A Toilet Break

Just south of Luang Prabang we stopped at one of the few Lao roadside attractions, a waterfall. It was a well developed tourist site, sponsored by the many backpackers attracted to the region. At the entrance a fee for parking had to be paid. There, we still thought I would be an inexpensive sidetrip. From the parking lot, a way led down to the river. It turned out, the only way to get to the falls was to rent a longboat. Some more bills changed ownership. Arno and I had a whole boat to ourselves and enjoyed the ride, the quiet riverbanks passing slowly. Finally, at the falls itself, the entrance fee was due, the most expensive of all.

The falls were a disappointment, not only because they had little water, but also because they were not very scenic. The river was running through the forrest dropping over a number of staged basins, but I had rather the impression of water coming from a large rainfall than from a river. Some tourists were swimming in a larger one of the basins while others sat by a snack bar on a concrete terasse which distorted the whole impression of the falls and let it appear like a man made swimming pool rather than a natural environment.

We walked up the hill next to the falls following a sign pointing to a cave. It was a steep walk and I began to sweat just when we reached it. It was small and I had to duck to enter it. Once more, Arno's mobile phone served as our flash light. The cave didn't go into the mountain very far and was very narrow in most places. I climbed through it soon to come to a dead end.

We followed the cave track further uphill and then turned towards the falls again. It took us to the upper falls, some hundred meters upriver. They were not any more scenic. In the river itself, some workers were installing a big ugly blue plastic pipe leading towards all the facilities that had been built around the lower falls. We made our way back to the longboat. We were ready to leave.

The road leading south wasn't too bad, but it was far from good. Again, it was winding around the mountains like a snake hangs itself around a tree branch and everything was to be expected at any moment, a car from the front cutting your lane, a bus blocking the whole road, children running into the street, or sometime lifestock, and, always a good one, the next pothole or missing part of the road. We had taken our time in the morning and visiting the waterfall had cost yet another two hours or so. Therefore, it was already getting dark when we reached the intersection of route no. 7. It was still more than 100 kilometers to go with unknown road conditions, so we decided to stay for the night, especially as I still didn't feel so great.

We had a look at the three small guest houses available and found the all to be more or less identical. They all had small rooms, barely big enough for the two beds they contained. Lacking the space for anything else, that's all they contained. Down the hall was two simple bathrooms, with a Asian toilet and a large water container in each.

We didn't bother going to eat, neither of us felt like it. My stomach was grumbling and with every minute I felt worse. I had just put myself on the bed for some rest when it started. I was running for the bathroom to unload to the porcellain what had been grumbling all day. I sat ducking over the toilet for about half an hour before being able to return to the room safely and totally exhausted. But that wasn't for long. Minutes later and I was up for the bathroom again and continued forth and back for the next couple of hours. I was wrecked, unable to keep on ducking over the toilet and unable to stay lain down on the bed safely and far away from being able to sleep despite my exhaustion. Still, the best was yet to come.

I felt more and more sick, next to the grumbling and just before I fell asleep it hit me. I was running for the bathroom again, both hands holding my mouth shut. I made it, but this time I emptied my stomach. It instantly made me feel better and another session of ducking later I was able to give in to exhaustion and sleep.

It was my phone that woke me after hours of healthy sleep. I had set it to 6 a.m. the evening of the wedding as Arno and I had planned to watch the monks progression through town in the morning. We hadn't been able to get up, but I had also forgotten to delete the alarm. I used the opportunity for another bathroom run and fell asleep again right after to wake at 10 a.m. again, feeling much better and almost recovered.

We felt like skipping breakfast and hit the road right after leaving the room. We also had skipped showers and basic hygiene, so a few kilometers out of town we at least made up for the latter. The road was good indeed, but winding around the moutains, up and down, to make for a slow drive. Actually, it was a beautyful scenery around us, but it had been the same for most of the trip and we'd grewn a bit tired of it and would have rather preferred some easy going.

Our wish was granted. The second half of the road went through lower country. The curves where less sharp and long straight bits of road connected them. It was an easy drive all the way into Phonsavan where we checked into a cosy room. Here we had our hot shower and a western toilet, just in case. After we had late lunch in town, I went back to bed, while Arno was wandering around town. We had thought about doing the Plain of Jars late afternoon, but I couldn't get myself back out of bed and spent the evening sleeping and watching HBO.