hello hello,
time has most certainly been moving quickly these days -- leaving aside the fact that i've been delinquent in maintaining this blog thus losing much of my potential readership and ensuring that i will forget many of the details of the past six months -- i am trying to make some amends
because i have fallen in love with at least one aspect of the law (the affinity for lists) this entry will be relatively concise...
today during what was potentially the best massage of my life i got to reflecting upon my time in Lao and how it has changed (and not changed me) ... to summarize:
changed:
1. danger certainly has a new meaning -- in this country i have driven a motor bike daily, jumped out of tree houses on unsupervised ziplines over the forest canopy and taken a speed boat that the rough guide considers 'life risking'
2. language -- broken english has become one of my vices (add that to shortening my words and i'm virtually incomprehensible)
3. patience- - this blog may not make it seem like it, but i'm definitely more patient than before -- case in point: when someone almost hits me on the road these days i just laugh.. no yelling, no cussing, just laughing (this might also fall under danger, come to think of it)
4. sticky rice -- i knew i loved it before i ate it, and i will miss it
5. humility -- dont get me wrong, i still think i'm right about most things -- but my job has also taught me that on a fair amount of subjects, i dont have a clue
unchanged:
1. i still cant look someone in the eye who is picking their ear with a key and also maintaining a conversation with me
2. i still cant stop laughing when they try to crack every bone in your body during massages (even during the excellent ones)
3. i love me some bread and yoghurt -- never caught on to that noodle soup all the time thing
4. my wit-- assuming you agree with me that i once possessed some, being around people from around the world who do not find me funny has not stopped the wise cracks (ps, i wouldnt say that now is the time for a crack about how people at home are also not amused -- let me have it, at least till i get back!)
On that note, I'm going to go to bed -- t-9 days left of work and counting. Rest assured that a 'serious' entry is on its way!
much love,
c
Monday, March 03, 2008
Friday, January 25, 2008
why sometimes i can see a tim hortons mirage in the distance...
hello and happy new year!!
I'm sorry to not have been updating this blog properly -- owing to 1 part laziness, 1 part nothing really happens out here on a regular basis and 1 part a suspicion that no one really reads this! (hahaha, that is not accusatory, i only read it because i write it)
However, some of you have taken note of this and mentioned it to me in recent months.... and finally, i have a new story to tell -- a story of working for free in a country... but being ineligible for a proper visa...
now speaking of visas... although i am working here for months the government has refused me a proper visa --- i probably have told you that i have to go to Thailand every month and get a new tourist visa to stay here -- in the interim, i'm stuck in Lao!!! in addition to being terribly annoying ... they also insist on taking a new page in my passport to put a visa on and i've had to give them all 6 of my travel photos... but i begin to digress...
which leads me to yesterday: most recently i got a courtesy visa that didnt cost the usual $42 usd ... i was told i could extend it from here in Vientiane and couldnt leave the country until i go home to Canada.... fine... then on wednesday they say, we need a picture of you (i wonder, where the f are they keeping the other 6 pictures that they already have of me???!!) ...fine, i go and get them.... then yesterday they say 'we cant extend your visa from in Vientiane' -- so that means that I have to go to the border .... as we pull up to it around 4:30 i think to myself, this might be the last time i come to this border, then i think, maybe the last time in my entire life... i ask myself -- do i feel sad? i laugh, the answer is no. i suspect keysonne (the leader of the Lao revolution) heard me from beyond his grave....
i get my passport stamped to leave the Lao -- i only have 2 pages in the book and before can say anything (assuming it would have been understood) the damn woman stamps one of them... i cross the border into Thailand and come back to Lao... i go to get a new visa and they say they cant give me one because my passport is full... i show them the blank page --- apparently its the observations page that can only be filled by my government... (who knows that???) anyway i say, but i live in Vientiane, i work there, cant you just put it over an old Lao visa then? (there are, afterall, 4 in my passport already) --- i cant exactly go to my embassy in Bangkok right now... the dude says he cant help -- i'm incensed -- it was the knobs at his border control who took the last valid page of my passport to begin with!!!
i tried calling my boss and the assistant here -- but they wouldnt answer their phones.... this was remarkable because everyone answers their cell phone in every situation here... anger = rising... i then called a friend to send me the number of our embassy.... i cant tell you i was happy just then, i cannot. finally i got ahold of our assistant who spoke to the customs dude to no avail, she managed to get ahold of my boss who spoke to him for a long time and also with our project driver (who had the misfortune of waiting for me) and finally they gave me this special insert visa and let me go -- but its only good for 30 days!!!
that means i have to try and get a Canadian passport from Bangkok in a month! here are the ways that is difficult:
1. no one here has known me for 2 years
2. no one here has that damn stamp we need to put on the back of our photos
3. i need to send my passport and drivers licence to Bangkok, so i'll have no id and i'm flying domestically twice next month!!!
4. my citizenship card is at home -- so I need someone to go to a customs office and have them fax it to Bangkok
5. it takes 3 weeks to process and by monday i'll have expended half of my week of buffer period......
to summarize:
cost to leave Lao: 4000 kip
cost of shuttle bus accross bridge: 4000 kip
cost of shuttle bus back to Lao: 20 Bhat
Lao visa: 42USD
Canadian passport: 105 USD
someone at Australian Embassy to certify my existence: 49 USD
picture of my self with stamp (if this manifests itself): 40,000 kip
express mail to thailand: 20 USD
staying in Lao 2 more months: priceless????? (i wont tell you what i think the answer to that question is)
please note: if i end up living on the bridge between Thailand and Lao like that dude in the Tom Hank's movie who had to live in an airport -- i expect that you use the above information to save me!!!
at least i cant say this week hasnt been interesting, hey?
with any luck, i'll see you guys soon!
c
I'm sorry to not have been updating this blog properly -- owing to 1 part laziness, 1 part nothing really happens out here on a regular basis and 1 part a suspicion that no one really reads this! (hahaha, that is not accusatory, i only read it because i write it)
However, some of you have taken note of this and mentioned it to me in recent months.... and finally, i have a new story to tell -- a story of working for free in a country... but being ineligible for a proper visa...
now speaking of visas... although i am working here for months the government has refused me a proper visa --- i probably have told you that i have to go to Thailand every month and get a new tourist visa to stay here -- in the interim, i'm stuck in Lao!!! in addition to being terribly annoying ... they also insist on taking a new page in my passport to put a visa on and i've had to give them all 6 of my travel photos... but i begin to digress...
which leads me to yesterday: most recently i got a courtesy visa that didnt cost the usual $42 usd ... i was told i could extend it from here in Vientiane and couldnt leave the country until i go home to Canada.... fine... then on wednesday they say, we need a picture of you (i wonder, where the f are they keeping the other 6 pictures that they already have of me???!!) ...fine, i go and get them.... then yesterday they say 'we cant extend your visa from in Vientiane' -- so that means that I have to go to the border .... as we pull up to it around 4:30 i think to myself, this might be the last time i come to this border, then i think, maybe the last time in my entire life... i ask myself -- do i feel sad? i laugh, the answer is no. i suspect keysonne (the leader of the Lao revolution) heard me from beyond his grave....
i get my passport stamped to leave the Lao -- i only have 2 pages in the book and before can say anything (assuming it would have been understood) the damn woman stamps one of them... i cross the border into Thailand and come back to Lao... i go to get a new visa and they say they cant give me one because my passport is full... i show them the blank page --- apparently its the observations page that can only be filled by my government... (who knows that???) anyway i say, but i live in Vientiane, i work there, cant you just put it over an old Lao visa then? (there are, afterall, 4 in my passport already) --- i cant exactly go to my embassy in Bangkok right now... the dude says he cant help -- i'm incensed -- it was the knobs at his border control who took the last valid page of my passport to begin with!!!
i tried calling my boss and the assistant here -- but they wouldnt answer their phones.... this was remarkable because everyone answers their cell phone in every situation here... anger = rising... i then called a friend to send me the number of our embassy.... i cant tell you i was happy just then, i cannot. finally i got ahold of our assistant who spoke to the customs dude to no avail, she managed to get ahold of my boss who spoke to him for a long time and also with our project driver (who had the misfortune of waiting for me) and finally they gave me this special insert visa and let me go -- but its only good for 30 days!!!
that means i have to try and get a Canadian passport from Bangkok in a month! here are the ways that is difficult:
1. no one here has known me for 2 years
2. no one here has that damn stamp we need to put on the back of our photos
3. i need to send my passport and drivers licence to Bangkok, so i'll have no id and i'm flying domestically twice next month!!!
4. my citizenship card is at home -- so I need someone to go to a customs office and have them fax it to Bangkok
5. it takes 3 weeks to process and by monday i'll have expended half of my week of buffer period......
to summarize:
cost to leave Lao: 4000 kip
cost of shuttle bus accross bridge: 4000 kip
cost of shuttle bus back to Lao: 20 Bhat
Lao visa: 42USD
Canadian passport: 105 USD
someone at Australian Embassy to certify my existence: 49 USD
picture of my self with stamp (if this manifests itself): 40,000 kip
express mail to thailand: 20 USD
staying in Lao 2 more months: priceless????? (i wont tell you what i think the answer to that question is)
please note: if i end up living on the bridge between Thailand and Lao like that dude in the Tom Hank's movie who had to live in an airport -- i expect that you use the above information to save me!!!
at least i cant say this week hasnt been interesting, hey?
with any luck, i'll see you guys soon!
c
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