Cameo in Cambodia
Pleasant surprises are the norm in Laos, and maybe it's due to lowered expectations.
Whew.
In my last post, I mentioned the 'whatever goes' Laos attitude. What I failed to specify was that somehow, Laos manages to get by, to make the cut, to have things work out – incomprehensibly I know, but true enough despite their lackadaisical 'tude.
Buses break down in the middle the road? No problem – smiles all around because the stoppage gives the village women a chance to board the bus with snacks – and somehow, the bus arrives in the station on time anyway.
Pleasant surprises are the norm in Laos, and maybe it's due to lowered expectations. We were led to believe that a trip from Si Phan Don back to Pakse would be five hours. It turned out to be four, even with multiple engine failures. I had thought the massage only included the back – but the girl also worked on my head (really spectacular, I must say). There weren't any world famous sights (not like Angkor Wat or Halong Bay or the Great Wall) in the country, but now that my time is up, I have to say that the temples and statues and natural scenes have been better than I had figured (and that's because I didn't really know anything about Laos in the first place).
A lot of it has to do with the Laotians themselves.. and here we are, back to square one. You learn to deal with it because you can't help but love it – it's a bit lazy here, to be sure, but then again, it's also a breath of fresh air.
On a note about Angkor and things working out in the end: I got to the Pakse airport today hoping that I would get a standby ticket to Siem Reap, and lo and behold, I just walked to the counter, slid my passport over, and somehow, got seat 1A on the plane. It was the last seat as far as I could tell. Go figure – the ticket was handwritten, the airport system was managed manually via Excel, and the airplane was a propellered contraption from God knows when.
But here I am, at Victoria Angkor Resort, and all is well with the world. The pool is ultra-marine, the mango shake is thick, and I just got a new pair of shades for $2. Laos is in the rearview, but I'm definitely taking that road again...