I am still convalescing, but I have made it to Luang Prabang. I finally made it onto the boat without fainting. I was a bit put out as the tour guide bloke gave this huge spiel about how the boat was awful and everyone should pay an extra 10 pounds to get a bus instead. I was very skeptical as I couldn't remember him mentioning the bus the first time even without the unconsciousness part (I have since learnt he did indeed say the same thing, I was obviously out for longer than I thought). Anyway, the whole point of this was to make as many people opt to pay extra for the bus instead of getting the boat (otherwise they would have had to put on another boat for free as there were too many people), sneaky. I decided to stick with the boat, largely because everybody else seemed to be changing to the bus and I thought at least this way I'd end up with a boat to myself. I did have a friend in an old German guy with a large beard and an even larger belly, who had done the boat trip a couple of years ago and professed it was wonderful and he wasn't going to miss it for the world. After a brief conversation with his wife in German, suddenly it appeared they were actually getting the bus because he felt it would be "more comfortable". I saw these two the other day in Luang Prabang, and apparently the bus journey took twelve hours over potholed roads and dropped them out of town at around midnight.

Anyway, the boat journey was nowhere near as bad as the dude had made out. If I hadn't been ill, I would have quite enjoyed it. They scenery was amazing. But as it was I spent most of the time trying very hard not to be sick. This wasn't helped by the fact both days I had people sitting behind me who used my seat as a footrest/leaning post, and every time they moved my chair wobbled more than it was wobbling from the boat. The seats in question were these very small and narrow hard wooden benches which moved every time you/the person behind you moved, with about four inches of legspace. Not the nicest way to spend eight hours, especially when you're ill. The second day I was sat minding my own business on my own bench just as we set off, and the boat conductor (for want of a better word) comes down the boat and unceremoniously grabs my hand and pulls me to my feet, looking very upset as he points to two rather large Americans sat in the row opposite. Through hand gestures we worked out we were to swap places as apparently the uneven weight distribution was throwing the whole boat askew. To be fair each of them probably weighed at least twice the amount I do but it was rather amusing/embarrassing. The boat guy just seemed incredulous we were so unshipworthy as to set ourselves up in such a manner.

I had made some friends (big guys who would come in useful in carrying my bag) before I got on the boat but they all turned out to be wusses and got the bus, and I was feeling so bad by the time I got on the boat and could only glower at the people kicking my seat so I didn't make any friends on the boat. It didn't help that everyone was already in groups and I was looking really miserable. The first night I got off the boat and was struggling up the bank on the verge of tears as I kept sliding down in the sand and my bag was so heavy, and everyone just stared at me. I would have at least asked if I was ok or given me a hand. So the next night I was really relieved to get off the boat but not looking forward to actually physically getting off and collecting my bag and finding somewhere to stay. When who should be there but Grant and Emily, some friends from my original bus from Chiang Mai, who had helped me when I fainted and had wanted to stay with me in Huang Say, but I'd made them go on the boat. I'd emailed to say I might be leaving for Luang Prabang and they'd come to look out to see if I was there. I don't think I've ever been so glad to see somebody in my entire life. They got my bag for me, took me round to a guesthouse they'd found for me and then took me out for dinner. They were really sweet but waved my thanks aside, saying they were just glad I was alive and to be able to appease their guilt at leaving me on my own! Unfortunately they left the next morning for Vang Vieng, so since then I've been on my own, mainly sitting around reading as I'm still too weak to do too much walking around. I am feeling a bit better today though. And Steph and Gen, my friends from Vietnam, are arriving today from Burma which I am very excited about, so hopefully I can hook up with them and we can travel round Laos together. I haven't told them this yet, but I'm sure they'll be cool with it :)

Anyway, feeling rubbish aside, Luang Prabang is a lovely place and I suppose a really good place to be ill in. It's very touristy, but not in the sense where you get hassled. The town is tiny so you can walk everywhere. It's really pretty; there are two rivers, loads of old French buildings as it's an old colonial town and millions of temples. It's very quiet, there is hardly any traffic. And everyone is super-friendly, at first I thought they were just trying to get me to go in their tuktuk/boat/restaurant but they actually just want to say hello. Plus, they don't say hello here, they say "sabaai dee" which is Lao for hello, I like that as everywhere else they just speak English all the time. Obviously though, my Lao is limited, so the rest of the conversation is in English, which is of a really high level here. I kind of expected Laos to be a lot more "developing" than it is.

Well, I really haven't been doing anything exciting, other than reading the sequel to Trainspotting, which is really very good, so that's about it for now. I'll update when I hopefully have done something more interesting!