Tuesday- Huay Xai

Tuesday-In Huay Xai

Yesterday, in Udoxai, I got an almost new bus - only 24000 kilometers on odometer.
It was a 24 passenger short bus, and there were only 6 passengers!

By the time we got to Huay Xai, 7 hours later, there was only me and a guy from Colorado
that I had met in Buon Neu two days ago.

In addition to being almost empty, the roads were in very good shape, and most of the time
wide as they should be.

It was actually a pretty boring trip!!


The day before had been another story, but a more interesting trip.

The other day On the bus from Buon Neu, everything had kinda calmed down, and the road was kinda smooth, so I pulled out my KINDLE electronic book. (my family gave it to me for fathers day!!)

It is very handy on a trip like this, because I can carry a lot of books in one small package
and in Thailand I could even get US newspapers downloaded for 50 cents.

In Laos, however, there was no access to the Kindle network. But anyway.. back to the story - I pulled out my Kindle and opened it to the index page.

I am reading "War and Peace", it's long and it was free, and so I went to push the button to open up the book to "War and Peace" ---- I had my finger on the button -- just as the bus hit several jarring bumps. ---When I looked back down at my Kindle, I found I had DELETED "War and Peace"!

It was in my archives, but I needed access to the network to get it back! I was a little
perturbed - but what's Deleted is deleted!

So I opened a Sherlock Holmes book and started it. ..... In Huay Xai, which is on the Thai
-Laos border, and a big tourist town, my Kindle signal came back, and I reloaded "War and
Peace"! So that worked out real nice. I then - just to test it - downloaded the Atlanta
Journal and got it.
(from cell phones - wi fi - and Kindles - WOW some kinda world we have today!)

Last night I had a nice hotel room , a corner room with two sides of windows, a narrow view
of the Mekong River, a fan, hot water, and a roman toilet, towel, and soap. It was
more expensive than up country, but definitely more benefits. It cost 80,000 kip ($9.87), the most expensive since the capital of Vientiane.

I looked at one room that was nice for 60,000 kip, but it was on the 4th floor - and I just
didn't feel doing the step thing! No elevators.

Oh yea - tourist town = American breakfast! I had fried eggs and toasted Baguette and
coffee this morning - 15,000 kip -less than $2.00.

Today I will cross the Mekong and go to Chaing Rai, Thailand.

That's about all for yesterday.
later
Johnny