Vientiane

This is my favorite city in SE Asia. The French occupation for many years left its influence in the ways of good restaurants with a fusion of French and Lao food. The city itself was designed and rebuilt by the French and the architecture is similar to what one might see in Miami south beach or New Orleans except without the iron work on the balconies. Sort of art deco as the corners of buildings are rounded and there are many sidewalk cafes.

The pace of life is much slower here as compared to Thailand and people do not seem to be as stressed as they are there. Thailand is an ancient kingdom that is controlled by the aristocratic families of the minor royalty ans well as the police and military. The wages of the common folk are kept low to enhance the profits of the wealthy. In the People's Democratic Republic of Lao however they at least pay lip service to "equality and amity". While the people don't have much as far as material wealth they are all fed, have clothes and seem to have positive attitudes. In Thailand, one gets the sense of frustration amongst people because of the rising expectations of acquiring new cars, TVs, motor bikes, clothes, etc. Also, the traffic situation there is getting very similar to the west with too many cars, not enough parking and traffic jams.

I have found some tennis here which is great. In Thailand I was reduced to having to play with the old guys in doubles (older than me even) playing pitty pat tennis. Here I pay about $5.50 per hour to hit with a good player which includes his fee, court fee and a ball kid to run around and fetch. He is a polite kid about 20 who loves to run and hit the ball hard..great for me. I am still running a bit but I find it a lot more interesting to get excercise playing rather than working out.

It is winter here so the weather has been a bit cool. I am still in flip flops and shorts but soon will need a jacket at night. In about 2 months tho' the temps will get hot again and I will have to head south to the beaches. In the meantime I plan to travel for the next 30 days in Laos and then pass over to Cambodia then Vietnam.

One of the fun things about traveling like this is how many different and interesting people I meet. Last night I talking to an Aussie guy who works for a mining operation going on in the boonies. Evidently there is a lot of gold, copper and silver in them thar hills. I was glad to hear of the environmental precautions they are taking as they mine. Evidently in the region he is working there are many unexploded bombs from the Vietnam war, mostly dropped by the USA. The bombs were left over from WW2 and the estimate is 30% did not detonate and now must be dug up and disposed of.

Laos is "the most bombed country in the world" During the Viet war, B52's flew out of 4 bases in Thailand to bomb N Vietnam and the Ho Chi Minh trail. If they could not ID targets in N Vietnam, they would not drop the bombs randomly in Hanoi but returned to base and dropped them over "thinly populated areas in Laos" before landing. Basically, we bombed Laos into the stone age. 66 million people live in Thailand, 87 million in Vietnam and in the middle, 6 million people in Laos. The people that survived in the country had to live in caves.

Now, though, there seems to a sense of better things to come. Many countries are contributing to building an infrastructure of roads, water works and sewage plants along with bomb removal teams from many nations working to clean things up.

Right now the South East Asian (SEA) games are going on here for the first time. A new stadium was built along with a sports complex to host the event. Last night Lao beat Malaysia in a soccer game 2-0 and the town went crazy. People were riding around 2 or 3 on a motorbike carrying flags along with milling crowds on the street fresh from the stadium with all their "Go Lao" t-shirts and headbands. It really was fun to see all the people so happy. A Lao guy I talked to said this is history for Lao as the only demonstrations before were always orchestrated by the government. Every TV in the capital and probably all over the country were tuned the match. All the additional traffic cops and military guys brought in the event were part of the crowds clustered in front of TV's at the sidewalk restaurants ignoring the traffic which wasn't much for two hours.

I was planning on going south sooner but now I am going to stick around for the rest of the games. The kid I pay to play tennis with me is playing #2 for the national team and I have to be there to watch and lend support.