Day 16 - Released From House Arrest

Unbelievably I didn’t wake up until 7.10am, which meant I had slept for 11 hours solidly. Apparently Jackie woke up a couple of times, but slept for the majority of those 11 hours.

After some rough calculations, I have estimated that we have both slept on and off for close on 24 hours over the last 36 hours that we were bed ridden.

The good news is that we both feel much better and were keen to get down to breakfast. After Jackie had laid towels out on the best sun beds, we tested our stomachs with a normal coffee and an espresso. After passing the first test, we both tried to eat some bread and toast, but after not much more than a few mouthfuls we felt full, so abandoned breakfast early.

We spent the morning by the pool on our sun beds watching the other hotel guests fighting (not literally) over the too few sun beds and pool towels.

We retired to the bar for a lunchtime beer. We were persuaded by the barman to try the local Luang Prabang beer, but we found it too hoppy. We shared a good old fashioned BeerLao, but even that wasn’t going down too well.

During this lunch break, I arranged for the receptionist, Santi, to book us two train tickets back to Vientiane on Saturday 14th March. This was the first day these tickets were on sale, but our preferred train time was already booked. We had to book an earlier train and even then only 1st class seats were available, costing us $37US dollars instead of $24 in 2nd class. Jackie was more than happy with that.

The afternoon was much the same as the morning with more and more people unsuccessfully seeking a sun bed. We stayed out to 5pm, before returning to the room, whereupon I started to feel a little bit queasy again.

We caught the 7pm shuttle bus into town and found an attractive looking bar called Tangor. We sat on a seat on the pavement and ordered drinks. Jackie went for a strong whisky based cocktail, whilst I ordered a plain old mango juice to settle the stomach.

We had decided on non spicy Italian cuisine for our dinner and found 3 restaurants in the vicinity. My stomach was still whirring, so we diverted to a pharmacy and picked up a packet of Kremil-s tablets. Within minutes my stomach felt settled.

We searched out the 3 Italian restaurants and settled on the 3rd called Popolo Restaurant. It was in a delightful setting and we were drawn in without even looking at the menu. Jackie was keen to eat some pasta and immediately her attention was drawn to the pappardelle pasta with truffle cream. It cost 420,000 Kip (£13), nearly twice as much as anything else on the menu, but it sounded delicious as it also contained bacon, mushrooms, garlic and mozzarella. We also ordered a garlic bread, one beer and a bottle of water for me.

The drinks arrived followed by the garlic bread. We ate a segment each before feeling full yet again, so we stopped before ruining our expensive pasta. When the pasta arrived it was a picture, a gorgeous looking pile of wide pasta dripping in truffle cream and heavy on the bacon and mushrooms topped with a ball of buffalo mozzarella. I went to photograph this vision of loveliness, but Jackie had beaten me to it. She had plunged a knife and fork into the mozzarella ball and was dicing it up and mixing into the pasta. The end result was it looked like a plate of baby food.

Jackie ate 2 maybe 3 mouthfuls of pasta before she couldn’t eat any more. I wasn’t surprised, Jackie doesn’t even really like truffle and this pasta dish is described as a ‘rich, luxurious, indulgent side or main course for a special occasion’. Not an ideal meal after our stomach woes.

I bravely ploughed on trying to eat as much as possible of the super rich pasta and heavy on the garlic bread. I needed a 2nd bottle of water to wash it down and I had to help Jackie with her beer which she was now struggling with. It was such a shame that the meal was ruined, but we think we will return on the final night for a pizza.

We walked back to the Old Post Office and caught the 9.30pm back to the hotel. Jackie was by now feeling sick so she fell asleep whilst I watched the T20 World Cup Final.

Song of the Day - I’m Free by The Who.Read more