Tidbits

Little details of late:

Had to physically push a guy away from me, a drunk Lao guy claiming to not be gay, yet he was pawing at me so aggressively and not listening to my verbal rebuffs that I had to shove him away from me. Saw him a few days later and told him he's really got to get a grip on that. If you're gay, admit it and deal with it. It's not that homophobic a country. He's lucky I'm not some people I know; he would have been spitting out teeth. Nonetheless, it pissed me off.

Some time ago, I met a guy from the west who's been traveling and living in Asia with no passport or papers for years. Latenight bellycrawls and fast breaks and bribes have been his methods of border crossing. Wow. That sounds challenging. As to why? I don't exactly know. It got stolen at some point, and then it has proven difficult to get a new one I guess? Talk about off the grid. That's all the way off. Traveling invisibly.

Progress report: it is happening, albeit slowly. Interesting interview with the Minister of Propaganda, sorry, the Director-General of the Press Office. The government guys are proving extremely inefficient at getting me any interviews. Fine. Saves me money. Except I need them to get me some of them. It will be more difficult to get interviews with old soldiers etc. without their assistance. But they're clearly operating on Lao time. One of the guys at the office is kind of creepy. A hard military bearing to him, fairly unfriendly, when he looks at you his glittering little eyes seem to be sizing you up for sale. He seems fixated on when I am going to go upcountry, when I'll have to spend some real money. Even though in my application letter I said I'd be working mostly in Vientiane, and there was a possibility I would want to go upcountry at some point. The DG was actually quite personable, but can't say as much for one of his underlings.

Read a story about a really scummy Thai cop milking some Hmong refugees as hard as he can.
http://www.hmongihrw.org/?cat=13 Point of reference for the story: 4000 Baht= about 100$


More runs with the Harriers. More leads. Leaving Vientiane on Wednesday, heading down to the south. Need time.

Hope this book doesn't suck.

Onward bravely,
affectionately yours,
Tom