Make it stop!

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Bus trip to Louang Prabang took over 6 hours and all of it was on twisty, curvy roads through amazing scenery. I would have liked more of the scenery without any of the curvy road bits. I nearly tossed my cookies before our second stop. I was sweaty, shaky, and certain my nauseous stomach was going to be ugly, soon. At the stop, I searched my bag until I found my personal drug of choice: Meclizine (used to stop vertigo). I took that, shared an interesting half tuna and green salad sandwich (on the requisite baguette) with Barbara, and drank a bit of water.

This bus stop intro’d me to Asian toilets. To wit, we’ve had a standard porcelain seat to do our business. But, this, this was different, very similar to public toilets encountered in Italy. The four cement walls and floor are super clean, with a porcelain potty in the floor, and a reservoir of water… used for flushing. You’re meant to step on either side of the floor potty and squat to pee… or poo. Once done, hope you had the foresight to bring some tissue with you, or you drip dry, then you scoop the pail in the water reservoir, raise it over the potty, and pour the water so that it pushes the toilet water down and acts as a flush. Rinse your hands in the reservoir and you’re out the door.

Once we finally arrived to Louang Prabang, and I thanked Buddha for making it stop, we found an okay guesthouse on the Mekong. We got the only en suite room that didn’t smell like must.

Remembering that I hadn’t taken my malaria pill at lunch, I took one before heading out for some dinner. Within ten minutes I began to feel hot, nauseous, and sweaty, but not humidity sweaty… I’m not feeling well, gonna-be-sick-real-soon sweaty. Suddenly remembering that you’re not supposed to take the malaria pill on an empty stomach, I made a beeline for some food. Something that’s not been a problem to date is that Lao table service in restaurants is slower than molasses in the winter time! Going down hill fast and trying my best to get a baguette to the table stat made me a very unpleasant tourist. Once I got a coke and the baguette shoved down my throat, it was almost instantaneous that I began to feel better. By the time they brought me my mushroom soup, I was pleasant again, and very apologetic for my baguette behavior.

All in all, this was a horrible day. We were in bed, asleep by 7pm!

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