Recovery

I got an invitation from Lilian, my dear friend living in Hong Kong, to come for a visit. From the beginning, I wanted to fit in a visit with her on my trip somehow, but I was concerned about timing and the expense of an airplane ticket. After spending days and days sick and lonely, I was reminded of the importance of good friends, and figured out that the plane ticket, although not super cheap, would be mostly offset by the fact that I would not have to pay for accommodations for a few days, and that she would fatten me back up with some home cooking. That, combined with the fact that Hong Kong is very much a city I would like to visit, made it sound like a great excuse to go. So I decided to buy a ticket.

It wasn't quite so easy to do from Laos. I tried to buy the ticket on the airasia.com website, but for some reason, it wouldn't accept either one of my Visa cards. Declined, with no further information. I tried everything I could think of... over and over again. Ugh.

The only solution I could think of besides using someone else's credit card was to try and call Air Asia - not such an easy prospect since there are no phone lines that connect Laos to many other countries, and I didn't have a normal phone available anyway. The main methods most people use to make international phone calls from the road these days are either to use their mobile phones (I didn't have a Laos SIM card) or to use Internet cafe phones which use the Internet to make phone calls, however that works.

I decided to try an Internet call. I had never tried this before. The cafe I had been using for email had a little phone booth room from which you could dial any international number for about $.30 per minute. I knew calling an airline could take awhile. But it was my only option.

I dialed the number the website offered for calls from Thailand. The system answered and jibbered something in Thai, then said, "for English, press 2". So I pressed 2. Then it jibbered something else and said again, "for English, press 2". Over and over again. I could hear the 2 touch tone, but it couldn't. Crap. I paid for my one minute call and decided to try a different phone in a different cafe. Buying this ticket has now become an all-day affair.

I found another "reasonably" priced cafe manned by a single ten year old girl. You see, there was a traditional town-wide party going on this day. An affair that involved every family in town opening their homes to every other family.. to share noodle soup and to drink Lao Lao whiskey and Beer Lao all day long.. from morning until late in the evening. So by mid day... most adults in town were too drunk to run a business. So the kids were running the show in most places.

Under pre-teen supervision, I managed to call the same number from their phone and the system answered. The girl heard the message and seemed to think the automated system was an answering machine and hung up the phone, I guess as a "favor" to me so I wouldn't have to pay. I said "No no! It was working!"... and I dialed the number again. This time I got some kind of Internet error message. She proclaimed the mission failed and motioned for me to give up and leave her domain. I dialed again, despite her, and this time the system picked up again. Before she could slam her finger on the hook again, I body blocked her and assured her that everything was fine and that she should go back to watching the store. The 2 button seemed to work this time, and so I waited with Thai hold music for someone to come on the line. The girl watched me like I was crazy for just sitting there burning $.30 a minute on an answering machine. When the rep finally came on the line, I struggled to switch the phone off speaker and to try and communicate. This was no easy task. There was no booth in this cafe which was wide open to the street with motor bikes zooming by constantly.. the line was a bit flaky so bits of speech would cut out entirely... and, to boot, the woman on the line had an accent so thick, I could just barely understand her. I was terribly concerned about getting the reservation both finished and accurate. Somehow after about fifteen minutes, I was very releived to have a confirmation number from the very patient woman on the other end of the Internet. I paid the sovereign tot $6, and went on my way, relieved to have my one five-minute task for the day completed around sunset.

I had a nice dinner with Chrisi and readied myself for another big travel day. First, to Vientiane, the capitol... and then on to Bangkok where I would catch my plane to Hong Kong.

That morning, I had moved from the Riverside cabin where the nights were just too loud. I moved to a place in town, next to a Buddhist wat (temple). Unfortunately, because of the town party, the wat was now the new party central. And they apparently had a pass to party well past the normal midnight curfew. They went all night long. And volume knobs on their sound system went to 11. Bless them.

The next day we checked out and took a chicken bus to Vientiane. Backpackers call public busses in developing countries "chicken busses" because frequently town folk will strap all manner of agricultural commodities to the bus along with as many people as can humanly fit on the rickety vehicles. Usually it's good for some stories at least.

Ours wasn't too bad.. but there was a whole motorcycle bungied in the aisle and there were folks sitting on huge bags of rice for the lion's share of the trip. At some point, a thirteen year old Buddhist monk named Ken got on and was delighted to practice his English with us. The ride was long but got us there.

We found a room for three along with another German fellow we met on the bus and had some dinner on the Mekong river shore. I tried some Nam Khao, a Lao dish that is a specialty of the town. Not only was it pretty good, it represented the first meal in almost a week that I was able to finish because my stomach has been in knots.

I was now officially ready for my long train ride to Bangkok, and to be fattened up in Hong Kong.. which will be a far cry from the rural Laos living I have been immersed in. Chrisi is headed for Vietnam.

Luxury living, here I come... at least for five days.