Its somewhat fitting that as my first month abroad comes to a close, an "era" of my journey also does. I have been traveling the past two weeks with fellow banana pancake journeyers, but today I begin the next leg of my journey by myself. With that, I bid farewell and hope to meet again to Greg, Carly, Chris, Meesha and Katie from the UK, Manon from the Netherlands and Roman from journey. I'm sure in time our travels will again bring some of us together.
The slow boat journey from Huay Xai brought me to the thriving town of Luang Prabang. With a sprawling night market, multiple waterfalls, bowling alley, caves and rivers, there was plenty to do here. On the second day, SIXTEEN of us travelers rented two tuk-tuks and went out to Muang Si waterfall. With majestic swimming areas and hills to trek, the was the place to be during the beautiful Laos day. With such a big group, it is was to lose people and split up. Lara, Roman and I climbed to the top of the waterfall, while the others seemed to get lost in the jungle. After our hour trek up and down we were rewarded with a beautiful swimming pool made naturally by the waterfall, which included a splendid rope swing. I wish I could have gone back, I'll just have to again in the future. That night we also made it out to the bowling alley, which as always, was good fun. We also went to the local buffet BBQ, where we were able to pick out and cook our own Laos meal, mine was just edible, good experience nonetheless.
After a lazy day spent recuperating we made our way down to Vang Vieng to spend a couple days along the river tubing. Famous for drunken deaths and destruction, the tubing along the Ham Son river was as safe as you decided to make it. With bars lining the Riverside with people throwing you ropes to pull you in for a drink, I can see how so many people lose their lives to the river... we played it smart and made it in safe in sound, just in time to get our deposits on then tubes back.
I woke up the next day, Wednesday, November 6, with inflammation surrounding a cut in my finger. As well, my wrist and arm were swollen and itching like crazy. After taking a couple of antihystamines, I waited for about an hour to see if it would improve, it got worse and spread. I had heard horror stories about infections on the river, so I went to the local hospital and within 2 minutes of arriving at the ER, I received a prescription for antibiotics to treat infection. Luckily I wasn't stubborn and within an hour of taking the antibiotics I saw a great amount of improvement. The visit and medicine only cost $15, a small price to pay for my good health.
In an hour I will depart Vang Vieng for Siem Reap, Cambodia. I'm looking forward to the monster of all temples that is Angkor Wat. The excitement will power me through this 40 hour bus journey.
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