-^-for posterity-^-

and then, out of no where, i ended up in laos.

i drove up to ho chi minh city and waited for my plane. it arrived on time and sitting in airports by myself is my least favorite pastime.

we took off and flew above the bustling noon-time city and, in a matter of minutes, were descending into cambodia's capital.

i was shocked as we descended. one could begin making out fields, roads and rivers. all of the sudden i realized that we were not more than a few kilometers from the capital and nothing was paved. there were only long grids of red dirt road running into one another and abruptly disappearing into the jungle. i stayed in the capital of cambodia only for a half of an hour and was up in the air again heading towards laos.

mcc is having a south-east asian meeting. i met a large group of my fellow mccers in cambodia by chance. it was a nice meeting and it is always wonderful meeting birds of the same feather.

we descended into laos and i talked to my new vietnamese friend. he worked for a microwave company and normally traveled to laos.

we fell from the sky, i thought of death and we finally glided to a stop in the fairly modern laos airport. we walked along an elevated sidewalk following a security guard and entered a customs room that was empty except for a handful of guards. we paid 30 dollars for the permission to stay in this fine country for a couple of days, picked up our baggage and left.

laos is a sleepy place and vientiane, the capital, is its peaceful leader. the population of the capital here is the exact same as the population of long xuyen, believe it or not. laos is a country of only 4 million people and things move at a very restful pace. we hopped in a bus and drove down very quiet streets. we passed nice, sleepy houses and people drove by us.

the most incredible thing about this place, besides the fact that is the country that holds the record for the amount of bombs dropped on it per person, is its pagodas. we passed a number of pagodas and they are ornate, beautiful and sincerely defy description. they are colorful and every square inch of them is embellished in some way with some sort of statue or carving. the colors are incredible, yellows, reds and oranges.

i've been here an hour and know nothing about the place. tomorrow we take a 3 hour or so bus to some mountain. it is supposed to be one of the most peaceful places on earth.