I arrived in Chiang Mai around 4pm. I'd been feeling a bit rough over the last few days and the 6 hour bus journey hadn't helped. I booked into a guest house and got dressed for a night out on the town.

Minutes after digging into a veggieburger (my first in over 3 weeks!), I was back in my hotel room, praying to the porcelain Gods from 8pm till midnight. I was pretty sure it was just a case of Delhi Belly, but I wanted to be sure it wasn't dyssentry or malaria or anything like that. I stumbled out of the guest house for a tuk tuk and got to hospital.

A nurse took my passport (laughing at me when I asked how much I'd need to pay for a doctor) and I was taken to a bed in the ER, surrounded by other sick Thais. The medstudent quickly diagnosed me once we'd broken down the language barrier and it turned out to be nothing serious - just a traveller's bug. She'd come back a few minutes later to find me missing.

I got carted off by a porter for an x-ray. He didn't speak a word of English and just kept making an 'x' sign with his fingers when i protested. Finally, I think I managed to scare him enough to go back to the ER and check with my doctor... sure enough, my chart had got mixed up with someone elses.

I paid for the service and the pills (a grand total of 3 quid) and hailed a taxi. I think I might have been a little unfair with the haggling. For a fraction of the price I should have paid, I ended up getting taken the same fraction of the distance.

By the time I'd returned to the guest house at 2am, I'd been solicited by no less than 3 gorgeous thai prostitues following me along the road screaming at me to see if I wanted "happy time". Pretty sure they were prostitutes anyway...

Chiang Mai is a really cool city - I got unlucky and missed out on one last night there.