Monday 7 May 2012

Luang Prabang - Man down day 20-21

Not to much to say about the third day in Luang Prabang. I got a pretty bad stomach bug and I was pretty much man down the whole day. Laos is a pretty poor country and so hygienic standards will vary. You also eating from street vendors and the like so there is always the chance of getting the odd bug. Thats why Hepatitis A vaccination is so important as it is the only type of Hepatitis you can obtain orally. Oddly though Candice had eaten the same as me so its weird her stomach was okay. To give you an idea of the scale of the diarrhoea the Imodium box said take one tablet after every time you go to the loo. I ended up taking about six imodiums. Obviously being dehydrated in temperatures of 35 is not great so I just stayed indoors with the aircon on fulltilt. Candice played the role of nurse and went to the pharmacy and got me some re-hydration salts and vitamins to help me along. I spent the day indoors for most of the day and just slept and drank lots of fluids.

In the evening we decided to go get some food. There was a really nice place called saffron cafe we went to on the Monday or the Tuesday where I had an awesome salad and my thinking was that the food and the kitchen should be okay. Anyways the 500m walk there was a killer being weak and dehydrated in the heat is not fun. I wasn't exactly feeling hungry so I just ordered some french fries which I only managed to eat a couple before giving up. I then decided to go back to the room and just rest some more and get some sleep.

We woke at 5:30 on the Thursday to go to the alms giving ceremony. Its an age old tradition in Loas but basically the Buddhist monks walk in a line through the town and the locals give them offerings into a basket type thing they are carrying. Loas in some ways is very similar to Thailand except the people are even more friendly and the traditions and culture is a little more in tact. I read whilst in Loas that the average person in Luang Prabang lives of 1 US Dollar a day. What is extremely fascinating is how poor the people are they literally have nothing yet they are extremely happy and friendly. It makes one thing a lot about western culture and the problems associated with it where we think more money is better but clearly it is not the answer.

After the alms giving ceremony we headed back to the room for some sleep as I was still not feeling lekker. After a power nap we decided to get some breakfast of some pancakes. The traffic in Luang Prabang was nothing like the cities of Vietnam so we rented a motorbike and drove the 30km to the waterfall. The going was pretty tough as although I felt better I was still a bit queasy and weak. The waterfalls were really refreshing though and we had a nice swim to cool off. After that my appetite started to return so we got some watermelon to snack on and just took it easy reading our books and relaxing. I had a good chuckle at two Buddhist monks as they were smoking and were wearing sunglasses which was different from the norm.

We then had another swim in another of the pools at the waterfall. There was a nice swing to launch you into the water and a high rock you could jump off into the water. My energy levels started to return and so I had a go jumping off the rocks. We left the waterfall at about 3pm and drove back to Luang Prabang. The 30km road is quite windy but very few cars so being on holiday I just took it easy on the bike with candice on the back. You go through quite a few viliages and its very rural and very poor. We drove past a school and I stopped to get a picture with some of the kids who I think thought was bonkers.

On the way home I got my appetite back so we stopped at Luang Prabang bakery for a burger, thinking its one of the few things my stomach could handle. After that food it was time for another nap...

We then went to do some shopping at the night market and then headed off to Utopia bar, which a couple of people recommended. It is down some side streets on the banks of the river and very chilled out.




Alms giving




Pools at the waterfall




Jumping




Waterfall




Me with the school kids


Location:Luang Prabang