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Sabaidee!!!!
Well! I have not been a very well little bunny!
After I last wrote we went to a place called Pakse - which was rubbish - ghost town. The following day we left for Savannakhet (6 hours by bus) which wasnt a bad place but we only ever intended to stay a day or two, but then I got sick and we spent EIGHT nights there! And there is nothing to do there!
On the first day Gemma and Matt and I went out to do the only two things in Savannakhet which is a dinosaur museum and another history museum, but on the way I became ill and headed back to the hotel room. By all accounts it doesnt sound like I missed very much at all - Savannakhet is supposed to be famous for dinosuars but everything in the one roomed museum was a copy and the other museum was closed! Gemma and Matt found a lovely catholic church which was worth a look and a temple but that was it so I didnt miss much.
The following day I was feeling worse and spent the next two days in bed watching HBO - I think I watched Coraline 12 times, I know it off by heart now. Gemma was really good and brought me in food and supplies but I wasnt a very happy girl. By Saturday I felt a little better and ventured out but I was unable to eat - everything was making me feel like I'd throw up, I popped to the internet cafe for an hour then straight home again to bed, but it felt good just to get out of the hotel room for an hour!
Apparently it was a mistake to have done so though, as that night I was in bed with socks, leggings, tshirt, hoodie and a big blanket over me and I still could not get warm (Gemma was hot in the Laos heat!) it was a sign of things to come as the next day I was so sick I was crying! Gemma tried to get a doctor but as it was Sunday the ONE doctor in the villiage would not come out to see me. I could have gone to his house but I couldnt get out of bed. The grandmother of the people who run the guest house came in to see me - and I renamed her The Mammy! She was like a mother away from home, she came in, hands all over my face to check my temp, went and got me some pills from the chemist etc, she couldnt speak a word of english but just having her there made me feel so much better!
I pretty much stayed in bed until Wednesday when I was feeling much better (although even now I am still not completely 100%)
On Wednesday we got an overnight bus at 9.30pm to the capital of Laos - Vientiane. The bus was an overnighter but not a sleeper bus so we had to sit upright for the entire 8 hour journey, which I was absolutely dreading having been unwell but it was actually ok and I must have dozed off because one minute it was 1am and the next Gemma was waking me up as it was 5.30am and we were there.
It took us a while to find an available hotel room at 6am but we eventually found one and both went to sleep for a couple of hours, got up again at 9 and headed to a french bakery for breakfast, that was the best choc croissant and coffee I've ever had, it was the first thing I've been able to eat properly since before I was ill.
Vientian is amazing, we spent the entire day traipsing round, in and out of all the little handicraft shops and the history museum which looked rubbish from the outside but had some great dinosaur models and war photos inside. After the museum we bought some postcards and sat in a little cafe to fill them out, then walked round the indoor market and stopped at the post office before hiring a tuktuk to take us out to the Budda Park which was AMAZING! Its only briefly mentioned in the Lonely Planet and due to its location (about an hour drive out of town) I think a lot of people give it a miss but its one of the best things I've seen on the entire trip - a big park full of Buddhist and Hindu icons......... I cant really even explain it, I'll put the pictures up soon. It made Gemma and I smile so much, there was one huge Budda lying on its side and we just could not work out how they'd made it, it was as big as a row of houses!
We then drove to Pha That Luang which is the most important monument in Laos in terms of the Buddist religion and Lao sovereinity. It didnt look much to me to be honest - but then nothing could compare to what we'd just seen at the Budda Park!
We walked on to Wat Si Saket which is the oldest temple in Vietiane but we didnt bother going inside as it had some construction work going on and we were knackered. We popped into one of the many restaurants near our hotel for some dinner which was nice. Our hotel is a bit of a joke - we have the smallest room that just about fits a bed, you cannot swing a cat in there! Our bathroom is seperated from us by a saloon style swing door, so Gemma and I have even less secrets now! Ah well. Also on the drive it was nice to finally see someone on a moped with their child wearing a helmet, we've seen so many kids on them without, however as they got closer I noticed the kids crash helmet had 'PIG' written across the front. I thought little girls liked to be called Princesses not Pigs! Cracked me up.
The Laos men seem to be a lot more attractive than the other SE Asian men - am I allowed to say that? However, it is illegal for a local to get it on with a falang (foreigner) unless you are married. To each other. Ahem. So my mother doesnt have to worry about me running off with a Laos man just yet. At least if I do she'll be gaining a son in law!
Anyway thats my news - been too ill to do owt. However we got to Vang Vien this morning which is awesome and we shall be going tubing tomorrow so look out for the next blog to find out how we got on!
Love to you all as usual. Its only 6 weeks today til I am home, I dont know where the time has gone! x
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