We landed in Bangkok at around 9pm local time, grabbed our bags and got a taxi to our AirBnB. Once there, we slept very well.

The next morning we got another taxi to Bangkok’s other airport so that we could fly to the island of Phuket. This was an hour or so long flight, followed by a two-hour airport shuttle to our hotel in Patong Beach. At first glance, it seemed like a normal enough place, we were quite looking forward to the five days ahead of us.

Our first real day in Thailand was spent in Phuket’s old town. It was a bit of a culture shock for us really, and an assault on our ears and noses. Nevertheless, it was a very cool place and we managed to pick up some of the local products.

The second full day in Thailand was our favorite day there by a long shot. We went to an elephant sanctuary, where we fed, bathed and then swam with around 10 elephants that had been rescued from riding camps and circuses in the region. We got some great pictures and had a really rewarding time. They’re really just big dogs with a long nose! After showering off, we were fed by the people at the sanctuary, and that’s when Thailand went from being great, to being awful.

Once we got back to the hotel, Brenna started to feel ill, but attributed it simply to eating quite a milk-and-egg-heavy breakfast. At around midnight when Brenna was still exhibiting ‘symptoms’ Henry decided the hospital was the best place for me, so we went. We accepted that we weren’t going to make our flight to Ayutthaya the next day and messaged the AirBnB owner our situation before booking the same flight for the subsequent day. Two hours and an IV later we were on our way back to the hotel, but that’s when Henry began to feel sick. Along with the food poisoning, Henry also had an infection. We accepted that we again weren’t going to make our second flight the next day and updated the AirBnB owner our situation, saying that we now weren’t going to be going to Ayutthaya at all. This was a big disappointment as we were really looking forward to seeing the ruins of the ancient city and temple. We ended up getting back to Bangkok on our third attempt and checked into our hotel. Once there, we were able to fully recover, but as a result we didn’t see much of Bangkok.