Steve, Peter and I returned to the resort to gather our bags. While I headed to town with all the bags, Steve and Peter rented a motor bike for the morning. I hooked up with Grandma, Anna and Paul at one of the several cafes in town that airs previous episodes of Friends all day long! Around
Anna, who is linking up with an English woman to travel in southern 
sudden we heard an agitated exclamation and the bus jerked wildly to avoid a collision with a fuel truck and then crashed into the concrete railing of an upcoming bridge, narrowly avoiding careening into a steep ravine. Thankfully, everybody on board, including the driver, was fine, and the front of the bus was firmly anchored by the concrete railing it was wedged upon. In the impact, the bus had crushed three concrete posts, exposing the steel girders that form the infrastructure of the bridge. After I found my shoe that had been flung all the way to the front of the bus, we hastily deboarded the bus, and all of us passengers huddled in a shelter across the street and watched, still stunned from the accident, as the driver and conductor surveyed the damage. The fuel truck had stopped and offered assistance. Before long they had attached a steel rope from the bus to the fuel truck and pulled the bus off the concrete railing. Next they attached the rope from the bus to the undamaged concrete railing to straighten out the axle. After a quick inspection, the bus was issued a clean bill of health and the conductor with a flourish invited all the passengers back on the bus. Though I liked this conductor, I definitely didnât feel comfortable getting back on that bus in its condition and I, along with all the other farangs, declined the offer. All our bags were unloaded, and we waited to catch a ride with a passing song tao. Before Peter and his new friends from
When we arrived in Vientiane at the song tao station, none of us were too sure where exactly we were but with our Lonely Planets in hand we caught a tuk-tuk together and managed to find a popular area for guest houses for the others and the bus station for us. When we arrived, it was as if we had a welcoming committeeâseveral tuk-tuk drivers welcomed us and asked us where we were headed, an Asian American woman from Utah, who was filming a music video in Laos, approached us and was eager to talk to a fellow countrywoman, and a Laos man waiting at the bus station who wanted to practice his English began talking to my mother-in-law. In the meantime, I confirmed that this was indeed the station where buses from Vang Vieng come. It was 10 minutes later when a bus rolled into the terminal and Paul spotted Steve. We ran to greet him. Boy, were we glad to see him! And, of course he had an adventure to relay as well. When the song tao dropped him off at the bus station in Vang Vieng, he tried to catch a tuk-tuk but they tried to charge him what we knew was an exorbitant fare. Since his remaining kip was limited, he was forced to run back to the hotel. On the way, he happened to pass by the home of the man who had rented him the motor bike, and the man happened to see him and immediately ran out to greet him. He had been looking all over town for him once he realized that Steve had dropped off the motor bike but had forgotten to collect his passport. Knowing that we were leaving that day by bus to
This afternoon as I sat at the restaurant at our resort along the river in Vang Vieng, I was awakened from my reveling by a chorus of familiar voices coming from somewhere up the mountain yelling, âMom!â I looked up and there they wereâPeter, Paul and Steveâwaving from the observation deck hanging off the jagged limestone cliffs that rise high above the river. I ran out to greet them and show them how much I love them by waving enthusiastically and sending kisses up to them. This was to be their perch for their afternoon homework session. Pretty nice classroom, eh?
In all the countries we have visited, we have learned a few words, many of them are quite melodic and rich in meaning. Here are a few of our favorites in Laos:
- "Sabadee" (hello, goodbye, etc.)
- My favorite, "Cup Chai Lai-Lai" (Thank you very much!)
- A very common Laos phrase, "Bo pen yung" (No problem, no worries)
Relunctantly, we took our leave of Luang Prabang to head south to Vang Vieng. We stayed at an organic farm there where they harvested mulberry leaves and berries and cooked wholesome foods of all varietiesâdelicious coconut curry with plump,harvest vegetables, pumpkin soup, mulberry pancakes, and mulberry shakes were among our groupâs favorites.
Vang Vieng was a dusty little town and we were glad to retreat to the organic farm at the end of the day. One evening at the farm we interviewed our dear friends, Anna, Veronica and Alex, Weâd like to introduce them to you as they have become a part of our family while in
Anna Jonsson, from
Where were you born?
Where do you study?
What are you studying? Gender issues and democracy
Why are you traveling? Iâm traveling because the first time I traveled I became aware of a new side of myself that I really liked and I think that it has made me a stronger person-- that I can do things and face challenges and survive them by myself. I donât need somebody to help me. I like the feeling that gives me. It also makes you more open to meeting new people.
Why are you traveling in
Where did you get the spirit to travel? In part from my mom and grandma--they went on a round the world trip when I was 4 years old for 3 months. And a good friend of mine has traveled a lot through
What has been the most significant experience so far? I think the trek in northern
What one place would you return to and why? I would like to go back to Luang Prabang because I like the atmosphere in that place. And, also Iâd like to go back to Luang Nam Tha and finish the trek I started.
Veronic (Veronica) Tardif, from
Where were you born?
Where did you study?
What did you study? French literature and communication
What occupation do you intend to pursue? Teacher of French
Why are you traveling? Iâm traveling because I want to discover new things, new people, and new cultures. It allows me to learn more things about myself.
Why are you traveling in Southeast Asia? I traveled in
Where did you get your spirit to travel and see other places in the world? I got it from my parents who took us to the states 5 or 6 times. My first trip I was 4 years old. Then they shipped me to the states for a year in my last year of high school. I learned a new language, culture and I just wanted to continue to discover new places. My parents also traveled quite a bit. Iâve always seen my parents travel and it is something that came naturally to me to travel.
What has been the most significant experience for you on this trip? Meeting you guys because weâre having so much fun and it was kind of hard to travel by myself. Iâm really enjoying my time now.
What one place would you return to and why? Iâd like to return to the road between the Thai border and the Luang Nam Tha. I told him it was going to be an adventure. No, just kidding. I would return to Pai in northern
Alexander (Alex) Kirschke, from
Where were you born?
Where do you study? University of Applied Sciences,
What did you study? Event manager, organizer/manager of tour operation
Why are you traveling? I think traveling always opens your mind a little bit more. Iâm traveling to find the sense of life. And I try to bring different ways of life back to my own country--to share my new impressions and ideas with people where I was born.
Why are you traveling in
Where did you get your spirit to travel and see other places in the world? First of all, my parents showed me when I was a kid a lot of places and tried to open my mind as much as possible. I went with my parents when I was a kid to
What has been the most significant experience for you on this trip? The most magnificent experience was when I went to Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai with my parents. Our guide showed us how to do the meditationâgo 3 times around the cheddi, light the candle, and pray, and I did it and my wish came true. I really liked the atmosphere there and also that I was with my parents and it was a sunny day and everything was really nice.
What one place would you return to and why? I would say especially in
Early the next morning, we sent Steve and Alex to purchase bus tickets for our family of 8 to Nong Khiaw, ate at the Panda Restaurant, and hurried to the bus terminal to board the bus. It was more like a mini bus and we took up a fair share of the seats but there were dozens more passengers and more than a few bags of rice and other cargo. Once again, we were compressed into the bus and Peter had to sit on a little plastic chair in the middle of the aisle. Veronica and the boys found diversion capturing Steve, Alex and me on film gawking in our sleep! I hope those photos have been properly destroyed, Veronica??!! At our half-way stop, we had a one hour layover and boarded a song tao for the latter 3 hours of the journey. We werenât two hours out of town when it broke down and Veronica and Alex had visions of repeating their fateful journey to Luang Nam Tha. Fortunately, a replacement song-tao arrived within the hour and we were once again on our way.
The next day we caught a boat to our next destinationâLuang Prabang. The seats were just as hard but we were glad for a break from song-taos and the ride along the Nam Ou River through the rugged interior of 
another. Each one had itâs own distinctive shape and each one was grand in scale and the jagged peaks went on as far as the eye could see. Villages dotted the river shore, and everywhere we saw the industrious
Just outside of Luang Prabang, we stopped at a cave where local people had created a special temple. Stop Fighting Buddhas were rare here but we managed to find some in the deep recesses of the cave system as inspiration for Peter and Paul! I will assume this pose frequently in an effort to curtail sibling feuds.
Well, we found the best market so far in
One night while tending to Peter who had a short-lived bout of stomach upset, Paul went out on the town with Alex and Veronica. He accompanied them for their foot and facial massages (which believe it or not involved more riotous episodes when Alexâs masseuse tripped and nearly spilled cold water all over Alex while he had his eyes covered with a compress!) and by the end of the evening, returned home aglow with excitement, with a new Beer Lao shirt! The nightâs entertainment continued with a few rounds of Milles Bourne (a French game that Veronica remembered from her childhood) with Veronica and Anna. Then the next morning he awoke early for more adventures with the gangâthis time to feed the monks in their early rounds to collect food.
Our guest house was wonderfully hospitable and we all settled in to the very comfortable rhythm of Luang Prabang. Peter, Paul, Veronica, Alex and I took an excursion to a fantastic 
waterfalls about an hour out of Luang Prabang. The swimming holes looked a bit dubious but when an Australian bloke and a couple of
Our 3-day, 2-night trek was an unforgettable experience of physical exertion and challenge, cultural immersion, phenomenal natural and cultivated, sustainable environment, and last but not least, friendship and laughter. It was by far the highlight of our trip, not only because we had the opportunity to really see the pristine back country of Laos but because of the closeness and camaraderie we share with our new companions and fellow travelers, Alex and Veronica, and our two Laos guides, To and Ta, from the Luang Nam Tha tourism center, considered the best in the country.
Our adventure began in the rice fields on the outskirts of town. We walked along the narrow pathways that wind along the perimeter of the rice fields wallowing in water. In several areas, the pathway narrowed to a balance beam, and we had to concentrate to navigate successfully through these deceivingly treacherous passageways. Unfortunately, shortly into the hike, Mom slipped into the rice field, and when she extracted her foot from the mud, her shoe was missing. I fished it out and we began trudging warily along again. Mom fell two more times and on the last fall, we were concerned she had sprained her ankle, but up she bounced again ready and determined to continue. At a rice hut used by rice field workers, we took a break from the blistering heat. We had been walking on flat terrain but were already drenched in sweat!
Once through the rice fields, we began climbing into the hills and before long had reached a Hmong village, where we were invited to rest at the home of one of the villagers. We entered the thatch house and sat on stools around the dirt floor while many children settled into to eye the curious farangs (foreigners). With To, as an interpreter, we talked to the father and the children of the home and discovered that the children love to attend school in nearby Luang Nam Tha, a 3-hour, round-trip commute through the rice fields to town, because they have many friends and learn many things!
We continued through a grove of rubber trees (rubber is another major product from 
plopped in small mounds across the banana leaf. My favorite was a green bean and bamboo dish and a close second were the morning glory and squash/egg plant vegetable stir-fry dishes. There was also a spicy pork dish and hot egg plant/chili sauce for anyone who cared to further enhance the spiciness of the dishes (Peter and Steve can vouch for the chili sauceâit was spicy and yummy!). Each of us had our portion of sticky rice and dove into the spread with gusto. After all, weâd been on the trail for nearly 4 hours and had exerted considerable energy getting this far. We extended our lunch-time banter for as long as we could until our guides prodded us to get back on the trail again. We were in for another strenuous 3 hours of hiking, made that much more treacherous by the muddiness of the trail. We slipped going up and we slipped going down. Each step required strategic deliberation, and sturdy bamboo trunks along the trail became our lifeline for hoisting ourselves up the trail and stabilizing ourselves on the slippery descent! As we were sliding down one particularly slushy, muddy slope, Steve was inspired with this marketing slogan for the monsoon season in
Much of the wildlife in 
saw a few snakes, including a poisonous green one, who sat perfectly still on his thicket on the side of the trail as we ever so respectfullyâand cautiouslyâproceeded past his wet jungle home. And, near the end of the trek, Paul felt something squirming in his shoe. When he took his shoe off, he discovered it was a leech and began flinging his foot around so fast I couldnât grab it to pry it off. Ta finally managed to wrestle his foot and pull it off but for the remainder of the trip, Paul kept whipping his shoe off to inspect for leeches.
We took breaks to sample the jungle fruit. Ta said that one small, particularly bitter fruit turns sweet when you drink water but all of us farangs (foreigners) ever only experienced severe bitter! I guess our taste buds are just not as sophisticated. Ta also told us that locals place a small branch of leaves on the large, altar-like termite mounds for good luck. Thankfully, we passed several of these monuments along the way, and I think it was that luck that eventually carried us to the village where we spent the first night of the trek! Caked in mud and sweat from the journey, we were all keen to join the hoards of locals heading to the river to bathe. I cannot tell you how wonderful it felt to plunge into those cool watersâeven though we women had to bathe wearing either a sarong or towel and remain completely clothed throughout the process while the men just pranced in unrestricted with their shorts. We hung out on our veranda, pleasantly refreshed, watching the locals play a fierce tournament of kartor with astounding acrobatic moves. The object of the game is to hit a wicker ball over the net with your head or feet and these seasoned players could do that with back flips, back bends and other amazing contortions of the body. Peter and Paul watched in reverence and didnât dare ask to join the game, but when the court cleared, they and Ta and To played a game. To was apparently pretty good in his heyday and still had some moves, though his accuracy was a little off. Nevertheless, Peter and Paul were impressed with the agility and skill and were keen to learn from a Lao master!
After bathing, we were famished but To and Ta were nowhere to be found and we waited in our cabin for the food we hoped would appear very soon. It did not but instead as night fell, a bounty of bugs, especially grasshoppers descended upon us. Pretty soon, we were all in stitches as the grasshoppers hopped from one unsuspecting victim after another. Veronica does not like bugs, especially in her sleeping/living quarters, so Alex launched several grasshoppers her way just to see her extremely lively reaction. I was nearly knocked unconscious when a grasshopper landed on Steveâs crotch and his arm flew out in rapid self-defense! In the meantime, Peter and Paul were joining in the fray by catching the most meddlesome of the perpetrators and flinging them out the window. Of course, more grasshoppers easily penetrated our thatched hut and the cycle of hysterical chaos continued. All these antics helped ease our gnawing hunger but when the food arrived, we gratefully gathered around to eat. The dish of the evening was the pumpkin soup with plump chunks of pumpkin and farm fresh greens in a spicy broth. After nearly all vegetarian fare, our guide, To, a rabid carnivore, devoured the duck that was also served.
[grasshopper update from Veronica in Vietnam, 10/21/05: A couple of days ago, I was sitting in an Internet cafe and (too bad you weren't there) i'm sure you would have loved to see my jump as a Grasshopper 2000 jumped on me...I thought it was a roach and I screamed so loud....it was kind of embarassing!]
That night, we stayed up talking about all our adventures and recounting the highlights of the dayâPaul dancing around when he was attacked by a leech, the grasshopper escapades, and Peterâs funny remarks (When directing his father to retrieve something from his pack, he said, âItâs in the smallest pocket but not the totally smallest pocket.â Or, when he asked his father, âWhatâs the difference between a grasshopper and a cricket?â and Steve said, âWell, I think theyâre pretty similar.â And Peter replied, âI didnât ask for the similarities; I asked for the differences!â). We laughed until we cried ourselves to sleep!
The next morning, Grandma Carrolâs ankles were quite swollen from the beating of the day before so we made arrangements for her to stay in the village while we continued on. Before setting off, we wandered around this industrious village and watched them processing rice, cultivating silk worms, unwinding and dying the silk thread from the silk worm cocoons, and weaving on the looms in the shade beneath their stilt-elevated houses. One woman, who had 
the tough job of boiling the cocoons and spooling the thread on her porch that hot morning, had stripped down to her bra and sarong. This didnât deter her from inviting us up to sample some silk worms. When we asked to take a picture with her, she very nonchalantly donned her blouse and broke into a lovely, toothless smile. The silk worms had a corn-like taste and were actually not bad! To prove it to my kids, I ate another and then helped Peter finish his! I never could convince Paul, my naturalist, to try one!
As we trekked through another village, Ta filled us in on Toâs love life. Apparently the telephone call we heard the night before was from his old girlfriend. According to Ta, To smiles so much (Mr. Smiley), it distorts his face and makes him ugly-looking, therefore, his nickname: âMr. 
Ugly!â To, of course, has his revenge, referring to Ta as âMr. Lazy,â as Ta is a guide-in-training and To is a full-fledged lead guide! Despite their banter, it is obvious that they are close friends. To attended Taâs wedding a year ago, along with the thousands of other guests, i.e. the whole village, who partook in the festivities. Ta now has a 3-month-old son, whose name is Poo and who we endearingly refer to as âLittle Poo!â
We had lunch in a town that is a major producer of rice whiskey in the region, According to Ta, thereâs a great demand for rice whiskey as it is an essential spirit for any Lao celebration. He had to provide an extraordinary quantity of rice whiskey at his wedding to allow all his guests to drink to their fill!
This hike seemed to wind steadily up until we finally emerged from the jungle into mountain rice fields. Yet another steep climb and we were finally entering the Aka village where we were scheduled to spend the second evening of our trek. Like the hill tribe where we spent the first night, this hill tribe practiced animism and we were instructed to be sure to walk through the gate, made out of branches to the village but not to stop under it or touch any of the ornamentation on the gate or any other structures of this kind in the village. If these designs are touched, they are defiled and a severe penance and repurification ritual must occur. Later, when Steve, being taller than most of the villagers, passed through the main gate again to bathe in the nearby stream, it was dark and he almost ran right into the upper arch of the gate and cautioned all of us to beware of this hazard!
As we walked into the village, the news that we arrived traveled quickly and by the time we reached our hut, the local women had assembled outside the entrance to our hut, hawking their wares with ferocity. As we ascended the steps to our living quarters, weary from the dayâs hike, we were tugged and pulled to look at these aggressive vendorsâ beaded jewelry. When I made it to the second floor of our hut and settled in, I didnât want to leave the safety of the hut because they wouldnât leave their post at the base of our hut and I wasnât in the mood for being hustled! Peter and Paul managed to make their way through the fray to watch another engaging game of kartor but eventually we had to emerge in order to bathe at the stream before night fall. One woman thought that she could extort a sale from us by yelling at us. I was overwhelmed by the assault but Veronica told her in firm English that if she touched her one more time, she wouldnât buy anything from her! She seemed to understand the âno fooling aroundâ tone of Veronicaâs voice and laid off for the time being! We purchased a few of the bracelets, distributing our purchases among the women assembled and were free at last to head to the stream. It was only men at the stream when we arrived but Steve was there and we managed to wrestle a few buckets out of the guys for our shower. One local fellow âborrowedâ Veronicaâs soap and he lathered like an Irish Spring soap commercial and she had a hard time getting it back from him!
Back at our hut waiting for dinner, many curious children crept up the stairs to hang out with us. We invited them in and played various hand games that didnât require language. Veronica and Alex taught a couple of little girls a partner-clapping routine and they raced through several rounds of itâVeronica and her partner victorious at first but later they were toppled from their reign by an upset from Alex and his partner! We all gathered around to play a game in which our hands were interlocked in a circle and a slap on the floor was passed one way and reversed by a signal of two slaps on the floor. Everybody caught on and we sustained the rhythm for quite some time until slowly players were eliminated and only one player remainedâI think it was either Veronica or Alex who seemed to have the fastest reflexes of all of us (and their reputation only grew as we played Hit the Deck, a card game that also involves quick reflexes, later in the trip!)
We were treated to a wonderful
I was still on my stomach when I heard shrieks of pain from Steve and asked him anxiously what was wrong. He didnât respond at first but then very ominously said, âYouâll find out!â Well, I wanted to know what he meant by that. I was to find out soon enough! When we were told to roll to our backs, our legs were the next body parts on the chopping block but the real fun began when they pulled and cracked all our toes. I let out a yelp with each toe and saved my pinky toe from the torture when I recoiled my foot and prematurely ended the massage. By then, they were O.K. with this because all the girls were now systematically laying out more of the beaded bracelets we had seen earlier and urging us to buy more. What a clever ployâpurchase a couple of bracelets in exchange for a massage. In the meantime, I found it interesting that To and Ta did not get a massage but instead watched us and disintegrated into peals of laughter at our reactions!
Once again, we had plenty to laugh about and once we blew out the candles (no electricity in this mountain village), we began recounting the funny events of the eveningâthe mad women selling their handicraft and the massage mafia, who were probably comprised of their daughters, who abused us for an hour! And, for the second night in a row, we laughed ourselves to sleep. Actually, for those of you who know my tendency to shout in my sleep, I kept vigil with my flashlight that night because it was pitch dark and I was sure I would be mightily disoriented if I happened to awaken in the middle of the night. When I went to collect my flashlight, a small bottle of hand sanitizer was eerily lighted from below and its contents seemed to have a phosphorescence quality. We had no idea what is was; it looked like some sort of monolith from 2001: Space Odyssey and we named the strange phenomenon, "Hand Sanitizer 2001!" At one point at about
[comments from Veronica about the above passage, from an email dated 11/4/05:
The last day of the hike began with a steady uphill climb for about an hour. The remaining 2 hours consisted of more jungle, more mud and more rice fields, and for break, we indulged in more jungle cucumbers and once again we marveled at their size and wholesome refreshment. The jungle yielded a few other surprisedâa rare leaf, with medicinal properties, that sells for $70/kilo to
For Peter, the first order of business when we returned to town was lunch (heâs definitely a teenager now and is now consistently hungry an hour and a half after eating!), and I postponed my overwhelming desire to take a shower until we had eaten lunch. Following a most delicious hot shower, the very next order of business for all of us was laundry. Between the 8 of us we must have dropped off close to 50 kilos of laundry! That night the whole gang visited Ta and his family at his home and met his parents, wife, baby, little Poo, and cousins. As we were leaving, he told us that this home might also be Toâs soon as we was currently dating Taâs motherâs sister! We were glad to know that our cherished two guides might eventually be all in the family!
When Grandma Carrol returned, she brought another friend to join our traveling clan, Anna from
After spending two nights sleeping together with our whole clan of 8 and partaking in riotous laughter about the dayâs escapades, it was sad to part and split up in separate bungalows that night. Over the course of the next several days, however, Peter and Paul began alternating sleeping with big brother, Alex, which was a real and covetous treat for them both. They both have fond memories talking with Alex at night before falling asleep. He and Paul already began planning for our visit to see Alex in Germany when we get to Europe next spring.
The day after we arrived while in an Internet Café in Luang Nam Tha, we met up with two 
travelers we had met the day before at the bus station in Huay Xai briefly, where we stopped to gas-up before beginning our journey to Luang Nam Tha. I had approached them to ask them if they wanted to join us since we had room in the truck and could split the fare. They said they had already bought their tickets on the public truck and so we wished them luck and continued on our way. Boy, did they regret not taking us up on our offer! It turned out that it took them over 17 hours, and they only arrived at
As we are traveling in this part of the world at the tail-end of the monsoon season, it was difficult to figure out how best to get north. Our options were a 2-day boat ride along the swelling Mekong River and its tributaries, an 8-hour-plus public truck ride (during the monsoon season, the local buses are replaced by 4-wheel drive trucks), which includes dozens of people, stops and cargo, or an 8-hour-plus ride in a private 4-wheel drive truck. In the end after consulting a couple of locals, we hired a driver and his 4-wheel drive open-bed truck and embarked for Luang Nam Tha. What an adventure and one that required some vigilant prayer as we scrambled and gutted our way through some pretty hairy passages. Mix torrential rain, all dirt roads, treacherous mountain ranges, and major road construction throughout the entire length of the trip, and you have the recipe for a pretty wild ride! At one point when we almost slid into a ditch, I conferred with the driver by drawing pictures in the mud about whether or not it was advisable to continue. He, in response, tried to reassure us, though ultimately we slipped and slid across the sea of mud, loosely called âroad,â for 9 hours and were ever so grateful to reach our destination! Like the bus drivers of
When I wasnât praying, I was enjoying the amazing sceneryâvivid green rice fields, lush forest, brown rivers cutting through steep gorges, multi-colored rock mountains, and quaint villages of thatched homes on stilts. The rice fields, however, left an indelible impression. I can still see the image of that almost surreal green in my mindâs eye. I tried to capture its magic in this poem:
Green rice fields, shimmering in the diffused light of the cloud-filled sky
A pulsating green, so soft and gentle, lulling me into a blissful calm
A wave of green refreshment washing over my senses
Green rice fields shimmering in the diffused light
A rolling sea of billowing green stalks
As inviting as a bed of soft green down
Green rice fields shimmering in the diffused light
Row by row, an ordered pattern of green symmetry
Gently undulating across the plains and fringes of the jungle-covered mountains
Green rice fields shimmering in the diffused light
Green reverberations echo in my memory
And fill my soul with longing for its green repose
Green rice fields shimmering in the diffused light
Never have I seen a green so captivating, enthralling
Oh, allow me to sail on that velvet green ocean again and again
Peter and I rode in the back of the truck; we like the wind at our faces and the thrill of the bumpy, roller-coaster-like ride. During the flatter and less treacherous passages, we had great fun. When we drove through villages, the children of the village would run out to see us and we would wave and shout, Sabadee, Sabadee. Many would keep waving until we were out of sight. One time though, toward the end of our trip, there was a group of boys swimming in a stream along the side of the road, and they came running out to greet us as per usual. However, one of them began making the obscene gesture of thrusting his pelvic in and out with the thumbs-up sign, apparently directed at me, the loose western woman in the back of the pick-up truck. Peter thought it was hilarious, but I was glad when we left that image in the dust! Peter and I began making up riddles and jokes to entertain ourselves as the long journey waned on. Hereâs one I made up: What is found in the equatorial belt, but is known to be slippery?