Wednesday: Phonsavanh and The Plain of Jars We enjoy a reasonable sleep in cool sufficient to call for the supplied quilt. Drizzle continues, but there is enough light to see what might do as a re-enactment of Laredo, enough so to have me whistling the tune as I walked out on the streets for a [...]
Tuesday: Pak Xieng – (K3,000, 1½ hours) – Vien Thong – (K3,000, 3 hours) – Mouang Viengtong – (K5,000, 10½ hours) – Phonsavanh The day starts with dawn, although the roosters started at four a.m. After yesterday’s error in hoping for a bus that didn’t arrive, we resolve to take the first vehicle headed our [...]
Sunday: Luang Phabang – Muong Ngoi 9 hours for K6,000 There is some indecision this morning. A fellow asserts that the south road route to Phonsavanh is fine, despite the US couple’s report. So one day only to Phonsavanh? But doubts, plus a desire for a river trip prevail so at 8:45 we’re at the [...]
Friday We start the day by trying to find the office for Provincial Passport checks. An English bloke had been ‘helped’ by a local who guided him to the office, and told the officials that he’d arrived two days back, so a U$5 fine, thanks. Despite his directions (rather vague: opposite the port authority building [...]
A Discussion on Malaria Precautions Against Malaria This is a real killer disease. What can you do to prefare yourself? How Not to Get Malaria Sounds like a great idea, but how does it work in practice? So, You’re Going to get Bitten The longer you spend in a malarial area, the more likely it [...]
You have a fever, with chills, sweating, exhaustion, maybe headache and muscular aches and pains… Or maybe not quite. Malaria can be a decisively present disease but it is often ambiguous to start with, and your prophylaxis might be hindering its full expression. Some other disease may be adding its symptoms to confuse you and [...]
Alas, there is no drug that is completely safe and effective either for prevention or for treatment, nor is there a vaccine. The optimum regimen is an attempt to balance the risk of side effects against the risk of disease. You must consider where you are going and when, how you will travel, the types [...]
Just one bite, by one infected mosquito is enough, and despite everything mentioned in previous articles, you could be unlucky. It takes about a week to go from the bite to the disease if nothing intervenes. Conversely, you could employ some ineffective scheme that appeared to work, simply because you were lucky. Or even do [...]
Don’t get Bitten!! The most definite method is to keep away from malarial areas. There are anecdotes about sharing an aeroplane cabin on your entirely non-malarial journey with a passenger who has just come from a malarial area and who has brought some hungry mosquitoes along, so if you believe in that risk, you won’t [...]
