Me and a few friends went over to Batam over the weekend for a short weekend getaway. We discussed it during one of our poker nights 2 weeks ago, and groupon happened to have a promotion a few days later. Ah, synchronicity!
We all thought it was going to be a free and easy deal, which includes just the ferry and hotel, but turned out it included a half day itinerary of day tours. Bah. We were ferried from various landmarks to the other, which included factory outlets to go-kart to temples. By the time we reached the hotel at 5.30pm, we were all drained!
After dinner, we washed up, and began our alcohol fuelled poker night. As it turned out, we bought too many drinks, but had to finish them before we go to bed. After a few "motivational speeches" from me, we finally downed all the drinks. Yay. That's when it all started to go downhill for me.
The night seemed especially long, I remember waking up a few times. Daylight has broken when I suddenly woke up feeling queasy. I went to the toilet and started vomiting the contents that were consumed a few hours ago. Not a pretty sight, but I still had the decency to clean up the toilet bowl before going back to bed.
I puked another couple of times after that. By 10am, my body was a wreak. I could not eat or drink anything. I remember drinking water, and a minute later the same water will come back up, a bit murkier. It's like washing the intestines.
We had to check out at 12pm and head to the ferry terminal, but I was still in very bad shape. During the bus ride, I was breaking into cold sweat, thankfully I did not puke inside the bus. All said and done, I had to leave my friends and take an earlier ferry home.
I usually wouldn't relate to this, some people may find it crazy, but I think I was attacked by a foreign entity in the hotel room. The reason I felt that is because of a couple of things. Firstly when I accompanied my friend to the lobby to have breakfast, I felt queasy again. I went to the toilet bowl to see if anything's coming out. Nothing. After that I stood at the basin motionless to compose myself. Then the tap beside me, which is motion sensored, started to go off a few times, which spooked me a bit.
Later in the day, just before I was about to board the ferry, the puking sensation came again. Luckily I had a bag with me as this time was for real. I vomited before I could reach the toilet. Just beside the toilet was actually a prayer room, and there were a few muslims doing their afternoon prayers. I had to walk past the prayer room to get to the toilet. After that vomit, I actually felt very good, like the whole sickness had gone away. I boarded the ferry feeling normal and well.
But as we went further away from the terminal, the feeling came back. Perhaps it was sea-sickness, or perhaps the lost soul ran away and came back, I'm not sure.
All in all, i'm feeling much better now after seeing the doctor. He prescribed me some medicine for stomach flu. Maybe I should have told him I got beer overdose instead.
