I'd been pretty tired after spending three days trekking (trekking will be its own post soon), but by the time I got to Luang Prabang it was apparent that I was sick. Good thing we were spending a day in Luang Prabang before marching onwards.
Meh, it's not so bad. I'll push through it. Let's book those boat tickets for tomorrow after a quick nap.
With the tickets booked I started to feel worse. In an ibuprofen-induced fit of energy, I went to the night market and discovered an alley full of cheap street food. It was glorious. Little dumplings and a weird sweet coconut milk with bananas and bubbles in it for dessert. When I returned to the hostel I had fallen behind on my Advil. So I curled up in bed and spent the evening alternating between aches, sweats, and chills while watching YouTube clips and reading about the symptoms of Dengue Fever (basically all the same symptoms of a normal flu). Another victory for WebMD. Oh so reassuring.
The next morning I dragged myself and my massive pack down to start my boat trip. The boat ride was supposed to be about eight or nine hours. And I was so achey that sitting hurt. Luckily, the boat had booth-style seating and Cheyenne was kind enough to let my curl up and sleep on 2/3 of the seat we were sharing. Partway through the ride, I scoped out a spot where I could lie down. I grabbed it and slept the rest of the ride.
When we arrived at our overnight in Pak Beng, I was feeling somewhat human. I ordered a noodle soup at dinner but didn't have the appetite to eat more than half of it. The waiter seemed concerned I didn't like it so I told him it was because my stomach was sick even though the soup was good. He responded with "Noodle soup is much better eaten in the morning. It's more delicious that way." Thank you sir.
The second day on the boat was so much more enjoyable because I felt better. I started chatting with a lady from Vancouver, BC and her husband. I soon noticed another girl holding a small Oregon Duck stuffed animal. (I talked to her in spite of it.) It surprises me how many people from the northwest of North America I meet and click with quite quickly. It seems like it produces some of the best people (some, not all. Don't worry.) We passed the afternoon playing cards in a circle on the floor. In everyone's way. The amazing thing was that other tourists would just step over our game like we would expect, but Lao people wouldn't step over anything or any of us. They would politely wait for one of us to notice and move out of the way. Then they would walk through apologizing. Apologizing to the people sitting on the floor in the middle of the walkway to the back of the boat. Such a different reaction.
After we landed in Huay Xi just as the border to Thailand was closing so we stayed and had a big group dinner with all the new friends we made on the boat. The next morning we slept in a bit and then headed over the river to Thailand and took a local bus to Chiang Rai.
