It's not the rush that kills you, it's the sweats at the end...

If you're going to India, you're supposed to take some sort of antimalarial. There's quite a few on the market, such as Larium, but most of these also have some pretty scary side effects. Doxycycline, pretty much just a hepped-up antibiotic, is much milder and pretty highly recommended. Claudia and I both are on it, and though we've not really had any problems, the other day, oh, did I have some freaky side effect reactions.

You're supposed to take Doxy with lots of water and on a full stomach. Usually I pop mine in the morning when I get up, or just as we're leaving for breakfast. This one morning in Maha though, we didn't have much water left, but we were about to jet out for grub so I just took one and off we went.

At the restaurant, my body started going haywire. Nausea hit me; I felt lightheaded; a wave of pricklies washed over my body and I was drenched in sweat. I just put my head on the table and focused on breathing; Claudia was pretty worried, and made me sit up and drink water.

At first I wondered if I was getting sick — Last night's fish curry! I thought. But no; it had to be the Doxy. I'd had too little water, and my stomach was empty, so it hit my body harder than a bottle of red wine in the same circumstances. I took a bunch of deep breaths, and soon everything was all right. I sat back up, had some more water, and all was good. For that few minutes though, we were both pretty worried.

Before or since, no problems, just this one time. If you're heading to India, Doxy is cool for antimalarial. Just be smart about taking it — always with loads of agua, and always on a full tummy. Trust me on this one!

(By the way, Doxy is also a really good antimalarial budget-wise. Whatever drug you settle on, call every pharmacy in town and compare prices. Rates for my Doxy varied from $17-45 for 90 pills. I filled mine beforehand, but you don't have to; you can also get Doxy over the counter in India, for dirt cheap, which is what Claudia's been doing.)