The goddess has a heart and a sense of humour
After dragging my tired self to the bus terminal for an 8am express to Vientiane, i arrived to conflicting and opposing accounts of where i could buy a ticket, and finally words that i understood “Bus is full”.
This left me a whole day to kill in Luang Prabang before the night bus. i returned to my guesthouse to leave my pack at the counter but was invited to return it to the dorm. inside the dorm only one traveller remained, so we went for coffee, as it seemed too synchronous a meeting to do otherwise. We discussed writing, buddhism, and death (as you do on a first meeting) before exchanging emails.
That night i arrived an hour early for my bus to ensure a seat – because having a reservation and having paid for the ticket DOES NOT mean you will get a seat. Only the back row remained unclaimed by bags, food, or birds in cages. One farang with attitude displaced someone’s carefully laid straw mat and stole the window seat – refusing the place that synchronicity had assigned him As a consequence, and i had to hide my guilty laughter (there is a word in german for precisely that which i forget, anyone?), he had to ride 12-hours penned into his seat by a laotian mother and her nursing/crying baby while her husband was forced to the back. On the other hand i accepted my seat, and met a young guy from tokyo who i could practise my ailing japanese on which made the whole trip a lot more tolerable.
now in vientiane, awaiting my indian visa to be processed, ah how i love bureaucracy and i think the feeling is mutual. but nepal has declared itself in a “stateofemergency” – of course – typhoons, tsunamis, political crises. so not sure what to do as nepal was gonna be my refuge from india. do i really want to go to india first-time alone? the answer to these and other affiliated questions will hopefully answer themselves in the next week.
Tags: Laos
Jyai
February 4th, 2005 at 4:52 pm
Hi Jyai!
Glad you managed to find my weblog, and happy I found yours as well. I can certainly see the difference in our writing styles that we talked about in Nong Khiaw! It’s really cool to read about your experiences in some of the places I’ve visited/am visiting. (I’m headed to Pai next… Can’t wait after having read your entry ’bout it)
February 7th, 2005 at 11:32 pm
The word you’re thinking of is schadenfreude (delight in another person’s misfortune).