Loving Laos.

Well after 2 brutal 6-7 hour boat rides later, we have arrived in beautiful Laos. Well actually only the first boat ride was brutal. We were stuck on a tiny boat with hard seats, full of awful Western toursits. It was terrible, all the Lao people who got on before us had to sit at the back with our luggage.
These irritating old tourists kept snapping pictures of the locals like they were freaks. Oh but here comes the best part. Eventually the back of the boat got too full and the Lao people had to sit among us. God forbid! Me and Kalyna were the only ones sharing a seat but everyone else had their own. This family walked on with a couple of children and these old ladies just kept their feet on thier seat and some people even put thier bags on their chairs so no one could sit beside them. It made me sad because I'm a part of this and also because the Lao have been nothing but kind to us (tourists), despite our behaviour.....

We spent the night in Pakbeng and being feverish and grouchy, we made it to the boat last this morning. Everyone was giving us dirty looks and wouldn't move to let us pass by. So we ended up having to sit in the luggage compartment with this adorable little Lao girl and a guy and his pet monkey. The boat ride was actually fun. I slept comfortably and people even made Kalyna papaya salad! It was really nice, despite the rain holding us back and the boat ride being almost 7 hours. Still the scenery was amazing. All you see for miles is trees and occasionally some children playing in the Mekong. People here are so laid back and friendly, I never want to leave!

Still, we both feel sick. Kalya got better this morning, but I still feel pretty bad. I just went to the pharmacy. It turns out that I have a really bad ear infection. Healthcare here is pretty terrible and awfully expensive. My antibiotics cost me about $26US, while it cost me that much to get 6 types of antibiotics, see nurses and a doctor and have blood tests in a hospital in Thailand. Its pretty expensive for me, I can't even imagine what people here have to do.
Oh and by the way my pills are made by GlaxoSmithKliene... A hint to someone working at the horrible pharmaceutical giant, which people CAN'T afford!

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