Welcome to Laos

Wednesday, October 31

Ahhhhhhhh...peace. I fell in love with Laos before we even landed. There are hills here, and trees, and it's not nearly so hot as it has been everywhere else so far. Even better, no horns honking continuously! In Cambodia and Vietnam, honking a horn seems to say, "I'm coming up behind you..." so, as you could imagine, people are pretty much on their horns the entire time they are driving.

Here, silence. As my friend Craig would say, silence good. And yes, Craig, it's been blissful to be three weeks without a phone, I have to admit.

Before going into Laos and its beauty, let me say that I had the best airline food I've ever had, a full meal, on a Vietnam Airlines flight here. This is even more astounding given the fact that the flight was only 1 1/2 hours! US-run airlines could take a lesson; of course, you might say it's due to the fact that it's government-subsidized, but with all the bailouts that have happened, so are most US airlines these days (think about it).

Anyway, thanks to Cipro and a couple days of eating almost nothing, I am back to good health and enjoying food again. We found a hotel with a clean-enough room, A/C, and free breakfast for $20 per night. Can't beat that. Two storefronts down is a Lao restaurant that filled up so fast after 7 pm that people were waiting for tables. The food was great, especially some deep-fried ribs (yeah, I know, doesn't sound all that healthy, but right now anything that doesn't make me sick is great!). Them I slept from 10 pm til 10 am this morning. Missed my free breakfast, but oh well. After stopping into a pharmacy and picking up some more Cipro just in case I need it again ($1.50 for ten pills, probably 2% of what it would cost in the states), we met up with a family wandering about who happened to be Laotian, but now live in Redwood City. Great people, and good advice. The mom kept telling me not to eat any raw vegetables or any papaya at all; I found it interesting that she is more careful about the food here than even I have been, but I bet she knows. She said that in 1998, before there was readily-available bottled water, she came here to visit her family and got sick for 6 months. Yikes.

Val, of course, eats everything with no caution whatsoever and never flinches. Perhaps I am just a wimp...

Anyway, so far the city seems wonderful, it's drizzly and about 75 degrees, and I am going to pop into a tourism office here sometime this afternoon to see if there's a bus tour that will take me for a day to a national preserve about an hour from here, where there are still elephants roaming free. Sounds like good photo opps.

Also nearby is a cooperative for women's crafts and weaving, promoting local crafts and supporting local women, mostly widows. They offer a one-day class in weaving, where you get to take home the fruits of your labor. For an extra dollar, they'll even come and collect me from my hotel. Good deal. I'll probably, in a day, make something like a potholder, but it'll be fun.

I have noticed that the women here are much more formally dressed than in other places so far. The teen aged girls are in jeans and tops, but the women almost exclusively are in these gorgeous sarongs with silk blouses. Rumor has it that, if you even attempt to go into a government office without being "properly dressed," you will be denied access.

So, I am off to see more of this small city. Five days here, so there is plenty of time to do very little - lots of relaxing ahead of me.

Police here have AK47s in hand - would be intimidating, expect for the fatc that every one of them has a huge smile so far. In fact, people keep walking by me on the street, saying, "Sa bai dee!" (hello) with a huge grin.

And now, a quick comment for my wonderful sociologically-curious daughter. Even in this small (250,000) city, there is a huge mall, lots of cell phone shops, etc. But I also see lots of families going out together, from grandparents down to babies. So, yes, the Western world has invaded somewhat, but the family unit seems to so far be intact, as does a sense of formality.

Kohb chai for reading. --Janine