Luang Prabang, Laos
The final moments of the trip to Luang Prabang came just as the sun was setting on the Mekong. What a beautiful sight. As cheesy as it sounds, the landscape all around me looked just like every Vietnam war movie I had ever seen and I half expected to see Robert Duvall standing on the riverbank. From the boat we could see mountains softened by lush vegetation and big palm trees swaying in the breeze. It had been a good two days on the water but now it was time to say goodbye to our slow boat and it’s pilot who Jim called a “man boy” because he was so little. We looked ahead for signs of Luang Prabang. Everything we’d read about the city led us to expect an idyllic old-world Laos, filled with ancient culture and unspoiled nature. I expected things there would be rural, relaxed, and very inexpensive. When at ... read more
Peoples Democratic Republic of Laos
I know, I know. It’s been almost a month since my last posting. What can I say? I’ve been a little busy. Between working on the book, studying Thai, teaching salsa, and fashion shows…there just aren’t enough hours in the day! I have also noticed that keeping a blog almost requires you to step away from what you’re experiencing at the moment and think about how to record it, report it,…and otherwise describe it later. It’s like some sort of weird reverse engineering. In any event, my apologies for the delay in the action. Busy or not, you are all in my thoughts and heart every day. Life is Chiang Mai continues to be good and very, very interesting. This is quite the international city and I am surrounded by every imaginable sort of people. We could easily stay here for the entire six months and never run out of new things to do and ... read more