Dear Reader.Oh how we have neglected thee!What must you think of us leaving you in the dark as to our movements and activities over the last 3 weeks!The worry that must have stricken you makes us blush with shame.Well there are many very good reasons for such silence and if you pull up a chair and a hot drink we shall begin to tell you what has waylaid our continuing bloggings!We left you as we were fleet footing it out of the old jewel of the empire and heading east to Thailand.We arrived to many sighs of wonderment into Bangkok's new(ish) international airport. Quite a shock to the system! There were clean surfaces! Modern fittings! Things that worked!!!! Well reader, I know not if any of you have traveled across Northern India? Particularly out of Kolkata airport?If you have you would surely know the feeling of excitement at a good old clean surface, or a machine or system that works 100%!!Bangkok was amazing!Skytrains, metros, Large shopping centres, food that wasn't curried!Don't get me wrong dear reader. We had not lost the initial love, joy and respect that had made us fall for the mad old world that was India! But Bangkok made us realise how ready for a change we were after a month.So we had arrived in Thailand, checked into our hotel (after very little sleep - a 2am flight landing in Bangkok at 5am -we were tired!), and dashed out to see this exciting city! My my! we trawled trough some majestic temple like shopping centres (we needed new flip flops and just couldn't find the right ones ANYWHERE!!!), and ate a simple noodle meal in one of the poshist food courts on earth. Feeling beaten by tiredness but excited non the less, we headed back to get some sleep and plan our attack on the rest of Bangkok!What happened next reader is too ironic for words! A shocking woeful situation that left us your friendly narrators quite dumbfounded! After traveling across the most notorious tummy trouble land known to man, completely unscathed, without so much as a blip or a whiff of a watery movement! We were dealt a cruel blow by the nasty, evil, tummy bug! Yes Delhi Belly had caught up with us in Bangkok! And caught up with us with great vengeance and furious anger indeed! We will refrain from blow for blow descriptions! However, we can tell you that there were long nights of broken sleep (10-11 was the record dear reader!), and both of your poorly journeyers were never more than a dash away from a convenience!! This situation continued for no less than 5 days! Yes 5 DAYS dear friends! we seeked the guidance of medical professionals, in the shape of over the counter anti biotics (you got to love South East Asia's attitude to medicine!). However, day 5 was too much, and after little improvements, your very weary and none too happy writers made the longest journey they had traveled till this point! A 15 minute walk to an emergency clinic! We were swiftly informed that it was no bacterial 'travelers tummy'! No dear friends, it was full blown food poisoning! Obvious to us now, revelatory at the time! The drugs! Oh sweet Jesus the drugs! We were injected and given a cup full of marvelous pills - No questions asked of course(!!!!), we had a little knap and were sent home to our, now, very familiar apartment (if ever you want to know about the discovery lodge in Bangkok's Raja resort, we can describe in reasonably minute detail ever crack and tile, every visiting gecko, and our 2 very friendly visiting black cats! The very next day (Imodium! OF COURSE! Sweet Sweet Imodium). The 2 invigorated (if remarkably weakened! 16 pounds lost between the 2 frail but enlivened bodies!) travelers leapt into a frenzy of activity! A visit to the Royal Palace along the mighty Chao Phraya River by long boat, and a trip to the bus station to move onwards (we felt a change was in order and fear not reader our little trip has us due to visit the mighty city of Bangkok twice more!). The VIP (we needed pampering) bus ticket was paid for and the border town of Nong Khai was our destination, as our journey was to take us away from Thailand into the unknown (to us) of Laos!When the ticket had said VIP, your two traveling tired types had taken this term with a pinch of the old table salt! VIP was sincerely read as 'no chickens!'. Well not for the first time your prejudge mental bloggers were proved utterly wrong! For less than ten English pounds each, we had acquired 2 seats (reclining, with a bagful of leg room, a vibrating massage setting, and leather!), with dinner (a lovely fried rice and accompanying water), with blanket pillows and more air conditioning than was really necessary or comfortable from Bangkok to the Laos Border town Nong Khai, over 7 hours high speed drive away! Well we felt so relieved and relaxed that we slept through the karaoke DVD blaring at us (there's always a catch in VIP!). We slept a little too well if truth be told dear friends! We were awoken by a stern but cheery face inquiring; "Nong Khai??? Nong Khai!!!!" Your bleary eyed Tripsters fell out of the cold bus into the not too warm and darker than expected bus station of Nong Khai in a bit of a haze! Bags unloaded. Bus pulling away."What is the time?""4""Oh!!"Yes dear reader, your faithful but ill time observing ticket purchasers had made a rather nasty Bo Bo! The time we left Bangkok was very convenient, we had been rather short sighted, and under questioning when buying the tickets and, yes we really had turned up at a strange bus station, in the middle-of-nowhere-Thailand at the ungodly hour of 4am! To make matters worse, they had not prebooked any accommodation, so not a soul was waiting for them!Dear dear, friends!We are learning many lessons! Many lessons indeed!What we will say on this event is; No. Guest Houses in Nong Khai are not open before 8am. Also, thank heavens that sleepy old Nong Khai has one 24 hour bar, and by Jove thank the hills that they brew STRONG coffee (not exactly what a recovering tummy troubled traveler needs, but again Oh! Imodium, sweet sweet Imodium!).Nong Khai was voted (somewhere) as the 9th greatest place to live on earth! We don't suspect too many people have acted on this, but there were a few 'expats' who were keeping the various flags flying and trying to turn a very quiet sleepy town on the banks of the mighty Mekong into a little Benedorm, but we felt their efforts were thoroughly undermined by the lovely lovely locals' complete lack of concern for anything but relaxing and fun (two traits that seemed to annoy most 'sahibs' staying in this town, but not your two recovering writers! Tis a lovely place. It's quite in the middle of nowhere, but all the better for it. We found a little bar that served Malibu which for one of us was something that required little squeals of joy. Sat on a barge with a drink in ones hand and the mighty Mekong drifting past, thoughts of recovery really were not such a far off dream anymore!The rest of our time here was spent in a rather relaxing way, hammocks, bike rides, Buddha statues in a big park, and Malibu sweet sweet (expensive but sweet!!) Malibu, and large bottles of sweet sweet (and cheep as chips - 80 pence a bottle - naughty!) Singha. In fact dear reader! We questioned whether or not we should move on at all! But the draw of Laos, was strong (twas visible just the other side of the Mekong, we could watch the people of Laos going about their business, and they looked even more horizontal then their Thai riverbank neighbors!). So we moved onwards into Laos.This is where we shall leave you for now dear friends. We have more tales to recount, and we are currently well ahead of our tale. But we need time to summaries the experiences of the country of just 6 million inhabitants called Laos, and the call of the Halida beer is currently strong for your ever loyal narrators (ohh! A little clue as to our current location? Perhaps for the well traveled, or diligent researching reader anyway!).Thank you for your words of wisdom, and communications of love. They are all read with much excitement and flapping of arms!!!More when there is more dear readers.JnJ