with a little help from my friends..

English Class
BounThan (he said "Oh my God!" when Nadia was called to teach)

it’s what I imagine heaven to be like. a cool, mountain breeze hits me as I look out the window of our bus, as it climbs the winding roads- I can’t stop looking and trying, in vain, to capture how beautiful this place is. there is no other word to describe it – beautiful does it.

Nadia arrived in Vientiene on the 19th with all the goodies on my list and some not on it – so great to pick out the cranberries and almonds from trail mix again and have non-whitening sunscreen and of course, the best thing of all – the Thinkpad, with all my music (iDump rules!) and a regular Ctrl key.

In the last few days, we
- watched “home-made rockets” being shot into the air
- endured a 5 hour bus ride on a local bus (on an empty stomach)
- rode bicycles on rocky laos dirt roads on a really, really, really hot day, nadia even gave a ride to a local kid
- explored( for 10 minutes) a cave after a treacherous 20 minute climb on slippery rocks
- got a room with a gorgeous view of the cliffs in vang vieng
- skipped “happy” meals in vang vieng and tubing down the river (loud music and bar islands at every bend)
- splashed around in a waterfall, while fearing for dear life (due to slippery rocks and my refusal to put my feet on river/pond/waterfall bottoms)
- walked around in the sweltering heat around luang prabang
- bargained at the night market
- tried to lie as still as is possible, in the afternoons– because talking, laughing made us sweat (and we have three fans in our room)!
- Went bowling
- Finally gave in and tried beer lao and lao lao (lao whisky)
- Taught an English class
- Played ‘petang’ (bochi ball) with the locals

on nadia's last day in laos, we just want to do what everyone does best in lao – not much!
Then its long bus rides to our respective destinations- nadia goes to vientiene to catch a flight back home, and I take a long bus ride to Sam Neau in Northeastern Laos..