Instead of Thailand for Christmas, I went to southern Laos & had an incredibly good time! The family made their plans rather late & ended up not having a hotel room for me, and possibly not for themselves either, so they said I could join them & take the risk or stay here....free time, 10 days off, yes!!! So I left the night of the 16th by overnight bus for a 12 hour ride to the capital, to take another bus about 6 hours to a small town in the mountains. I arrived at a nice guesthouse along a river (not the Mekong), I was the only person staying there, so needless to say, it was very quiet and peaceful! The next day I went for a hike & walked through some villiages, tourists do come to this part of the country, but not so often, people did seem a bit surprised to see me and many of the tourists I'd spoken to in other places weren't familiar w/where I was, so that may give you an idea of its remoteness.

The next day I booked a trip along the river through the 7km long cave, the main draw to this area....we go by a small, motorized canoe, I would have preferred to kayak, but those tours are quite expensive. so it was an interesting, DARK trip. I had a flashlight & the driver of the boat had a much stronger one. We stopped on & off to see cave formations, stalagmites, stalagtites, etc... it kinda reminded me of a cave we boated in when we were younger, back east somewhere. Otherwise it was much like sailing through darkness, like it'd be on the moon or some distant planet. The next day I left for my next LONG journey to the 4000 islands in the very south of Laos, near the border of Cambodia.

Now, there are buses, then there are these small trucks w/bench seats that drive throught the villiages on the dirt roads. I had to start in one of those for about 3 hours, imagine the dust, then another for about 3 more hours. Incidentally, this is also how I first arrived at the villiage near the cave....this is the local transportation....picture bags of rice & pigs (live) tied to the roof, as well as baskets of chickens, vegetables, etc...anyway, I finally get on a real bus, prepared for another ride through the night. I prefer travel at night so I don't waste daytime where I could be doing something other than sleep...plus sleeping on a bus saves money on a night in a guesthouse or hotel.

The journey started off fine, I have my book, my Ipod, it's a bit crowded, but I'm ok....off we go.....a while into the trip something happened, not even sure now how I realized something happened. but people look concerned, unsure....we pull over, we're stopped for a while, it's dark out, so hard to see what's happening. I exit the bus, no one speaks English, so no one can explain what's happened. I start using body language, I eventually begin barking & a woman nods, then I run my hand perpendicularly across my throat, the same woman nods.....supposedly we hit & killed a dog. we were stopped a good 40 minutes, and to be honest, I'm surprised it was taken so seriously, there's dogs, goats, pigs, cats, chickens, cows & water buffalo wondering all the streets!

So we proceed, the public buses stop at many towns to drop off & pick up people, we arrived at a town, people get off & I finally have an empty seat next to me, "yes, I can lay down!!!" and then a man comes to sit next to me....there are other empty seats, "why me, why is it always me?!" So he sits & says he wants to practice English, I tell him I want to sleep, he says when I'm ready to sleep, he'll move...by then there are no more empty seats. So I overcome my frustration, we chat & talk, he's studying English in college, his accent was terrible & he really didn't understand me too well. So after some chatting, I start to sleep, it's quite chilly at night & some of the windows are open, so he gives me his leather jacket to use as a blanket, sweet man. And he kept making sure it stayed in position, wasn't falling off. Then as I'm asleep, I feel the bus slamming on it's breaks and feel the man next to me throw his arms over me, holding onto me for protection, and then we stop! Again, not sure what happened, it smelled to me like there was a tire blow out, but when I went outside to look, the tires looked fine, but the driver was doing some work under the bus....maybe a broken belt? My protector couldn't tell me in English, I'd say he has a lot more studying to do! So on we went.

We're finally approaching our final destination at about 2:30 a.m., apparently 8 km out of town, the bus stops, parks on the road, along w/other buses....apparently the police won't allow buses to enter the town until 6 a.m.....why? Don't know, again, no one can tell me & my protector can't tell me in English either. So I'm thinking "why doesn't the bus leave at 8:30 p.m. instead of 5 p.m. to avoid parking on the road for 3.5 hours...seems logical to me?!" There are many mysteries when traveling like this!! So I slept, we finally arrived, my protector went his way, I thank him & tell him he'll make someone a lucky lady someday. He was 21 & shocked at my 36...."why are you beautiful?" to them 36 year olds are already married w/3,4,5 kids!!!

So an eventful journey brings me to the islands....in the rainy season the Mekong rises so that all these islands form, there are 2 main ones, the one I was on has no cars or roads, instead dirt paths, and electricity on generators that stops at about 9 p.m...my bungalow was along the river & I immediately met my neighbors, 2 girls from Germany & their friend from Italy. So I had instant friends. The German girls left the next day & for the next 5 days it was me & Lucy (Italian) & some of the same other people we'd see around the tiny island. Lucy was lots of fun, we rode bikes & went to the beach & took walks, she's 38, nice to have someone my same age range, many travelers are young, in their 20s.

So for Christmas Eve there's a bakery/restaurant run by an Australian man & we had pizza there, then on Christmas Day, we made pasta!! I'm talking homemade pasta....Lucy taught me how, it's quite easy! We bought some flour from the baker man & one of the guys we'd met had a camp stove, we borrowed pots from the guesthouse family, and bought tomatoes, onions, oil, etc... for the sauce & had an honest-to-goodness Italian pasta dinner! carvatiella is the type of pasta we made. So I'd say my Christmas was about as unique & different as it's gonna get.

I know you all worry about me & some of the details of this journey may make you think I'm crazy, but some food for thought....most people in this region of the world are Buddhist. I know you don't know much about Buddhism, neither do I, it's quite elaborate. But what I do know is that Buddhists are quite peaceful, honest, caring people. They meditate & strive for inner peace & balance, they do not function by harming, cheating, or destroying others; violence is not part of their way....so when you find yourself worrying or wondering, maybe this will help ease your mind.

photos to follow...............