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Laos & Cambodia UP UP AND AWAY
Temple in Vientienne
"I found myself on an airplane to
Laos with two guidebooks, one
backpack, and no plans. But I
suppose most of you have
learned to expect this of me." |  could close my eyes and cover my ears, but there was no escaping the distinct smell of leaded gas and clove cigarettes. I had just landed in Manado in the northern tip of Sulawesi to spend of the last five weeks of my around-the-world trip. Manado doesn’t really get many tourists, aside from the few who venture up for the scuba diving, so hardly anyone, even the taxi drivers spoke any English apart from two well-known and often-practiced phrases. The first, “Hello Mister”, was usually screamed by any kid who spotted foreigner, invariably a phrase left over from the Dutch who taught Indonesians the proper way to great a white-skinned man, or woman, for that matter. The second phrase was “Economic Crisis.” It was 1998, and although I was there after the major riots in Jakarta (which I’d like to remind my parents was a whole 2 months earlier and 2 islands away), Indonesia was still struggling. I changed $200, tried to find room in my pack to stuff the 4-inch wad of bills, the highest denomination being roughly equivalent to $5, got into a taxi, and hoped I was heading in the right direction.
The plane to Northern Laos
"I could have stayed there all
evening, if it weren't for the
annoying Karaoke music" | Northern Laos was much colder than I had anticipated. Morning fog hugged the hills like a clingy child, and would only lift after hours of prodding by the sun. One cool evening, I stumbled across a sign for an herbal sauna, directing me along a bamboo walkway to a small bungalow on stilts. The sauna was a wood-sealed room, heated from a fire blazing underneath the bungalow. I traded a dollar for a sarong, changed in a makeshift room, and entered the dark closet-sized sauna, inhaling the steam, rich with the essence of the local medicinal herbs. Fresh herbal tea was provided for those taking breaks from the heat of the steam. The atmosphere was very relaxing and I could have stayed there all evening, if it weren't for the annoying Karaoke music blasting from the bungalow next door.
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