Tuesday, May 9, Vientiane
I arrived in Vientiane, the capital of Laos this afternoon and fell in love with the country immediately. As I write, I am sitting by the banks of the “mighty” Mekong River as all the guide books like to describe it. The sun is just setting throwing a shimmer over the water. A wooden long boat below is being poled by man balancing on the back of the low sitting boat. Children are cavorting in the muddy brown water and a woman in a cone hat is wading waist high to fix her fishing nets. I sit on a precarious terrace caf