How to quit your job and travel around the world

Lao tractors can take you anywhere.

New cave formations inside Cave Hoi near Vang Vieng.

Catherine inside of Cave Hoi. What you can't see is some deep terror going through my mind - purely psychological. We got about 1 km into the cave (which if you haven't been caving feels very very FAR) when we came across a couple stumbling out. The woman was speechless and obviously shaken; the man with her also slightly rattled but energetic. They had seen the snake! Apparently deep into the cave there was a snake which you had to pass to continue. All I can say is that I really started to freak, deep down inside. Snake plus pitch black cave equals bad and scary in my mind. I really hard to work hard to prevent a full blown anxiety attack. To make matters worse, I was with a group of Israelis who, um, were unsympathetic to say the least.
Anyway, the caves are fascinating and during the 1960s the whole village moved into this cave and others around as bombs dropped on the valley. More than 2,000 people lived in this cave for three months. There is a lot of interesting graffiti from that time on the walls.

Buddha at the entrance to Cave Hoi.


Lao girl named Asa, 4, who was playing with us at a local Vang Vieng restaurant.



Sunset over the limestone kirst cliffs in Vang Vieng.

Heading out to go inner tubing and caving in the lovely town of Vang Vieng. Did a day of kayaking down the Nam Som river yesterday, which immediatly ranked as a top 5 thing to do in Asia. Totally and completely great, with fun class 2 rapids and barbeque for lunch. Met up with an Aussie girl for these few days to travel with. Rebecca put here photos of our trip in Cambodia up. Check it out at www.flickr.com/photos/rebm

In the flood plains of the Mekong, below Vientiane, there is some serious soccer to be played. Drawn into the thick river bank sand are field lines and tehre are about half a dozen fields all together. Hundreds of young Laotians gather in the evening to play some super fast soccer. It is all the more impressive as they are running around barefoot in a half a foot of sand. Above on the banks of the shore, makeshift beer gardens are set up to enjoy the sunset. In an open-air stadium of sorts, set further back from the bansk, several dozen Laos women, decked out in belted leotards and spandex do aerobics. Occasionally some old Soviet folk tune comes wafting over the loudspeaker somewhere.

Entering the "eastern bloc" of Asia is really a mind-bender for me. Especially for Americans where the national museum focuses for the most part on "US imperialists" and our secret war (which is still hard to get my mind around) and all the fucked up things we did (like drop more munitions over Laos than in the whole Vietnam War, according to one report I read.) Later, I was especially entertained by the display of drugs (real ones, mind you - not some decoys) and drug paraphanelia and labeled "Tools Used by the Bad Social Element."

I took a (hellish) tuk tuk to this bizarre Buddha Garden outside the city as well. Some sort of mish mash of sculptures for all eastern religions built by an old eccentric in the 1950s. Tomorrow doing a river kayaking trip on my way to Vang Vieng in the north I hope.

The currency is 10,000 kip to the dollar. So this is what they gave me in exchange for $100 US. I feel a bit dodgy with carrying these huge stacks of bills everywhere.



Miles high over Laos.

I left Siem Reap this morning and survived the sketchy flight on an old Russian castoff plane on Laos Airlines. It took awhile as we stopped through in Pakse, a regional capital, and the AC was seemingly out. Anyway ... what a world of difference this place is.I haven't been approached once today by a driver or anyone selling me anything. Also, the whole Soviet communist thing is way more prevalent here than it was in Cambodia. I imagine this is what Cuba is like (where I have never been, so it's a bad comparison) but many many homes and shops have the big red sickle and hammer Soviet flags flying out front and the streets have all these amazing vintage cars, especially old 240D Merecedes with tinted windows that scream "secret agent." For accomadations, I went all out for a pool and AC this time at an old villa that is ridiculously charming with all sorts of colonial and Soviet furnishings mixed together.

I was relieved to get out of Siem Reap. After a week the touristy vibe of the town became really grating - the constant fending off of beggars and tuks tuks and whatever. But overall I became very fond of all the Cambodians I spoke with and generally found them to be really engaging and charming. The country has complicated problems and my feelings about being there were complicated too. It was hard work to constantly be aware of the poverty and problems, then let it go and enjoy yourself and not get upset when a man with no arms is grabbing your shirt tail with what remains of his arms. Then again walk with compassion. Anyway, I felt exhausted by the time I arrived here in Vientianne today.

Boy, we're really showing them how to dance now.



Matt and Geoff understand that there ain't no party like a Cambodian nightclub party.

You haven't really been to Cambodia until you have been to a Cambodian nightclub. All I know is that it was most definitely off the map.

But let's start at the beginning: Yesterday was a day of contrasts to the extreme. I rented a bike in the morning and pedaled around until I stopped at a free museum of some sort. I chatted with Peng, the caretaker, who is 28 and has an uncle that lives in Texas who fled the Khmer Rouge. He said he liked music so we listened to my iPod for an hour. I have formerly introduced Leonard Cohen and ESG to Cambodia, though it was hard to describe what a "south bronx story" was. Later, I returned to the orphanage but didnt find the same people as the day before. I was intercepted instead by a guy named Bot who lives there (the orphanage is on a monstary compound that also is home to dozens of homeless guys.) Bot, 28, has lived there since 1989 and his parents were killed by the Khmer Rouge. He never knew them and has been on his own his whole life. He told me he feels lonely. He took me around the compound ostensibly to practice English and show me the school where he is a volunteer teacher. One classroom consisted of some roughly hewn boards tacked together and the most pitiful rotting white board. I really wanted to help Bot so I asked him what I could do/buy for him. "A new whiteboard?" he asked me shyly. Of course! Right now? he asked. Yes! I have never seen someone run so fast - we sprinted to get on a moto and raced to the schoool supply store. I told him to buy whatever he wanted there. He bought 100 notebooks, 100 pencils, 100 erasers, a big new whiteboard, pens, rulers, coloring books, crayons, a big dictionary and other assorted books. It was an event! The whole store got involved as we cleared the shelves an stacked up a huge pile of supplies. Finally we had enough and the bill came to $44. I paid and we hauled all the stuff back. Arriving was another event as we paraded back through the compound with the fabulous new white board. They asked me to write my name on two sheets of paper, which they tacked to the walls. An old tootheless nun came out and told me "Thank you and good luck to your family!" As Bot walked me back to my bike, he told me, "I feel so happy inside." We didn't say much more after that. There was nothing to say in fact, the moment transcended words.

Later in the evening I met up with two Americans, Matt and Geoff, from LA for some drinks. I had met them the night before at one of the sidewalk cafes. We had some cocktails, then some amazing Indian food which made us all break out into a sweat. By midnight the town was closing down save for a few Aussies nursing buckets at bar "Angkor What?" It looked like that was going to be the end of the evening so we piled into a tuk tuk. "You like nightclub?" asked the driver. Yes! We like nightclub! So we headed up the main road, then took a left and then the streets were dark and a few more turns and we arrive at this compound that's all done up in what looks like Christmas lights. Four seconds later we are surrounded in a swirl of dry ice, about 400 dancing Cambodians who are fractured by the strobe light and not a Westerner in sight. House music pounding, we get some beers and start dancing. The music was a weird mix of remixed techno hip hop with Cambodian romantic slow jams. Princess Superstar has a lyric that goes "All the Cambodians need is one good dance hit." Bring it - these people are ready to dance!

Anyway, yeah, like good American party people, we closed that place down too at 4 a.m. And now, 12 hours into my Cambodian hangover, I should rephrase myself: You haven't really been to Cambodia until you've nursed a hangover in a $9 guest house with no AC. I am not complaining though, all Catherine New needs is one good iced coffee.