The Last One - Unbelievable!!
(unless you cheated...)
Album 26
(23 August to 8 December 1999)
Lao (as they say, not "Laos") is a primitive country.
Rice explains the differences between the various SE Asian people :
Vietnamese plant the rice.
Cambodians watch it grow.
The Lao listen to it grow.
It was a nice change to leave over-developed, over-consuming China
(ironically
similar to America) and see people with a simpler life:
(photo by Sandra Basic)
The monks are still the elite
and the roads are downright deadly (well - slow).
However, there is drive-thru service!
Lao was bombed "back into the dark ages" during the Vietnam war.
Although the country was not developed, the devastation was terrible.
There are a few remnants
but most people don't care about what happened 30 years ago
(unlike the Vietnamese). They worry about selling in the present!
We actually didn't take many photos. The atmosphere's so hard to capture.
We swept thru Thailand in a hurry to Nepal where Sandra just blended in
and went trekking to "Everest" (actually to see Everest).
We are quite proud that we walked 28 days in and out
(instead of flying part-way) and we had a vertical gain/loss of 30.000m,
that's sea level to the top of Everest and back and up again and
half-down!
(Making a few BIG assumptions of course ;-)
So- how about some photos?
the bad trail,
the yak
and the top (well - for us!)!
(Everest is the one looking smaller in the middle)
We walked out in time for Diwali (like last year)
and then took a few days to puff (I mean breathe) and rest in Pokara.
(Jachu, Kigan, Aggy and Tomassimaximo)
Next - Europe!
Can you guess where?
We liked the adult tour at the Louvre
and saw that art perhaps is embarrassed by life elsewhere.
And... finally we returned to the start, Zagreb,
where Tanja and Mario's wedding had produced "results", uh Nina.
(photo by Sandra Basic)
as well as some lovely cold weather.
(photo by Sandra Basic)
It's nice after sweating for a year in Asian humidity!
I came back to California on December 8, 1999, 1690 days after I left.
For a few statistics, look to the next page [to be posted]
(Done! Wait for the next trip...)
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