Okay, so I’ve been a bit behind on blogging; I’ll be the first to admit it. So, to right this wrong, I’m going to start blogging about the present, in addition to covering the past few months. I know it’s complicated to follow two story-lines at once, but I have faith in you. (well, most of you…)

Without further ado…Welcome to Laos!

Joyce and I are currently in Luang Nam Tha, bustling metropolis, or maybe just a town with one street that runs for about a quarter mile. This could also describe yesterday’s Lao town, Huay Xai, where we took an egregiously overpriced ferry over the Mekong from Thailand in Laos. The ride took about two minutes, and cost us thirty Baht a piece, which is about US$1. That may not sound like much, but let me give you some perspective. A 22 oz. slushy at 7-11 is 20 Baht, a local phone call is 1 Baht and our hotel rooms were often 200 Baht. So, 60 Baht for a ferry: RIIIIIIP OOOOOOOFFFFF! But hey, what were we going to do, swim?

Huay Xai was not a booming center of cosmopolitan culture; I was just glad that they had rooms to sleep in, for $100,000. (ha ha ha ha ha, that’s actually Lao Kip, at k10,000 per $1; they’ve had some inflation here…) We didn’t do much in Huay Xai but eat, sleep and leave the next day. Each of these seemingly innocuous events deserves some attention, however:

-Eating: I ordered a fried fish, but I then began to wonder, “Is it actually safe to eat a fish caught in the Mekong, in northern Laos, just a little ways from China, where the Mekong is dammed and factoried to oblivion? Well, who knows, but I hope I didn’t eat a three-headed fish, or something of the sort.

-Sleeping: Joyce and I went back to our room for a “nap” at 6pm. At 9pm, we woke up, got ready for bed (yeah, it seemed a bit incongruous to us too.) and then watched BBC News on our teeny TV. Watching the news was a fantastic experience. We didn’t learn anything of particular note (I mean, who DID think that John Edwards would be the Democratic nominee?) Then, we went back to bed, and slept for another eight hours. It was a fantastic experience.

Leaving: So, we’d paid the night before for our bus tickets, but then the morning came, and we weren’t actually taking a bus, but a minivan, which wasn’t actually leaving at 9am, the hour we had rushed through breakfast to make, but at 10am, because the driver wanted to wait for more tourists to arrive; timeliness isn’t really an understood concept here. So, we decided to take the bus instead. This was, in retrospect, perhaps a poor decision. The bus left about ten minutes after we’d arrived, and we were lucky to get seats, although they weren’t next to each other; the loud Italians on the back of the bus had to sit on other people’s bags. Laotians were throwing up, although it wasn’t bumpy or bad at all – odd…and gross. (although our most vomit-happy experience yet was our ferry ride in Thailand. More on that later.) Plus, let’s not forget the frequent stops to pick up people shouting who knows what in Lao, and then sitting in the aisle, or virtually on my lap. Needless to say, we were happy to arrive. Oh, but lest I forget, our bags were put on top of the bus, and it rained. So, as I type all of our clothing is hanging in our room, drying out. Laos, don’t you just love it? Or, maybe the slogan should be: “Laos, you’re not the first world anymore!” But really, it’s beautiful here, the people are nice, and it doesn’t feel as though the whole nation’s one big tourist attraction, like Thailand.

The day after tomorrow, we’re going trekking the hills around here, which is supposed to be amazing. There are all different tribes in the hills, and the scenery’s beautiful. I’ll let you know about that more after we’ve done it.

See you later! Jack