Days 7 and 8: Stephanie's Last Stand (Fri, 8/1 and Sat, 8/2)

The queasy stomach turned into full-fledged ickiness. I'll spare you the details; let's just say that I spent all day Friday either in bed or close to the toilet (good thing I learned to flush it!). Reading about infectious diseases of the Second World War in my book filled my head with all sorts of ideas as to what it could be.

By Saturday, I was absolutely miserable - and I needed to check out of the hotel. I went back to D'mall to kill some time before catching my boat back to Caticlan. I knew I needed to get my blood sugar up, so I had a dainty sandwich and a coconut and pineapple crush at an adorable little restaurant. It didn't make things any worse.

To help kill a bit more time, I did some more shopping and managed to find a great gift for my mother. Then I treated myself to a forty minute foot and leg massage, which helped relax me a bit. By the time I got to the airport, though, I was miserable again.

I'm wondering if maybe I caught something from drinking the water. I made the mistake of taking some pills with tap water the night before I got sick, so maybe that brought this on.

I got back into Manila at 6:30 (aboard an even smaller puddle-jumper than before, which I didn't think was possible). Since my flight from Manila to Busan didn't leave until 3:35 am, I had to kill a lot of time. So, I went back to Glorietta mall, where I had a nice dinner and wandered around, lugging my obstinant suitcase (they wouldn't let me check it in early at the airport). Finally, in desperation to pass the time, I went to the cinema and watched the #1 film that I had absolutely no interest in ever seeing: The Dark Knight. It was okay; certainly not worthy of all the hype it's been getting (of course, I'm really not into superhero films anyway). At least it helped distract me from feeling sick for a little while.