Travel is Freedom! "Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts." - Mark Twain

I had a very good day in Vientiene yesterday, way better than expected, actually! Bought some stuff at the morning market, then I went to a temple with a "spa" of sorts on the grounds...I know, weird.  But it was an herbal sauna (very naturally steamed, with a wood fire underneath the thatch hut....very safe, I realize) followed by 1 hr. massage for $4!!!!  Unreal.  Got some great shots of tuk-tuk drivers sleeping in hammocks in the backs of their trucks.  Pretty cool!  I'm leaving now for an overnight bus to pakse, which I JUST found out about, before I ate an amazing meal of grilled fish, papaya salad, and sticky rice with a fresh oj shake on the banks of the mekong....open-air cooking!  Some Malaysian people on a tour came by while I was eating, and they looked at me for quite a long time, as though I was THE tourist attraction.  They could not believe I was eating that fish there, and asked me if it was good, if it was fresh, etc...etc...and asked if they could take my photo.  Why not?  Sure.  Pretty hilarious, them taking photos of an American girl eating some weird Asian food which just so happened to be a GRILLED FISH.  And they are from Malaysia!  Not a bad day, and then last night i took an overnight bus south to Pakse.  Oddly enough, the only Japanese person on the bus was assigned the seat next to me!  So we chatted in Japanese for a few hours.  Poor bast#%d only has 7 days of vacation so he's spending it somehow in Laos.  I don't know how a person could come all this way and only stay for a few days, but if that's the only choice you have, I guess it's ok.  I met some people and we hired a jeep and a guide and tomorrow we head off the beaten path into the remote parts of southern Laos for 3 days.  Should be an adventure!  I won't be writing for a few days!