Calendar Home
Previous Day

January 13, 2004

Next Day
Ancients called this land Lan Xang, the Land of a Million Elephants. Journalists called it the Land of a Million Irrelevants. We call it the Land of a Million Pointy Rock Thingies.
Rain fell in Luang Prabang, so we left and came further south to a town called Vang Vieng. We keep following the Mekong's meandering course and with Nicole we stopped at a riverside inn. While those two pointed at birds, bewildering the natives, I lounged on deck.
We applied for a job with the local fishing fleet. They asked if we had any experience with flat bottomed canoes or fishing nets. We described our computer experience and suggested that as fishermen, it was time for them to get an internet homepage and a database. We explained the wonders of e-commerce, just-in-time inventories, and email spam. They listened politely and said they'd phone us. We're still waiting for a call.