I arrived at the airport and met a woman who worked at a computer shop and we talked tech stuff and sat next to each other on the plane. It was only an hour late taking off, so we were doing pretty well. When we arrived in Vientiane, she gave me a ride into town and I found a dismal guesthouse. Extremely loud with screen-covered holes along the tops of the walls, so there was no quiet to be had. I went out to eat at the restaurant I had enjoyed the first time in Vientiane and went to bed early and had a night of strange, strange dreams. I was woken up early by the TV in the lobby and struggled out of bed to ask them to turn it down and it was then that I knew that last night’s food was wreaking havoc in a big way.

If I was going to be ill, might as well do it in a decent place so I went to the Mixay guesthouse. By the afternoon, I was quite sick and very weak. I was in the lobby, not able to sit up very much and the staff gave me medicines and later brought food to the room. Very cool for the TLC they gave.

That day and night was awful and the next day, while better, was still not very nice. I could sit up comfortably but spent most of the day in the room. My visa was expiring and had to be renewed so I took a tuk-tuk to the police station. While there, my body rebelled and I went running outside. I threw up outside the station…well, mostly outside. I looked at the policeman with a resigned contrition and he looked back at me with a look of simple resignation. One of the officers said, “Lao-Lao” (rice whiskey) and a murmur of agreement passed through them.

I went to the post office and made sure to get some nice stamps to use for mailing to friends collected stamps. A woman who was there collected stamps and gave me a number of stamps and gave me her address and asked if I could send her some stamps some day. I agreed and sent her some when I returned home a year and a half later. Many years after that, I had some stamps accumulated and wrote to the address asking if she was still interested. She wrote me an email that said she still collected them but said she was no longer and Laos and now lived in the U.S. She gave me her address and she was only about 20 km. away from where I was living. So, we made arrangements to meet for coffee and I brought her a bag of stamps. Small world, eh?

I was starting to feel better but still didn’t want to leave to give myself some time to recover and to make sure I was really over that stomach bug. I went to the Cambodian embassy for a visa as it was my next destination, but my friend Marc, a long term traveler himself, wrote an email saying that there was no way Cambodia should be the next destination. He strongly suggested Thailand. “The roads are better, guesthouses and food is better. It’s more organized. The last thing you need now is Cambodia. You’re tired and need a break. Go to Thailand and recharge and then you’ll be ready for Cambodia.” It was some of the best advice I’ve received on the trip. So, instead of going to Cambodia next, Thailand was the destination. Originally southern Laos was in the cards and crossing into Cambodia via its northern border but hey, things change sometimes.

I had a day or two before leaving and I spent some time around the city, although not going back to the restaurant, regardless of how good the previous meals were. I had an interesting conversation with one man. He said, “To most tourists this seems to be the most relaxed country in the world. But it’s not really like that. The government is not nearly as gentle as most people think and we all have to keep from getting noticed by them.” We talked a little further on this and for some reason found it very believable. It reminded me that there are lots of things that, as a tourist, you probably won’t pick up on.

One morning I was feeling strong and took a bus to the Friendship Bridge and crossed over into Thailand.

Epilogue:

While I didn’t have the best time in Laos it certainly wasn’t all bad. Most of the negative stuff was on me dealing with being tired of travel. There were many good times and the country was certainly a stunningly beautiful place. I would become fonder of the people as time went on as there was a certain calmness to them and they weren’t always in your face pestering you and being aggressive for money. In Vientiane, a tuk-tuk driver would be nodding off and see you coming down the street. He would calmly say, “Tuk-tuk?” You could smile and say no and he would go back to nodding off. Turns out, a lot of travelers appreciated that and I think there is something in their societal DNA that makes it pleasant for the outsider and in their day to day interactions with each other.

So while I had some issues while there, next time I’m in SE Asia, I’ll go to Laos and not pass up the South this time.