Day 17 - Hit by a Squall

Still not having fully recovered from our food poisoning, we plumped for another day in the sun beside the pool.

As was our usual routine, we laid out our towels, pretended to have sat on them for some while then went to breakfast. We were looking to push our culinary boundaries back to where they were prior to that fateful curry. With that in mind, Jackie started with a large bowl of spicy noodle soup, whilst I ordered an omelette. We finished breakfast with several plates of pancakes and sliced banana drizzled in honey.

After breakfast, I sought out Santi and paid him one million, four hundred and sixty thousand Kip for our 1st class train tickets and taxi to the station. It sounds an awful lot like, but it is in fact just £51.

We returned to our pool beds and soaked up the sun. Unlike yesterday we virtually had the pool to ourselves with just the occasional visitor stopping by for a short while.

At 12.30pm, we adjourned for lunch. We walked over the Old Bridge to Khua Kao cafe. Jackie ordered a beer, whilst I order a passion fruit shake. We got brave and ordered a plate of LPB sausage. The sausage was spicy and delicious and we passed this test with flying colours. We ordered another BeerLao to celebrate.

After lunch we popped to the supermarket for vodka, mixers and probiotic yoghurts, then it was back to the sun beds. Our afternoon was disturbed by a 30 minute squall, which caused havoc.

A pink flowering bougainvillea tree that loomed over us shed its flowers, leaves and twigs down on us to such an extent that I thought that maybe we were now in Tehran. A branch from a bamboo tree also snapped off and stabbed me in the back.

A soon as the squall had passed, the staff came out and swept the debris away around and we resumed sunbathing duties.

At 7pm we went back into town. We planned to return to the restaurant we went to on our first night in Luang Prabang. We were both going to have the Pad Thai that Jackie so enjoyed. After cruising up and down the Mekong promenade we eventually found the restaurant only be told they were closing for the night. Typical.

We dived into a busy restaurant virtually next door. As we were poring over the menu, a European couple tried to get our attention. The man came over and said that they could fully recommend the grilled fish, it was the best they had ever had.

Jackie was persuaded to order the fish on their recommendation, whilst I ordered the Pad Thai. We ordered a BeerLao, but my tastebuds are annoyingly not enjoying the beer. I ordered a banana shake instead.

My Pad Thai arrived followed by a whole rather large grilled fish complete with head and tail, surely intended for 2 persons. I picked at my Pad Thai, whilst Jackie made a sterling job of picking through the skin and bones of the fish to get at the white flesh. Apparently she enjoyed it but there was way too much for one person. The crazy thing is the fish dish cost just £4.50.

We walked back to our hotel for an early night. I am still not fully recovered from Friday’s food poisoning.

Song of the Day - Fish by The Damned.Read more