TrekShare - Crashing a Laos Wedding - Part 2

Written by Joseph Kultgen


Public Service Announcement: Drinking and driving is bad.  With that said I’ve drank and drove a few times in my day and have puked inrepparttar back of cars while someone drunker than me was atrepparttar 134183 wheel.  My question wasn’t meant to be judgmental but rather compassionate.  They were drunk;repparttar 134184 streets were dark and littered in potholes.  When all is said and done I know I would have jumped onrepparttar 134185 back of either of their scooters.  I just needed assurance that we weren’t going to take some drunken steroid infested crotch rocket ride reminiscent of high school.  You’ve got to hate crap like that.  The next portion of our conversation seemed to flow like there was no language barrier at all.  Ton explained that he was careful to makerepparttar 134186 necessary judgements to drive safely.  This wasn’t one of those times when someone drinking shouldn’t drive.  This was one of those times a person uses his judgement correctly.  The idea of harming himself or another person was foreign to him.  This appears to berepparttar 134187 norm in a society built upon few enforceable laws but harsh penalties for living.  His outlook was refreshingly unique.  Most of us live in a world where we aren’t trusted to make our own judgements.  He has no choice. I soon discovered upon exitingrepparttar 134188 gala that it had never been their intention to drive.  The party was just downrepparttar 134189 street.  The energy reached a fevered pitch as we roundedrepparttar 134190 corner and enteredrepparttar 134191 rear ofrepparttar 134192 bride’s house.  I walked stoically ontorepparttar 134193 back patio with my head held low. I do this for a variety of reasons.  The primary reason I do this is in my everyday life is because I find if I look uprepparttar 134194 craziest wacko will undoubtebly engage me in a conversation.  I did it in Laos as a sign of respect.  Bowing is an integral aspect ofrepparttar 134195 salutation and this way I was half way there.  The depth at to which you bow andrepparttar 134196 duration all reflect your position in life relative torepparttar 134197 person you are addressing.  The corresponding hand positions are difficult if not impossible to master by anyone except forrepparttar 134198 natives so I don’t suggest trying.  Just keep your head low and don’t look someone inrepparttar 134199 eyes unless you are given indication that it’s appropriate to do so.  Two more reasons to keep your chin low.  Let’s just say that walking into a communist country like a goddamn red, white and blue peacock perpetuates certain stereotypes that affect our relationships with other countries.  The second reason is simpler.  People taller thanrepparttar 134200 mean height of 5’3" will ultimately take a roof ofrepparttar 134201 house torepparttar 134202 noggin sometime during their stay in this vertically challenged land. About 40 people were comfortably dispersed in 4 primary groups.  One group was insiderepparttar 134203 house and usedrepparttar 134204 back patio door to supply food, drink and a constant flow of new people torepparttar 134205 party.  One ofrepparttar 134206 people in this group was Pond’s wife who we unfortunately didn’t get to meet.  She was too busy working behindrepparttar 134207 scenes.  I assume it’s a traditional bonding time forrepparttar 134208 mother, bride and her girls. The second group was dancing around a tree just brought out by a woman from insiderepparttar 134209 house.  It wasrepparttar 134210 Lamvong dance, except they were all circlingrepparttar 134211 tree together.  It was a small space so I can see why.  The third group was a table of primarily older men drinking and a rare 2 smokers.  Not many people smoke in Laos and this wasrepparttar 134212 first time I saw anyone smoking in such a public space.  I greeted what to me looked likerepparttar 134213 oldest guy atrepparttar 134214 table.  I would say he was about 48.  This is old in a country with an average life expectancy is 54 years old.  He was also one ofrepparttar 134215 smokers.  Yeah right…. Smoking kills.  We grabbed two seats atrepparttar 134216 ends ofrepparttar 134217 "old-guys" table and spurted out  "kop chi li li" another 30 or so times.  A fourth group congregated along a makeshift bar situated behind us onrepparttar 134218 perimeter ofrepparttar 134219 lawn and street.  This is whererepparttar 134220 guys who brought us torepparttar 134221 party set up camp. Within about 6 seconds of sitting down a 1/3 full glass of BeerLao was between my eyes.  I took a drink and watched my friend Paul try to explain that he would prefer soda water. It was basically a long-running joke at this point into our 5-day Laotian trek. I can’t explain how foreignrepparttar 134222 concept of abstaining from drinking is torepparttar 134223 Laotian people. Laotians don’t have any concept of not drinking because of personal choices.  Many people don’t drink often because it doesn’t bode well with their health, but this wasn’trepparttar 134224 case. Let’s just say it wasn’trepparttar 134225 first time people would be brought into hysterics upon a toast from Paul’s soda water.  It only got funnier each ofrepparttar 134226 25 additional times he declined a drink. Being able to consume and abuse almost anything at our discretion is notrepparttar 134227 situation in Laos.  There isn’trepparttar 134228 same kind of access to external factors. Their gentle personalities and suspicious nature is a reflection of their lack and oftentimes desire of material goods.  This is ideologically different than western capitalism principals that are slowly being adopted since 1990.  Not to mentionrepparttar 134229 U.S. did conduct a secret war in 1973 that left itrepparttar 134230 most bombed country ofrepparttar 134231 Vietnam War.  I know you probably don’t want a history lesson, butrepparttar 134232 rational was to cut offrepparttar 134233 northern trade routes ofrepparttar 134234 Ho Chi Min Trail in order to curtainrepparttar 134235 spread of communism.  There I said it. A few short minutes later a sharply dressed Pond walked intorepparttar 134236 party.  He wore a purplish blue iridescent silk oxford withrepparttar 134237 sleeves rolled up.  Both his wrists were tightly wrapped in a white cloth rope – traditional Lao boxing style.  He looked like a bad ass as he sat down between me and Paul.  Pond quickly got offered a drink from one ofrepparttar 134238 4 people who were circlingrepparttar 134239 table like vultures looking

New York Without Luggage, Reservations or Fresh Socks

Written by Laura Glendinning


New York is an impossible place - an overbuilt island with a nasty climate, horrendous traffic and . . .magic. What's not to love? Our day trip to Manhattan was typical John and Laura - last minute. It was post Christmas and very cold after a snowstorm. The sky was bright blue andrepparttar wind was piercing as we stood atrepparttar 134182 bus stop in John's New Jersey hometown - Kearny. I, weak and pathetic after years of mild L.A. weather, huddled in a nearby store while John,repparttar 134183 native, stood inrepparttar 134184 cold without gloves or scarf. He deigned to wear a hat, at least. I had in my pocket $40, an American Express card and a lipstick. Oh yes, and a one use camera. Little did I know we wouldn't be back in Kearny for almost two days.

We tookrepparttar 134185 excellent DeCamp Buslines bus over, warm and comfy. I watchedrepparttar 134186 gritty landscape pass by, crumbling and winter-cracked overpasses, plenty of graffiti, salt-beaten cars. This is not a romantic way to get to NYC but a warm one. My dadrepparttar 134187 Scottish immigrant actually arrived via ocean liner and his first sight of America was ofrepparttar 134188 Statue of Liberty. He even passed through immigration at Ellis Island. Now that's an arrival in New York. We got off atrepparttar 134189 grungy Port Authority where a taste ofrepparttar 134190 winter wind had even John admitting he needed a scarf. He bought a post Christmas bargain for $6. One thing you can do and want to do in New York is walk and we were soon warm enough as we marched out intorepparttar 134191 late morning and headed torepparttar 134192 Metropolitan Museum. The place was thronged with families off school and work, plenty of art students and a well-organized staff. I was finally warm and very reluctant to get intorepparttar 134193 long coat check line and surrender my security blanket, butrepparttar 134194 line moved fast and we soon had our coat tags and dove intorepparttar 134195 crowds. John knows his modern art and we visited a lot of his favorites after an elegant snack inrepparttar 134196 café. The American Express card got its first of many uses there. We then traded off putting up with exhibits for each other. I examinedrepparttar 134197 vintage baseball card collection for him and he joined me forrepparttar 134198 costume exhibit, focusing onrepparttar 134199 Duke and Duchess of Windsor's elaborate clothing. God those two could really dress - but then again maybe that was all they really had to do. . .

A couple of hours in a museum was plenty for us so out intorepparttar 134200 air we went. It was warmer at last. I hadn't been to New York since a lone high school trip many years before, so I had to see some of what I had seen before just to compare notes with myself. Central Park was easy since it borders onrepparttar 134201 Met. Yep, still a big beautiful park. In winter kids were sliding downrepparttar 134202 modest hills and dogs romped - well they were dogs whose owners lived onrepparttar 134203 park so maybe they sashayed. The Plaza Hotel was also onrepparttar 134204 list of places to revisit. The lobby was as lavish as I remembered but it seemed smaller. Do all things shrink year by year? Or are they so big in your memoryrepparttar 134205 present can never matchrepparttar 134206 past?

New York is one of those places whererepparttar 134207 present does exceedrepparttar 134208 past, because it always has something new to show you. Last time I had done three theater shows, had a carriage ride through Central Park, visitedrepparttar 134209 Statue of Liberty and Empire State Building, watchedrepparttar 134210 St. Patrick's Day parade, all in four days. So this time I could relax, right? Well why relax in New York? We had cellphone numbers for our respective friends and were secretly grateful when we couldn't reach any of them. The night would be ours -repparttar 134211 plan was to catch a late bus, train or something back before they all stopped running. Rather thanrepparttar 134212 subway, we used our all day transit passes and tookrepparttar 134213 aboveground buses, which may not seem hip but run allrepparttar 134214 time and stop at convenient places. Cabs are notrepparttar 134215 necessity you might think they are. John wanted to show merepparttar 134216 Village, one ofrepparttar 134217 places where he had lived during his 6 years inrepparttar 134218 city. Dusk came quick and our first stop was an Internet café to check email. That's whenrepparttar 134219 idea to stay over started brewing. Maybe we could get some kind of online deal for a last minute hotel for that night. We mulled it over at venerable McSorley's, a beer-only bar where women were not allowed untilrepparttar 134220 '80's. The waiter remembered John and found us seats inrepparttar 134221 raucous holiday crowd. We somehow ended up at a table of college friends reuniting after stints in Arizona - or were they all headed to Arizona? The beers were flowing andrepparttar 134222 facts got fuzzy. They took our picture - recording us for posterity inrepparttar 134223 kind of winter get-up we'd never be wearing in California. McSorley's serves two kinds of beer - light and dark, both their own brews. Snacks consist of cheese, onions and hot mustard. And, oh yeah you have to order beers in sets of two, no splitting. Sawdust onrepparttar 134224 floor and dark wood completerepparttar 134225 picture. Afterrepparttar 134226 beers it seemed to make sense to stay over and spend a great New York night without worrying about catching a bus back to New Jersey. We bookedrepparttar 134227 Soho Grand for an okay rate and knew one thing for sure: at last we would be sleeping on a smooth surface after four sleepless nights on a sheet stretched over lumpy rocks - otherwise known asrepparttar 134228 ancient family guest room mattress.

Beforerepparttar 134229 Grand was dinner - we decided to walk around and look for a likely place. John has no trouble asking local-looking people where they like to eat and they were happy to help. What's this rumor about bitter New Yorkers? Of course I was introduced asrepparttar 134230 visitor from L.A. so they had allrepparttar 134231 more reason to be sure I got something besides sprouts, tofu and sunflower seeds. We stopped in for raw oysters and champagne at a small but packed restaurant. It got to be around 9 and we figured we had a shot at getting into Balthazar without a reservation. Sure enough, we only had to wait about 45 minutes atrepparttar 134232 bar, pacing ourselves onrepparttar 134233 drinking by this point, believe you me. Dinner was quite wonderful, though I let myself get talked out of a local fish - cod - and talked into Chilean sea bass, which is unavoidable in L.A. restaurants The waiter had obviously spent his childhood pushing cod around his plate and pretending he'd finished it. John's ravioli was phenomenal and led to him to keep perfecting his pasta and ravioli from scratch.

Cont'd on page 2 ==>
 
ImproveHomeLife.com © 2005
Terms of Use