Street Eating - It was bound to happen sooner or later

After crossing the border (via water taxi) between Laos and Thailand I headed by foot to the bus station. The bus departed at 9am for Chang Mai and I had plenty of time to walk the 2 kms to get there. The trip took about 6.5 hours and we stopped halfway for some lunch at one of the main bus stations enroute. I was very excited about being in Thailand as the food here for me is the best in Asia and is the king of street eating. I was going to be in my element. The choice of food though in and around the bus station was pretty limited and I opted for a chicken skewer and a rice sausage. As I was eating these tasty eats I said to myself "Fiona you are really testing yourself now on street eating, eating this food". The chicken I think was bits of the neck and the rice sausage was encased in some sort of intestine. But I ate it anyway and got back on the bus for the final leg to Chang Mai.

Once I arrived into Chang Mai I had no idea where to stay or how much a tuk tuk into town would cost and I was feeling very tired. A tuk tuk driver soon had me in the back of his tuk tuk for way too much money but I was in no mood to bargain. He suggested a couple of places for me to stay and advised that if I didn't like the first place then he would take me to another until I found one I liked for the same price. This sounded fair to me and off we went.

I opted for the first place as it was clean and had lovely big windows with lots of natural light and a big bed and the price was very reasonable. It was a bit out of town but I had decided that I needed to get a bit of walking in as I was not getting enough exercise after spending 3 days travelling and sitting on my butt.

After settling into my room I decided to head up to the night market. The walk was pleasant along the main road and may food stalls were getting ready for the dinner rush. I eyed each one off carefully planning my meal on my return. It was about a 25 minute walk to the night market where stalls cover both sides of the road for about a km or so selling everything from souvenirs, shoes, billabong tops and shorts (fakes of course) and so on. The street was buzzing with tourists bargaining and browsing at each of these stalls. I wondered aimlessly still feeling very tired from my days travels.

On my return I procrastinated over what I would have for dinner. I was not feeling all that hungry (although I should of been after only having a couple of small snacks at lunch time). I opted for some deep fried potato cake type thing which was tasty enough and made my way back to my hotel.

The next morning I woke feeling ordinary and before too long my stomach erupted and I spent the majority of the day on the toilet. Yes I had gastro along with a fever, my street eating had finally caught up with me after three months of travel and of all places Thailand where street eating is king!!! AND I WAS NEVER GOING TO STREET EAT AGAIN!!!

So my four days in Chang Mai weren't filled with bamboo rafting or riding elephants but instead holed up in my hotel room with the s***s and wanting my mum to look after me. I had no-one to go to the chemist for me and get anti biotics so on day 2 I ventured out and spent a few delirious hours roaming the old quarter, eating toast and stocking up on drugs (antibiotics).

Fortunately I was reading Shantaram, 940 pages that kept me occupied for the four days and I also managed to get out a few times for some fresh air and escape the four walls of my room. Not a photo was taken in this time as I just didn't have the energy as the antibiotics made me fell pretty awful.

On day four I flew to Bangkok as I could not bear the thought of an overnight train or bus. Sometimes you just have to get out the credit card and splurge a little. It wasn't that expensive and if the Aussie dollar wasn't so crap it would of been considered quite reasonable seeing that I only booked it less than 24 hours ahead.

I had previously visited Bangkok 10 years ago so I was not interested in doing the typical tourist sites but just hang out for the 4 nights I was there before heading to Sri Lanka.

A hotel had been recommended to me near Kao San Road that was reasonably priced and had a swimming pool on the rooftop. Unfortunately I was unable to get one of the cheap rooms so opted to hunt down another hotel in my price range. I found a room that was the size of a shoe box but at least had a nice bathroom and a TV. Yeah I could spend some time watching movies as I was still not 100 percent. I was still eating toast and western food and went out for a very expensive pizza that night. It just seemed so wrong eating western food where there were so many local delights to be had. The pizza was good but I was starting to feel a lot better and my mouth was watering every time I passed a pad thai stall or a thai red curry. My last several days of sickness were soon becoming a distant memory.

The next morning I went back to the hotel with the swimming pool to see if they had any of the cheaper rooms available, again no but they did have a single with aircon/tv/bathroom and for only an extra $4 ($18AUS) to what I was paying and I got a pool. I thought what the hell as I just wanted to chill and sometimes you need to live a little. That day I also got back into street eating. For just over a dollar you could get fruit salad, yoghurt and mueslie, so that was breaky for the next four mornings, pad thai was about one dollar and so that was dinner one night and the thai red curry was about a dollar fifty so that was either dinner or lunch, freshly cooked corn was about fifty cents and a great healthy snack. It was all so good and I was excited to be back street eating.

I also hit the shops while in Bangkok and it has some of the best shopping in the world (If I was to bring my two sisters here I would have to be flown home in a straight jacket). The shopping centres are enormous and make Chadstone look like the corner store. The supermarkets in these shopping centres were also great as there were many free samples to be had. My purchases were few as my pack does not allow me to buy anything and so I bought a new charger for my iPod (which I had lost way back in Vietnam) and a new bra to replace the only one I had that was lost in laundry during my stay in Luang Prabang in Laos.

My mornings were spent by the pool and reading or listening to my Ipod (now that I had music again) and the afternoons checking out the shopping centres or surrounding areas.

Thailand was only 8 days as it was never on my agenda to travel extensively and I was meeting a friend in Sri Lanka early October but I could certainly be tempted to return again to hit the street eating once more.