I don't know if it was something I ate or taking my malaria meds improperly, but I spent a night feeling very ill.

I felt better sitting up but that wasn't very condusive to sleeping and I was very tired and therefore really uncomfortable. I finally wretched at around 5 AM which woke a dog. He started growling and barking and woke his friends and three of them came barreling towards me. I was reliefed when they started jumping around and wagging their tails.

It is times like these that I am very grateful to have a traveling companion. There is really nothing he can do for me but be nice and pick up my slack. But, it is just nice to know that things will still get down if I don't do them. It is also nice to know that if my sickness had actually been the precursor to some terrible illness (it's not; I feel fine), there is someone around to help me make sure I receive proper care.

We were in a town called Nong Kiew (sp?) which is about three hours northeast of Luang Pruabang. There is not much to do here but it is a beautiful setting. We're stayed in a $2 night thatch hut overlooking a river (which I also don't know the name of) and the surrounding limestone mountains.

It is in the guide book and there were other tourists, but tourism has not fully developed and I feel like we got an authentic look at village life in Laos. Unlike the only other developing country to which I have been, Bolivia, people in Laos seem happy and content living basic subsistence lives.

In Non Kiew, they live in decent sized two room sturdy, well constructed thatch huts on stilts, some have concrete bottoms for the first floor. The homes in Luang Prabang were also very reasonable. Everywhere you go people are laughing, singing and smiling. It is very nice.