Sunday 5th Feb, Still in Doi Ang Khan

Today I learned the Thai for "it's beautiful here", "I feel ill" and "where is the toilet".

Interestingly the Thai for beautiful and toilet are very similar - soo-ay and soo-am. I'll have to be careful when I next reply to questions about the attractiveness of someones daughter...

I didn't sleep very well - rather uncomfortable without a mat, and felt ill. We got up at 5am to go and watch the sunrise on top of the mountain with 100 other campers. It was very bizarre - there was a whole row of bonfires and cafes there in the dark. It looked pretty cloudy and I was feeling awful, so I ended up sleeping in Ton's pickup. I'll look at their photos.

We then drove to a small mountainside village where they grow strawberries on teh steep terraces. we picked a tasty tubfull in the beautiful morning light. It was the first time Ton had picked strawberries. He was amazed that at home parents grow them in the garden.

We then passed through another mountain village with the townspeople walking to the fields in their beautiful outfits, then went to an army post at the Burmese border. I had not realised how close I was to teh border - the roads do very different things here to what is shown on any of the 4 maps I've seen. I stuck my arm over the border through the barbed wire fence. They had interesting sandbag bunkers, and had used the same sandbags to make raised flowerbeds.

We drove back to our tents. Ton and Tha Ton made a breakfast of noodles and veg, and two boiled eggs for me. I was feeling dreadful by this point, so I said goodbye and found myself a really nice room for 300B - big comfy bed, TV, and most importantly for someone in my condition - an en-suite toilet. Spent most of the day asleep and woke up to see England thrashing Wales rather unexitingly. The sports chanel is the only English language chanel. I hate sport on TV. I think I must have left it on as I slept for some kind of comfort-crutch.

I don't know what I'll do if I dont' get better soon. I'd like to do more riding round to the Laos border, but round here it's all really strenous. And I only have 5 days riding left. At worst I'll get a lift to the main road and the bus to Chiang Mai, and do a coach and elephant-back tour of Doin Inthanon (the highest mountain in Thailand) and then meet up with Ton.

It is so frustrating being ill and seeing the days and the wonderful opportunities slipping bye, I am more ill today than two days ago - I guess I overdid it yesterday.

I've managed to leave my room to the plush resort where they've let me use their computer in the back of the office, once they'd finished dealing with a really arsey old man from Vienna and his young Thai wife... Made me rather ashamed to be European.

Speaking of being European, I think tonight, for the first time on my trip, I am going to give in and eat western food for supper. I can't stomach Thai food right now.