And it rained all night. And it rained in the morning. A bit of a shocker with 2 months of dry season to go.

A wet holiday day - it's been a while. We, and every other tourist in town, wander from café to Wat, and back again.

At the top of a big hill we discover what happens to the little birds: they are released by tourists and devotees at $2.5 a pop. Ul stalks people letting them go and spends the rest of the morning alternating between telling me how happy they are when released with big, you'd-better-not-try-to-deny-it eyes, and being very upset about the ones still in cages.

We search for a scale. My temperature now behaving, control can focus on weight again. It is like being a prize pig. After an hour, a scale is located - genially offered outside a closed clinic looking like someone's house. We sit down for lunch in a café and spot the only other scale in Luang Prabang under the till. . .