...keeping ye olde blogge up to date with my adventures in laos. actually, i've already moved on to cambodia, but before i explain the situation here, i better dig back into what's happened in the past 10 days. wow, time flies when everything around you is covered in them.
first off, getting to laos from southern thailand took over 30 hours, which, as far as i'm concerned, is a horrible way to spend more than a day's time. while traveling at home involves getting in the craft of your choice and going from point a to point b, moving around in asia ain't quite so easy. in my case, it involved boats, shuttle vans, planes, trains, and (sigh) tuk-tuks, aka crappy little motorcycle/pickup hybrids that serve as taxis, yet pollute more and are prone to tipping. in addition to using all these various methods of transportation, i was also jolted by the roughest non-fatal plane landing in history, the shakiest non-track-jumping train ride in history, and of course, a 6 hour lull between them in which to gather my bearings. thankfully, six hours also gave me just enough time to reap the results of asking 4 of bangkok's most geographically-challenged residents how to get from the airport to the train station, which was a whopping 1 km away. all 4 people, though smiling and apparently trying their hardest, managed to give me completely different directions. naturally, the only option was to ask a 5th person. her advice was strikingly similar to one of the other people's, so using the law of averages, i chose a path that eventually got me to the appropriate station. as a side note, people in thailand are very happy to help you out and throw in their own 2 cents,* regardless of whether or not they understand the question at hand. my inability to speak thai and these peoples' utter failure to meet my linguistic needs has caused a tremendous communication barrier that i can only hope they learn to work out over time. as an american, it is my god-given right to have these people to conform to my needs.**
but enough about thailand. thailand is in the past, even more so than laos. and oddly enough, thailand's transportation methods are a walk in the park compared to the latter, a subject i'm sure to whine about later.
before i dish out the lowdown on laos, i should give a little background information on the country. laos is...
-technically pronounced "lao." supposedly, the "s" is silent. i think. crap, i don't know any more.
- landlocked.
- one of the poorest nations on the planet, with a gdp around $400.
- the most heavily-bombed nation in history, thanks to the secret war, a u.s.-led effort to stop the spread of communism via 580,000+ bombing missions from 1964-1973.***
- practically cut off from the rest of the world until the past couple of decades.
-very mellow and slow-paced.
-only recently, and slowly, recovering from socialism.
-only recently paved.
-subject to a midnight curfew. yeah, really. everything closes @ 11:30.
-really, really dusty/hazy.
so yeah, there you have it: in the high school class that is our planet, laos is the scrawny, dirty, battle-scarred kid who wears the same tattered shirt every day, but who still parties like a wildman****.
my internet cafe is about to close, and wow, i haven't even gotten to the juicy stuff yet. someday soon, you too will know of 120 proof shots in vientiane, choking down homemade rice whisky in luang prabang and pounding giant bottles of beerlao while tubing in vang vieng. jesus, was this trip all about drinking? of course not. only the fun parts.
-sg
* "their own .67 baht," as the locals say.
** america: fuck yeah!
*** ibid.
**** despite his midnight curfew.
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