sprite, nut snacks and water and we got on.

The journey was surprisingly not as painful as I'd imagined as I slept most of it. Edd had booked us the best seats in the house, so we had loads of leg room. We did spend a lot of time arguing with two of the five... yes, five staff members on board the bus, as they kept turning the cats choir so loud we couldn't hear each other even though we were 4 inches apart.

We stopped for lunch at 2pm and could use our bus tickets to get a free lunch in the canteen. We walked up and down the food options and I had to muster every ounce of restraint to not hurl. Entire fish were fried, whole, eyes, scales, bones, everything, just whacked into a pan, 10 seconds a side and on a plate ready to be eaten. Even Edd, who is not a fussy eater, opted for my starvation diet. We went to the coffee shop and ordered 2 fruit ice shakes; that would have to do until we got to Chiang Mai.

11 hours later, we were in Northern Thailand. We got off at the bus station having passed a sign full of western fast food signs and bee-lined for them. We sat down at a pizzeria and had a delicious, freshly made pizza. I was still feeling decidedly under the weather and Edd hailed a tuk tuk to take us to our guest house. It wasn't a long journey, but my 24 hour bug was taking a bit longer than 24 hours and I still wasn't feeling up to the 34 minute walk.