Dear trip log receivers:
About 3 weeks ago I contacted a hotel in Luang Prabang, Laos to reserve a room for my 4 days there. The day before yesterday I received an email from a Swedish couple accusing me of mail bombing and saying that they would contact the owner of the Lao hotel (Ban Lao Hotel) and that I would be in big trouble. It turned out that they meant spamming and not mail bombing and that they too had contacted Ban Lao Hotel last July to make a reservation and have since been receiving mysterious emails with no text - just an attachment. After much cyber-sleuthing on my part, I have found that it is probably a virus on the Ban Lao Hotel computer and that all spam messages are coming from an email server of a Lao ISP called Laotel.

This virus can install itself on a computer and search that computer to find all past email addresses stored on that computer and then use those address to send more spam viruses to AND use the same addresses to do so - the reason why the Swedish couple contacted me was because the "from" line in the spam email they recently received had my email address. I don't know if there is anyway that the virus could have found email addresses of people I have sent messages to over the last 3 weeks since, I'm using a web-based email program (unless it installed itself on one of the internet cafe computers that I regularly used in Chiang Mai AND could watch and collect email addresses in real-time as they were typed).... but if you have received and unsolicited email with an attachment DO NOT open the attachment.... but DO enable "full headers" in your email program to get a look at all internet addresses connected with the message and see if there is one from the domain numphou2.laotel.com. If there is, set your email program to block messages from the domain: numphou2.laotel.com. I think that will work to stop it. If your email program does not have the capability to block mail from a domain, you can contact your internet service provider and they may be able to do something. Web-based accounts such as yahoo.com, msn.com and hotmail.com will have the option to block in a mail "options" page. I also sent Ban Lao Hotel and their internet service provider (Laotel) the full header and strongly suggested they take appropriate action.

.... I was so glad that I had cut my Nepal trek short which enabled me to come to Bangkok a couple days early and with enough time to reschedule 4 flights into and out of Bangkok so that I did not have to keep making the 2-3 hour commute from Bangkok airport to the city AND have to spend another day there.

I flew from Koh Samui island to Bangkok airport in the morning and on to the much smaller and nicer Thai city in the north called Chiang Mai. I spent two days there sightseeing and stayed in a nice guesthouse east of the old city walls. Unfortunately this hostel had three pit bull type dogs that woke be up at 3 in the morning the first night. The next day, after looking at some guesthouses that were either too close to traffic noise or roosters (again) I located a hotel which seemed like it would be quiet at night. I would stay here when I returned from 4 days in Laos.

Chiang Mai is a much smaller, cooler, greener and cleaner city than Bangkok and I liked the time I spent there. I especially was amused by the citywide custom of dressing house dogs in old childrens' shirts to keep them warm in the mornings. The pit bulls looked very funny in their morning attire. In reality, it was only 75 degrees - I guess that is very cold for Thais. It was nice to see though, that they cared so much about their dogs' comfort - maybe it meant that I could eat beef dishes again .

Yesterday, while I was here at the internet cafe a young Italian woman pulled out her cell phone and began talking as only Italian women can (LOUD). The Thai people are so polite and soft spoken and after four weeks living among them, the sound of this woman's voice was just so grading on me and probably many others in the room.

I flew to Luang Prabang, Laos with Lao Aviation. I was a little concerned about this as the the guidebook said that the US state department warns against flying with them due to poor maintenance record. I also could not pay for the fare with a credit card - which would at least have a 1 million dollar death benefit for transportation bought with the card.

The plane did land OK though.

The airport was a single strip located about a mile from the town. The town itself is fairly small (about the size of Golden Gate Park), old and very peaceful. Luang Prabang used to be a French colonial town and much of the old buildings have a definite French flair. There are no new buildings or McDonalds or 7-Elevens allowed to be built in town since it it was designate a World Heritage site. It also has 77 wats and communities of monks connected to each, within the town. Looking out from Phu Si hill temple in every direction from town, all you see is green mountains and green and green mountains and green .

Watching TV in my Koh Samui island bungalow (a few days before) I saw a news segment on the installation of the first escalator in Laos (in the capital Vientiene) and how they had to have people demonstrating how to use it as several people had gotten hurt. I knew then that my trip to Luang Prabang (the second biggest town in Laos) would be the farthest up river (to use a Heart of Darkness metaphor) I would travel on my journey around the world. They still had the internet though.

The first night I spent at the Ban Lao hotel the roosters out back woke me up at 4 AM. The next morning I again went out in search of quieter accommodation (and closer to the main part of town). After seeing rooms in about 10 different guest houses, I chose a room in the only one that did not seem to have roosters out back or next door - I even turned down a really excellent room in a guest house along the river road that was huge, had two large double beds with the only soft mattresses I had seen and had a large clean bathroom with hot water, a shower and a tub and had a veranda that looked out onto the Mekong river and the opposite bank. Unfortunately it only had wooden slats for windows and a rooster next door. It seems that I have spent an inordinate amount of the last month avoiding roosters (and I'm glad that they are on the menu).

The guest house I did choose was also along the river road but the room was pretty basic, though it did have a restaurant connected with it and table outside, across the road, that overlooked the Mekong, from which you could see the sun setting downriver to the west. In the four days I spent in Luang Prabang I found many more other idyllic spots and views .

The 3rd day I shared a tuk tuk (small open truck) ride with two women, to a waterfall about 30 km into the mountains. On the way there the driver stopped at a village of one of the hill tribes. We got out and walked around and it was like walking through someone's living room. Even though they were obviously very used to visitors and had displays of handgoods fro sale, it still felt like visiting a zoo. After that, I decided to cancel the 1 day hill tribe trek that I had planned to take when I returned to Chiang Mai.

As we were walking back to the tuk tuk we saw some children sweeping the dirt off the dirt road up ahead and then throwing some stones down and hopping. I thought it looked like hop scotch..... and it was.

At the last village at the end of the road was the dirt parking lot for the falls. Our driver tried to explain to us about something nearby. Finally, I was able to recognize the word elephant and then to figure out that he was trying to tell us that we could take a ride on it. We all declined and he then took us to the toll hut to pay the fees to walk up the trail to the waterfalls. On the way there he said something about a tiger and we wondered if there was one around.

There was, but it was in a very large enclosed space - about 4 acres of jungle enclosed by a twelve foot cyclone fence that just sloped in at the top (hey, can't tigers climb?). As we walked up and past the enclosure we scanned the inner jungle for it, but it turned out the he was having lunch in the building at the top that was connected to the enclosure. We went inside and could have touched him through the bars if we had wanted - later that day I would see an Australian touch his paws as he lay sleeping.

The waterfalls area was very beautiful and I spent the day going up both sides and also down along the blue water pools below. The water that flowed over the falls had some kind of mineral content that would eventually harden and mineralize anything it flowed over - dirt, leaves, dead branches - so it was actually continually adding material to the surface over which it flowed. On the walks through the jungle were many other interesting and beautiful things to see - ants paralyzed on a leave, huge crippled deformed trees that had no right to be still alive but were, 100 foot high bamboo.

The last day in Luang Prabang I toured the grounds of about ten wats. The most interesting one , that had the most beautiful and well preserved buildings, was at the very tip of the town's eastern peninsula (where a the Nam Khan river wound around and emptied into the Mekong). On the north side of this wat's courtyard at the one side at the top of the stairs that lead down to the river road....stood an amazing big old and deformed tree which supported at least 10 other plant species growing on it and out of it.

Like all the quiet places I have spent some time in, I was reluctant to leave Luang Prabang, especially since it would mean I would be working my way back and having to go through Bangkok. At least I would not have to spend the night there. I did, however, almost miss my flight from Bangkok to Hong Kong, as I was on the internet for a long time during the layover, and I had thought I had a lot longer, until I happened to glance at my watch (whew - that would have meant more time in Bangkok).

Now I'm back in civilization, no more filtering drinking water, avoiding beef dishes, avoiding roosters, taking malaria tablets.

Hong Kong is a big modern city. Many of its skyscrapers are decked out in Christmas like lights for the upcoming Chinese New Years - up to 30 stories of Christmas lights. The hostel/hotel is in a busy shopping area downtown. The room I stayed in last night was very noisy. A little after midnight somebody was even hammering and using a concrete drill above me. I did however convince the hostel manager to find me probably the only quiet room in the building and moved there this morning.

Actually, much of the construction and work I have seen so far is really amazing because even in this big modern city they use bamboo scaffolding to work on the outside of buildings forty stories up.

Two blocks from my hotel is the Hong Kong central library with one whole floor devoted the children's play area and multimedia AND free internet access - which is why I have had a chance to send this log.

The second night in the Hong Kong hostel someone with a key entered my room at 5 AM. The door locking mechanism that I had been carrying around for 5 months and rarely used, fell to the floor and woke me up and scared the mystery guest off. The hostel manager said that it was not their staff. I asked them to change the lock that day, but could tell that they would not. I was not too worried though. During the day, the room just outside my door was often occupied by guests using the one internet computer and no thief would risk entry then. At night I could put more stuff on the door to wake me.

The food in HK sucked so bad I ended up eating at that world famous Scottish restaurant (McDonalds) for my last 3 HK meals.

And before I close - some more elaboration on the amazing experience of moving under water which I so briefly alluded to in my "Thailand log".

On the plane to Hong Kong, I watched a nature program that compared US Navy Seal recruits to the lives of seal pups. After viewing the program I mused on exactly what it is that is so wonderful about moving underwater: It's something like a cross between being able to fly (with wings) and being weightless - though I have never been a bird or an astronaut and can only imagine.

You are able to move in THREE dimensions - not two as terrestrial (land) life forms…. and you accomplish this with new and unique movements of your feet, legs and with your breath (only occasionally with your hands) - to go forward and back and left and right AND up and down with these new tools and skills is so cool.

The first day we dove down during the initial Open Water course - I had considerable trouble on the second dive and was really frustrated and wondered if I really could have fun diving if it was so hard to move where you wanted to - especially with regard to height.

When I had the scooter fall and had to take four days off I had some time to kill so I read the Advanced Course textbook chapters dealing with the four areas I had picked to be my focus - navigation, deep water, night diving and Peak Buoyancy Performance.

In the buoyancy chapter I read that once you establish neutral buoyancy (with a combination of the right amount of weight on your belt and then the air you let into or out of your inflatable tank harness - BCD), you control your buoyancy by letting air into and out of your lungs.

Neither the beginning book, nor the advanced book, nor any of my instructors really made it clear exactly how to do this but I eventually figured out (underwater) that when you want to go down, you breath out and then breath in and out very shallowly, maintaining a minimum amount of air in your lungs as you descend. Once at the desired depth you can breath regularly.

To ascend you breath in deeper to expand the air capacity in your lungs and then again breath shallowly maintaining a maximum amount of air in your lungs. Once I began to understand this, I began to have a lot of control over my movement - and a lot more fun.

Moving underwater became a dance where I could go forward, backward, up, down, barrel roll and hover, maintaining maximun control in order to achieve optimum vantage positions for veiwing the wonderful world around me.