Sickness in Paradise
Mung Ngoi, 24th April 2002
I woke up this morning feeling quite ill, the first time since I
started my travels. I think it was the dodgy melon I ate last night.
Melons are notorious for harbouring bacteria, but it looked so fresh
and juicy! Nonetheless, seeing as this is going to be my last day in
Mung Ngoi I decided to join the others on a short trek to visit the
famous, nearby caves.
I tried to force myself to eat a plain baguette for breakfast, and
barely succeeded. I then sensibly downed as much water as I could
before meeting up with the others.
The walk started by passing through a really `rural' school where
the only buildings were a collection of wooden huts with thatched
roofs gathered in a field. We then progressed along a dusty path
through some forested land. No noise of traffic, no pollution, no
civilisation. Just nature, clean air, and the quiet tread of our
sandals. After about 40 minutes of walking through the relaxing
scenery, with the sun beating down relentlessly upon us, we reached
the caves.
We spent the next couple of hours exploring the insides of the huge,
quiet, grey caves. After wading through some icy cold water in the
entrance section, we started a short climb up into darkness. Armed
with torches we wound through narrow passages and cavernous
chambers. The formations were really fascinating and there was a
real sense of isolation inside, especially when we switched the
torches off and plunged into complete darkness. The other guys
explored a bit more, while I perched on a rock by a narrow crevice,
the bottom of which was far from sight. My stomach was annoying me a
bit more, so I didn't push on any farther.
After about an hour we got ready to move on to see the next set of
caves and the village a bit farther on. However, as my stomach pains
had got worse, I decided I wasn't up for doing the next leg of the
journey, so I left the others to continue the walk and I returned to
my guesthouse.
I tried to get some sleep but a guy was noisily building a new
bungalow right next to mine, using a big hammer & noisy machete, so
I gave up. I spent the rest of the afternoon lying in a hammock,
looking over the river, reading & listening to music. It was
probably a good job that I didn't continue the walk because they
went on for another 4 hours, in the heat with no food or water. Not
a good idea if you're ill.
I joined the others for dinner in the evening, managing to eat a
baguette with peanut butter & bananas (it's weird what you fancy
when you're ill!). The peanut butter was fantastic, made themselves
from fresh peanuts!
After the meal, I headed back to my guesthouse to get some rest,
hoping to recover by tomorrow. We're leaving to travel back to Luang
Prabang tomorrow and the journey starts at a ridiculous 7am...
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