Elsewhere

I am back in Laos. Back in Louang Prabang. When I was here 5 long years ago I loved it. I still think it's a nice place, though it's very different. There are lots more foreigners. And a night market. And street lights. And fancy cafes serving real coffee and bagels with cream cheese. And I've been here before, even if here has changed. Perhaps that's the main difference; it's no longer new to me.

I read an interesting article by Marcel Theroux in a Newsweek I found in Vientiane. He wrote about travel as the search for Elsewhere, a place that's harder and harder to find in this age of rapid communication. For example, on the road from Vientiane to Louang Prabang we passed tiny villages perched on the side of immense valleys with satellite dishes hooked up to huts with palm-thatch roofs and walls.

And the more one travels, the harder it is to find somewhere really different. When I traveled five years ago, everything felt foreign. It was all new. Being back in Laos proves this point: it's beautiful here, but it doesn't fill me with a tingling sensation of Strange.

This partially explains our reason for going to Africa (the other part being how exotic the word Zanzibar sounded). We were searching for an Elsewhere to experience and call home for a while. But it didn't quite work out like I hoped or expected; it's been much more of a struggle. We've spent lots and lots of time examining ourselves in search of an answer to the question of why - why travel has been this way. The answer lies in the fact that we've changed. We're married, and that makes a huge difference. Marriage is an Elsewhere all of its own - being physically Elsewhere at the same time complicates things. True to form, we're doing too many things at once.

When I stop and think about what I want, it all comes down to a home somewhere. Anywhere! A place of comfort from which to explore this new state I'm in. And that's why we're going to New Zealand for a while. It will be foreign but not too foreign; different, but not too different. There, I think, we can be just married for a while. And that will be enough.

Laos New Year starts tomorrow, though the traditional celebrations (water fights) started several days ago. We bought some water pistols in Bangkok so that we could join in, though they will be rather ineffective against the buckets full of water thrown at us. Yesterday, each of the three main streets had multiple road blocks where people stood waiting to drench all who walked, rode or drove by. And that was two days before New Year. Tomorrow should be madness. I'm looking forward to it.

An Aussie we met in Jordan sent us some pictures, including my new favorite picture of Z:



I just love it.