Happy Noisy Buddhist New Year In Laos Has Me Ready To Travel Again

April 20, 2018 by admin

Time to fly to my next destination!

I’ve been in Vientiane, Laos, for six weeks now, having temporarily hopped-off my wonderful Stray Tour of four countries of South East Asia: Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. I hadn’t planned to stay as long as this, here in the capital city of Laos, but I discovered the shocking fact of America’s Secret War during the neighboring Vietnam War and I wanted to gather the facts. I also needed the rest. I solve my desire for a homebase, by frequently becoming a longer-term tourist of any delightful spots along my way. Reading, writing, and resting can only be done when one lingers a little while. Otherwise, lack of desk space, wi-fi, handy electrical plugs, and non-stop hostel social activity, make serious computer work difficult, if not impossible. I try to catch up on blogging at times like these, even though other unexpected assignments tend to find me, too. New trips both simplify and complicate all that.

Plus, my eyes are sooooo tired right now. Probably, because I really need that eye surgery but the catarract isn’t quite ripe yet. A new pair of glasses wouldn’t hurt, either but those will have to wait till after the surgery. I’ll check all those out in my new country, as well. In the meantime, sleep and rest are on the to-do list. Same as everyone does in the aftermath of such a big holiday.

It’s a brand new year in this part of the world and, as if it’s an omen singing its siren song, I found a large, beautiful, pink, plastic four-wheeler suitcase to replace my old-fashioned, two-wheel cloth ones. So, I’ve cut my luggage down to two check-in bags, plus two carry-ons. Will your whole life fit into so small a space?

All this has started my travel clock ticking. Seven days to go, now!

Then, newly expert and recently beached, I’ll return here to pick up my Stray Tour into Cambodia and Vietnam. The delightful part of their offering is that I have a year to cover the ground. So, impromptu flights are very easy to incorporate into my plans.

Plus, I’d also like to cover my future dream destinations to the north and still have time to get to Lake Baikal, in Siberia, Russia; before the weather turns ….. well, too Siberian! Best be about it! So, I’ll buy my plane ticket for next week and announce my destination later. Hint: there’s a film academy there that I plan to attend.

This week, I’ll try to catch up on my blogging, as the future will be filled with learning the technologies of camera and video work and producing cinema reports of all my wonderful pictures. I’m already halfway around the world and still a rank amateur about the scenes I’m passing through. What good is fine equipment without the know-how? Here are some shots of this week and the New Years celebrations between April 14 – 18. Wet and Loud! Everybody throws water on everybody else. And, the Buddhist Temples broadcast very loud sermons constantly between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. This hotel is surrounded by three temples, so we had triple cacaphony.