Time for a Break, or 4 or 5

Philosophically speaking, you can't really expect to be travelling around in remote parts of the world without a few things going wrong. I'd been pretty lucky on my various trips, including this one.

But luck has to run out, eventually.

I left Udon Thani early a couple days ago, not wanting to wait for the scheduled 11 am bus. I got on a bus that was passing through from another city in order to get into Vientiane earlier than advertised as possible. There were only 4 of us on the huge double-decker air-conditioned bus, so it was going to be a very comfy ride. But then we stopped just before leaving the outskirts of town. After a few minutes of fussing, we were told that the bus had broken and they hustled us onto another, much fuller bus that was passing by. Whether or not our empty bus was actually broken is an open question, but it was a telling start to my sidetrip to Laos.

Crossing the river from Thailand into Laos used to be a very easy matter. Stop at the small wooden immigration shack, let them pound som ink into your passport, stroll down the bank and get into a small boat for passage to the other side. Climb the bank, stop by the small wooden shack for some more passport ink, then hop into a very cheap cab into Vientiane.

But several years ago, the Australians built the "Friendship Bridge" joining the two countries at this point. Since that time the Communist Lao government has loosened up a lot and with the New Year season, the bridge was madness going both ways. Lessons learned.

Water-throwing was maniacal, as it had been in Thailand, but now I was on foot so I didn't mind quite as much.

But my feet did. I woke up the next morning with a nasty blister on one heel from walking around in wet shoes. The rubber sole of one shoe had succombed to the water and extra miles I've been walking lately and was peeling off. Shower and shave--no shave. My trusty travel shaver that's been with me on the road for many years made a couple of very loud noises and then became silent forever. Never mind, I'm on vacation.

Put on the sunglasses to head out for the day and one lens falls off. Quick repair with some dental floss. Rent a small motorbike in front of the hotel to do some running around town. Trouble starting, but it finally got going--for less than one meter. Died several times so they gave me another bike. After coming back from some errands (got some packing tape to put my shoe back together for just a few more days) the first bike had its engine completely disassembled in the parking area in front of the hotel. A new piston and rings were acquired and it was back together by the end of the day. Amazing people.

Tried to book the flight back to Bangkok. Credit card doesn't work. No idea why as I called the fraud department before I left to be sure they didn't suspect somebody had stolen my card and ran to Asia. It has been working fine up to now. I tried to book by phone, but the airline won't reserve without payemnt and doesn't accept foreign credit cards by phone, only online. Go figure.

Still can't reach the University in Nakorn Phanom. Frank is pushing me to make contact with Prince Panya (son of the Prime Minister when I lived in Laos) for a couple beers, but Frank couldn't find his phone number. Said to call his secretary in Vientiane. She couldn't find his number either. I emailed him but no response. Would've been fun to discuss old times as he was the main force behind Royal Air Lao initiating international flights to Chiang Mai, which started my whole history with said city.

Then my camera died. Didn't act like the battery, and I was afraid that even though I'd been double-bagging it, water worked its way into it. Special battery not immediately available to check it out. I bought a better camera especially to bring on this trip, but have kept it very secure from all the water and used it only for that one night in Bangkok shot. Now that the onslaught of water is finished, I can pull it out and use it. (Edit: found a battery, and the old camera lives on!)

I did get a few good pictures in Laos before the camera died, and will post them later when I'm done whining.

Still undaunted, I went to Prince Panya's favorite bar hoping he would show up. He didn't of course, but I had some enjoyable pool games with a couple of Aussies on a mining project and had a long chat with a British salesman up on a visa run from Pattaya. It was not like the party with Ed's MIT classmates, but the beer was superb.

Forrest Gump was totally right when he said that **it happens, but today was like Montezuma's revenge.

I brought along some medicine for that, but doubt that it will work.