Interesting people I met in Laos

On the Laos side of the Friendship Bridge:

• Laos man who lives in Lowell, MA.
• Thai man who lived in New Jersey and California and almost Boston. He is now retired in Udon Thani, Thailand.

On bus from Vang Viang to Phon Savanh:

• Norwegian psychiatrist who is on his way to Hanoi to edit his book on post-traumatic disorder of post-war Vietnamese.
• Dutch farmer (female) who takes 2 months off each winter with her farmer husband to travel in 1 foreign country. This year is Laos. 20 years ago, it was Hong Kong. They have been doing this for 30 years!!

In Phon Savanh:

• Dutch college student working on her tourism thesis on sustainable tourism in undeveloped Laos. She's doing this research through a Dutch NGO focused on improving tourism. Her brother is a free-lance photographer in Vientiane and his girlfriend also works for the NGO.
• Tourguide Bullet (30 years old with an ugly goatee). He made a lot of money off me. Consider that monthly salary in Laos is approximately USD$35. I gave him a total of $20. Yup. I made his day. But he still tried to cheat me by giving me change in USD. Who does that?!? I examined my $10 bill and his. They were different. No worries, I gave his back to him when I paid for my car ride to Louang Phabang. He also tried to convince me to buy Hong Kong dollars off of him. What does he think I am? Then he tried to convince me to share a room with him in Louang Phabang to save money. I said "Hell No!" On the other hand, I did bump into him on the street after dinner in Phon Savanh and tried some Laos rice wine with him. It was safe because it was right outside his tour agency and lots of other tourists were there. The rice wine is made by fermented sticky rice with yeast for 1 week and then slowly pouring water into the pot with the rice. You then stick straws in it to drink. It was very sweet. And strong.

On van from Phon Savanh to Louang Phabang:

• 2 Australian plastic surgeons (Hallie and David). They were in Laos for 2 weeks performing free cleft lip surgery on Laos children. They come every year. It was really cool. Poor Hallie got car sick. We had to stop several times so she could rest. Oh, and they gave me chocolate. Lindt chocolate with caramel. I didn't realize how much I missed it. I mean, I'm not even a chocolate fan! But oh, it was so good.

On plane from Louang Phabang to Vientiane:

• Dutch man (Phil). Former Australian I-banker with Goldman Sachs. He quit to go to Vietnam with his then girlfriend to work with a Dutch NGO. You guessed it, it's the same NGO that Dutch college girl is working with. Phil works with Dutch college girl's brother's girlfriend. What a small world.