Hello Madame! Hello sir!

So much has happened since we last checked in. I think Michele is going to do the more general run down of places and events so I might just ramble here a bit about some general observations.

It has been fantastically interesting to travel through three different countries - all sharing a land space of (I'm guessing) about the size of California - that have long historic interconnections with each other, yet are so completely different culturally and economically that it's been a big shock every time we've crossed a border.

The striking thing for me about Thailand - after you get over the huge, obvious differences that come with being on a different continent in a country where you can't even read the alphabet, let alone say the simplest of words (we mastered "Hello", "Thank You" "Delicious" and "Two" - that's it (not even yes or no))- was how completely normal it was.

The highways were excellent as was the general infrastructure. The streets were fantastically clean (even though we could never find a municipal trashcan). 7-11's and other western stores were everywhere. Traffic was dense but orderly and nobody ever honked their horn (the Thai people in general were very laid back and friendly, and obviously very used to having western tourists in their presence). The ever present motorbikes and "Tuk-Tuks" were all 4-stroke, no stinky 2-stroke mix of burnt oil and gas fouling the air. Perhaps we missed them, but we saw no sprawling slums, children begging on the street, or any of the disturbing things one often encounters in "developing countries".

And most telling of all - when you purchase something in Thailand, you actually pay tax on it (7%). I can't think of any country outside of Europe or North America where I've actually seen taxes collected. Amazing. And they're obviously being put to good use.

I'm sure there's a back story to all this that as a tourist I completely missed (like perhaps how Thailand deals with the flood of illegal Burmese and Lao immigrants that pour over its borders in search of work), but (in a very complimentary way) I would almost liken Thailand to being the Canada of Southeast Asia.

Crossing over into Laos was quite a shock. Landlocked and with a tiny population (just 6 million), Laos is decades behind Thailand in terms of general development. New York city has nearly the same miles of streets that Laos has in the entire country (and only 20% of them are paved - including many dirt streets even in the major towns). The first town we stayed in - Pakbeng - has electricity only 2-3 hours each evening. I saw a man and his son cutting up firewood with a 2-man bucksaw just like my grandpa used to use. In fact, everywhere we went in Laos except the most "western" restaurants (the ones that give you food poisoning), all cooking was done over wood or charcoal (whereas propane was always used in Thailand). Most of our trip down the Mekong was through essentially uninhabited hill country. You'd probably have to go pretty far out in Alaska to float a river and see so few people or settlements. And unlike Thailand, where the hills have almost been completely deforested by logging and agriculture, the hills in Laos were for the most part green and untouched as far as the eye could see.

That being said, parts of Laos are changing very rapidly and will probably be very different in a few years. Luang Prabang - the lovely colonial town where we spent five days - was completely engulfed in a renovation boom. Streets were getting paved. Sidewalks rebuilt. Etc. Etc. I doubt it will seem quite as rustic and quaint in a few years time.

As for the people, the Lao were even more friendly and laid back than the Thais. You simply did not pass anyone on the street without saying "Sabai Di" (hello). And it wasn't just to us westerners - it was universal. We sat in Luang Prabang for hours, drinking Beer Lao and watching people cruise around on their motorbikes, never ever going faster than about 15 miles an hour.

One of the real treats of the trip was when we were standing outside one of the temples in a Buddhist "Wat" (monastery), listening to some teenage monks do the most beautiful chanting in Sanskrit (Balinese Sanskrit - we were informed) when one got up, came out to us, and asked us if we'd like to come in. We sat with them for about 20 minutes (carefully keeping our feet pointed away from the Buddha)while they finished their chanting. It was quite magical. Afterwards we had the interesting experience of explaining to the monk who had invited us in (and who spoke excellent English) where we were from. While he knew of America, he did not know of New York City - had never heard of it.

And it was very refreshing to meet an obviously educated person who was not aware of a place called New York City. With all the westernization you see here (almost every product you purchase has some bit of English* text on it, almost every store or shop has some sign written in English, the video you watch on the VIP bus is inevitably an American** movie, the music your taxi driver plays is some weird cover version (in English) of The Carpenters Greatest Hits. English is omnipresent here as is American culture. Consider if every bottle of beer or shampoo you purchased there in the good ol' USA had something written on it in Thai or Lao on it, or that your favorite pop singers perform songs from another country in another decade in a language you can't understand, and that you didn't find any of this either weird or annoying.

It's something Michele and I are both still trying to get our heads around.

As Michele has already reported, Vietnam took us quite by surprise after laid back Laos. There is nothing laid back about this place or these people. Everything is go go go and there is not much time for niceties. We gave up trying to say hello or thank you in the first few days as it was obvious that nobody here said it to each other either (doubly disconcerting for us, as these were the only two words we'd mastered in Thai and Lao, and so we'd spent a fair time in the days before our arrival here memorizing the Vietnamese versions thereof, only to have all that mental effort prove to be a waste).

While not as developed and certainly no where near as orderly as Thailand (Michele says the traffic/driving here is nearly as insane as in India (sitting on the right hand side of the bus is advised, lest a sideswipe occur with some ancient Chinese truck (honking it's horn) while the bus (honking it's horn) is passing a cluster of 20 or so stinky 2-stroke motorbikes who have swerved to the left (honking their horns) to avoid a woman walking down the side of the road balancing an entire portable restaurant (food, cookstove, utensils, tables, chairs, everything but a horn) in two baskets hanging from her shoulders), construction is booming everywhere we've been. We watched iron workers (in flip flops***, an no hard hats) on the building next to our hotel in Hue put in 12 hour days right straight through the weekend that we were there. In Hoi An, along a fairly desolate section of the beach (just a few fishing shacks & small houses) outside of town we came across a brand new section of paved road with wide sidewalks, street lights and all the trappings of a brand new American subdivision under construction. When we saw the billboards for the two new mega-resorts that were going to be built where those fishing shacks were, it all made sense.

If they approach this development with the same tenacity they display when trying to sell you a foot massage or a pineapple on the beach, or to convince you to purchase a third set of beautiful, custom made silk pants because buying just two pairs is not enough (and oh the sad sad faces when you refuse), this country is certain to be an economic powerhouse in the years to come.

Nepal will be an interesting transition from here. It's about as far physically as you can go from here yet still be in a Buddhist/Hindu culture. I'll be very curious to see how the similarities and differences play out.

Paul

* If you were a tourist in any of these three countries and did not speak either the native language (Thai, Lao or Vietnamese) or English, you would have a really really difficult time. Being tonal, none of these languages are even remotely pronounceable from a phrase book. So as a workaround, everything tourism related is done in English. Menus are in English. Shop signs are in English. Travel Agents speak their language and then English. It's quite amazing to hear Russian and French and German tourists struggle through ordering food off a menu, trying in their broken English to reach some base level of understanding with the broken English of the person that's serving them. As you might imagine, mistakes do occur.

** Ironically though American culture is here everywhere, there are absolutely no Americans here. Believe it or not, there is actually a huge contingent of people in the world doing exactly what Michele and I are doing. There are whole industries built up to serve us and almost every major town we've visited has its "Supertreker Ghetto" of western restaurants, Internet cafes, travel agencies, and budget guesthouses (and the inevitable Irish pub). The travelers that pass through these places tend to be younger than us (not by much), but are almost exclusively English, Irish, French, German, Israeli, and Australian (with a smattering of Italians and Canadians popping up from time to time). For whatever reason, Americans do not travel here.

*** If haven't spent much time traveling in the tropics/subtropics, you may have a bit of a difficult time getting your head around this one, but the plain fact is that when most of the people on this planet put on their shoes to go to work, they are putting on flip flops. Think about that the next time you're swinging a machete at the coconut you're holding in place under your right foot, arc-welding some steel railing, or balancing an entire pig carcass on your motorbike as you work your way through the public market.