Luang Prabang: The Illness

After a heavy night we decided to treat ourselves with a massage which definitely helped us both feel a little less fragile. The appetites soon kicked in and we sampled some fine Laos food consisting of fish cooked in banana leaf, rice and some steamed vegetables. The vegetables looked a little suspect as they still had a little bit of sand/dirt on them, but we were too hungry to care. We then decided to take a tour around Luang Prabang but this only took about an hour as it is such a small place. Definitely one of the highlights was meeting a really friendly, and quite ancient Laotian man who was selling ice cream from his little bicycle. Unfortunately the ice cream also looked a little suspect so we got rid of them once the little man rode off down the road! The hunger kicked in again and this time it was a milkshake for Leon, a chocolate cake between us and an ice lemon tea that did the trick for me. As it was coming close to sunset, we followed some people's advice and headed up Phu Si which was a hill in the centre of town that has a temple at the top where you can take in the views and the sunset over Luang Prabang. Unsurprisingly, we were met at the top by other tourists who obviously had been told the same thing or also read the same excerpt from the Lonely Planet. Still, it was rather peaceful and we got chatting to a couple from London - one of which actually used to work with Ewen and Siobhan, which goes to show that the world really is a very, very small place. As we headed down we bumped into another couple (the ones from Brighton) who invited us along to dinner with some friends in the Pizzeria down the road from where we were staying. Dinner time came along and to our disappointment, the pizzas weren't of the calibre that we are used to back at home, and instead looked like a hot quiche gone wrong. Leon ordered a vegetarian version and we have a theory that this was the source of his illness that was to come. Unfortunately from that evening and for the next 3 days Leon was not in a very good state (I won't go into detail but it involved lots of liquids, high fever and bad stomach cramps). We had to stay in Luang Prabang until he got better and fortunately after 3 days he was back to his normal self. In that time I played nurse and got a lot of reading done. We were ready to leave Luang Prabang and looked forward to visiting the Plain of Jars, which was our next destination in Laos.