They Shoot Horses, Don't They?

We weren’t even done with our jet lag when we caught dengue fever, or breakbone fever as it’s sometimes called, because you feel like every bone is trying to break away and secede from your body. First we blamed the aches on Elizabeth’s exceptionally hard beds, then we blamed the Thai massages we got to help with the hard-bed-related aches.


Nausea and diarrhea? It must be that street vendor food we’ve been eating. The sticky rice! It must have been the sticky rice. Finally, after yet another night writhing and remembering the bleakest movie ever, They Shoot Horses, Don’t They?, Rozie decided it was dengue fever. Elizabeth offered to be Rozie’s hospital guide, and the diagnosis was confirmed.


The new hospital was very spare and clean and everyone was nice and spoke some English. The trip went like clockwork except a computer error delayed the results for 2 hours – the plague of the modern hospital.


There’s really nothing to be done about dengue fever, except to wait it out; take Tylenol; do "taking & giving" meditations for all those who feel this way and don't have the comfort of knowing it'll be better in a few days; and try not to “breed”, as the doctor put it. (“Breeding” as in, when you scratch mosquito bites too hard and they “breed”.)


On the way home, Rozie in a stupor on the back of Elizabeth’s motorbike, there was a Thai moment. Less than a block from home, we were stopped at an intersection by a tight-clothed policeman with a whistle. We sat there for 10 minutes in the blazing sun while he let every other direction go but ours. (It seems some VIPs were coming and we would have crossed their path.)


E said that if it was the queen, we would have to dismount and stand and bow until she’d gone by. Very polite and orderly these Thais, but after 10 minutes in the full sun, the biker anarchy kicked in. When there was a break in the cross-traffic, all the two-wheelers in the front of our lanes just took off, hearing the cop running out of his little box, whistling after us!


We are now painfully aware (pun intended) that there is an epidemic proportion of dengue fever in Chiang Mai, which is especially bad this year due to global warming extending the rainy season. So let this be a lesson to any of you interested in visiting tropical areas at the tail end of the rainy season. Don’t wait to break out the Skin So Soft like we did.


Uh oh, we just got a call from Elizabeth. She’s heading home with take out dinner... and a fever.