When you embark on a trip such as this you often expect some funny tummy bugs to befall you, you just hope the infection you get is minor and clears up quickly. We’d taken all the precautions, had our acidophilus dust to lower our risk and been virtually hygiene-nazi-esque in dolling out the hand cleaner and trying to keep the kids from doing anything that might put them at risk. Admittedly, sometimes our instructions have been misunderstood or forgotten as quickly as they’ve been said and absolute indiscretions have been taken – Cole being the worst of the perpetrators. Unbelievably he’s the only one who has avoided much tummy rumblings (knock on wood). Aidan has fallen in a veritable heap but managed to stagger around with us to the Luang Prabang Museum on our last morning in Laos. The museum is housed in the former King’s residence and displays a number of artefacts from the royal era as well as the Prabang solid gold Buddha – from which Luang Prabang has derived its name. We managed to get Piper to try walking in the morning and her confidence has increased immeasurably – she’s a hard girl to keep down – so now we’ll be likely back to chasing her rather than pushing or carrying her along. We decided to take some free time after the museum and hung out along the Mekong at a café until we were meant to meet up with ‘Do’ again for our trip to the airport. Jen and I took turns with either Piper or Cole checking out the tourist/souvenir shops but nothing appealed all that much – I think the shopping urge has been purged from us almost entirely. Aidan languished in the heat taking up 3 chairs to lie down and catch some shut eye. We managed to get to the airport and on the plane without much ado and only ran into a hitch when filling out the entry declaration papers and deciding whether to tick the box on Aidan’s form indicating whether or not he had symptoms of nausea or diarrhea – he didn’t currently ie) on the flight – and he did seem to be improving so we indicated ‘No’ on the form and covertly encouraged him to not announce his malaise as we were trying to get through customs. All fared well and we managed our way through the airport to find Quyen (Quin) our next guide for Hanoi and Ha Long Bay. The temperature was Aussie-Hot which Quyen liked to describe as ‘excellent’ hot – another Vietnamesism perhaps and sat at about 38 to 40 degrees with 75% or higher humidity – near stifling. The drive took us past massive factories of companies like Canon or Panasonic – obviously taking advantage of the people resource and cheap labour. On entry to the city lies a massive archway not dissimilar to the Arch de Triomphe in France. The streets seemed to be gradually getting narrower and narrower, busier and busier the deeper we travelled into the city. We eventually arrived at our hotel – the Maison D’Hanoi and checked in without ado. Aidan was nearly crawling by this stage and we brought him upstairs, drugged him up with Ibuprofen and put him to bed. Having been without TV for a couple of days – Cole and Piper became immediately glued to Monsters Inc. which was playing on Disney and were undetachable until it was over and dinnertime had arrived. Whilst Jen ventured out with Cole and Piper for a bite to eat, Aidan and I made the best of our little pad and ordered in. He seemed to perk up over some spaghetti bolognaise but it didn’t last long – soon he was shivering again and making visits to what the Vietnamese call the ‘Happy Place’ – the WC or toilet. With any luck, the boy will turn the corner soon and be back on track for the rest of the trip.
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