Full Circle (Hong Kong)

My abbreviated tour of Southeast Asia has now come full circle; I am writing, once again, from Hong Kong, en route to New York tomorrow. (So this will be my penultimate post).

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Derek and I arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos, on the afternoon of May 12th. I spent the first two hours there figuring out my travel plans for the next two days (that is, determining the optimal route to Hong Kong before the 16th): I ultimately settled on a night bus from Luang Prabang to Vientiane on the 13th, then a morning flight to Bangkok, and finally another flight to Hong Kong on the night of the 14th. I saved about 100 bucks doing it my way, and not that of the travel agent. Since I'm currently unemployed, my time is worth less today than when I was working; it made sense to spend time scraping for those extra dollars.

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As I've written previously, I detest night buses. The one I took to Vientiane two nights ago (right after my awesome day in Luang Prabang; see below) trumped them all. Although I had the luxury of fully lying down across the aisle (the bus was only a quarter full), I got no sleep. The roads in Laos are slow and windy (there are no expressways), so the rolling jerkiness of the ride prevented the inertia it takes to achieve a sleepful state. Moreover, in order to keep himself awake (it seemed), the bus driver kept a looping track of awful Lao music on full blast the entire time. Finally, there was no restroom (typical) or air conditioning (atypical). Whatever could have been designed for a person's discomfort on a bus ride, was.

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On our first (and my only) night in Luang Prabang, we went to dinner at Indochina Spirit, touted by Derek's guidebook as "the best restaurant in Luang Prabang, if not all of Laos." Sorry to say, I wasn't impressed. I ordered the special "Lao Plate," a multi-course sampling of Lao cooking: fish soup, fried bamboo shoots with minced pork, Lao "sausage" (essentially fried pieces of pork, and not sausage in the traditional sense), and dried Mekong seaweed with sesame seeds (eaten like potato chips). Derek's pepper steak (there was a Western menu as well) looked like a better choice, but not by much.

Fortunately, Day Two in Luang Prabang fully made up for the prior day's lost time (associated with travel, an unavoidable friction cost) and unsatisfying dining experience. Derek and I hired a guide to take us on a motorcycle tour--each man to his own bike--of the countryside surrounding the city.

Outings like this are what make a trip special. Better writers than I have communicated the poetry of riding a motorcycle; I don't have such a gift, so I won't try to compete with them. I'll be more prosaic. The precarious boundary between physical freedom, at high speeds, inches from the earth you're exploring, and painful injury (if not worse), is a thrill that very few things in this world can provide. Skiing down a steep mountain also comes to mind--it puts you in a place you'd never ordinarily go, were it not for the highly specialized tools (and sense of adventure) in your possession. On a motorcycle, you approach that boundary when, for example, you fishtail after braking too hard on a loose pile of gravel, or accidentally accelerate when you meant to slow down. Scared shitless for a moment, and then all is well in the world again.

And, a propos of motorcycles, fierce beasts, strange and potentially dangerous foods, and societies with no discernible rule of law ("What are...things you may encounter in Southeast Asia?"): With youth often comes the notion that the world owes you the chance--and sometimes multiple chances--to be reckless. I've never subscribed to that notion as a way of life, per se, nor do I still consider myself a youth, but I must admit that I've enjoyed the chance to be a tad reckless over here. I'll try not to romanticize the experience too much (this is but a vacation, after all), but I am grateful to have had it, if only for a few weeks. I realize that quotidian reality beckons, and when I am honest with myself, I know that I desire a structured version of that reality, complete with potable tap water and modern healthcare.

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As I prepare to return home, here are some other things I am most looking forward to (in no particular order):

- Patsy's pizza (Patsy's is a restaurant, for my non-New York readers)
- A shave and a haircut from Yuri, my barber on East 52nd Street
- A pot of coffee and two newspapers every morning
- Tim Keller's preaching at Redeemer
- Baseball season
- Living out of a proper bureau and closet, not a backpack
- And of course, seeing all of your friendly faces around town

I fly tomorrow morning at 9:30. Big night out in Hong Kong tonight. I'll set two alarms.