DAY 21 - 6 OCTOBER 2010 - MINIBUS TO VIENTIANE

Wednesday began with an early start for the journey south to tha capital of Laos, Vientiane. After the nightmare journey from Luang Prabang we decided to opt for the safer option of a minibus and were happy to find that there were more Westerners travelling with us than on the previous journey, by 'more' what I actually mean is that there were more than zero. It's always nice to have some fellow backpackers to share stories with, and share in the fun if things go t*** up, which they often do on Laos roads.

After around four hours of the three hour journey (standard) we arrived in Vientiane and made our way to the backpacker area and set off on our customary room viewings before eventually settling on a guesthouse.

DAY 22 - 7 OCTOBER 2010 - DOING THE LANDMARKS

Vientiane is most famous for being the home to the Pha That Luang monument, a huge temple that, legend has it, was built to house a piece of Buddha's breastbone. We took a tuk-tuk, a difficult sentence after a couple of Beer Lao's, the few km north to the temple. The monument itself is all pointy and angular (bet you'll never hear Kevin McCloud say that on Grand Designs) but it's main USP is the fact that it is entirely gold, a striking site against the bright blue skies.

We then began the walk back Soutg towards the river and guesthouse, stopping along the way at the other famous Vientiane landmark, Patuxai (what, you've never heard of it?! Unbelievable!). Patuxai is a bit of an odd landmark, but with a brilliant story...In 1969, the USA took a break from bombing Northern Laos into the ground to donate a whole load of cement to the country in order for them to build an airport in Vientiane. After the USA 'donated' the cement and the airport was built, they were all like 'Oh, well seeing as we helped build it, you might as well let us use it as a base to bomb the crap out of your next-door neighbours'. Genius.

There wasn't a massive amount in this for the people of Laos, particularly since whilst they were bombing Vietnam, USA continued to rain shells down on Laos too, but they made the best out of a bad situation and used all the leftover cement to build a massive concrete replica of the Arc de Triomphe, obviously. Intended to commemorate the Lao who died in pre-revolutionary wars, the monument was never finished and remains a bleak grey cement colour. It's referred to variously as 'the vertical runway' or 'concrete monster' and is a very odd sight.

With our touristy bits done and standard photo's in the bag, we made our way through a commercial district and visited a very local market, a labyrinth of stalls selling all kinds of crap not unlike Romford's own, and a modern 'Shopping Mall' that contained the usual mix of phone shops, or camera shops, or phone shops, or camera shops (they love phones and cameras out here, and must have about 20 different iPhone replica's all with a slightly wrong version of the Apple logo on the back).

We ended the day with a stroll up to a food market and had dinner of roasted chicken on a stick. A traditional Lao dish that is never going to win any Michelin stars but tastes awesome.

DAY 23 - 8 OCTOBER 2010 - WHEN IT ALL WENT WRONG!

After all the trecking around in the sun the day before we decided to take it easy and found a hotel with an outdoor pool to lounge around all day. Too much sun and not enough water, combined with a couple of bad nights sleep took their toll on Janine and later that evening she had a seizure. This came totally out of the blue, but luckily occurred in bed in our hotel room whilst I was next to her and able to ensure she didnt hurt herself. After a bit (a lot) of panicking, I got her onto a tuk-tuk for the short drive to the local hospital, where they checked her over and sent her home with some anti-convulsants.

Before she had the chance to take the drugs, she had a second seizure. This one came in the same location luckily, but much later in the evening at nearly midnight. With the hotel staff speaking very little English, I left her in the room and sprinted up the street to a local bar owned by Aussies and frequented by Western NGO workers praying that there would be someone there who could help. Luckily it was half-price cocktails night and the place was still full. I was put in touch with the local 24-hour French clinic who advised me to get her back to the hospital and demand that she be admitted, so this is what I did. The word 'hospital' is perhaps a bit misleading. Any hospital where you have to bang on doors to wake up the doctors and nurses, chase cats out of your room before you close the door and use an outdoor squat toilet is really stretching the definition to its limit. At least Janine was on a drip and in a semi-medical facility. I didnt sleep at all that night, scared she would have another seizure, Janine on the other hand, exhausted and drugged up to her eyeballs, slept like a log.

DAY 24-27 - 9-12 OCTOBER 2010 - RECOVERING

After a day of calls back and forth between us, our parents and the insurance company, and another night in Vientiane, we were eventually transferred across the border to Thailand to be admitted to a hospital in Udin Thani, a very nice (by any standard) international private hospital. Janine underwent CT scans, blood tests and EEG's and was diagnosed with epilepsy, and prescribed an anti-epileptic drug aimed at bringing things under control.

So after a nightmare few days, Janine is still recovering in Udon Thani and we await the decision from the doctors and insurance company as to what our next step will be!

DAY 28-30 - 13-15 OCTOBER 2010 - RECOVERING & WAITING

Wednesday was just another day of waiting in Udon Thani hospital for the insurance company to tell us what to do next! They kept telling us we couldn't leave until all results were in, even though the doctor had said we were fine to leave and he would send us the results! So several hours were spent watching Law & Order, napping and eating more American food over the road from the hospital!

Thursday morning we woke up with the doctor giving us the results we expected from the EEG. Epilepsy was confirmed. Then came the dreaded phone call from the insurance company that changed things even more, literally ten minutes after receiving the news that I definitely have epilepsy the insurance company were telling us they weren't paying out and we should go home as the whole insurance policy was no longer valid. Of course at this point a lot of tears were shed and the insurance company had the cheek to ask if I wanted them to book some flights home for us at our expense! A stern 'no' and telling them this would not be the last they hear from us were the last words spoken before I hung up.

One of the most frustrating things was that the insurance company wouldn't let us leave the hospital until all results were through and this ended up being at our own expense. Obviously more upsetting at this stage, was the fact that four weeks into our trip we had to head back to the UK.

Within half an hour of receiving the dreaded call, we were packed up and on our way to the airport. We'd booked a flight from Bangkok to London online with Emirates but were currently in Udon Thani. In Udon Thani you just turn up at the airport and hope they have a seat for you! Luckily we got there early and they did!

So 24 hours after leaving the hospital, and a month to the day after leaving the UK we touched down at London Heathrow on a cold, gloomy, Friday morning to be met by some relieved parents but still feeling completely gutted about abandoning our trip. The rest of the day of course involved a lot of sleeping and consoling ourselves about missing out on Vietnam, the current we had been most excited about in SE Asia.