60 days later

Hello all,

I do not have much to say in this post since I have not yet fully seen all the aspects of Luang Prabang - I am going on a 2 day trek tomorrow and will sleep in a Hmong village (yes, some of them are at war with the Laos Government, but not in this region).

This very quiet Sunday also marks the middle of my trip in Southeast Asia. I would like to stress that I still shave (every two weeks) and wash (every...hum, forget it), although I completely lost any notion of time - how can it be December already? In fact, I noticed that the only repetitive thing is to take my Lariam pill every Tuesday. Lariam has become a personal calendar. Loosing the notion of time is really a fantastic feeling and enormously differ from my previous job - my former colleagues will now what I mean.

My time in former Indochina was simply fantastic, and needless to say I had (one of) the best time(s) of my life there. I am heading to Chang Mai in 3 days, and will subsequently spend my remaining two months in Thailand and Malaysia. This should also marks my entry to a more civilised and touristic world, where hospitals are top-class and backpackers everywhere. I am eager to go to Thailand, a truly fantastic country - it will be the third time in my life - but a bit worried that McDonald might be all over the place, and backpacking turned into a "smoke and drink" culture for the younger crowd (on this and backpackers in general, The Beach is a must-read). Future will tell.

Just a few words on the blog, which is doing very well. I really appreciate all the comments posted - I really do.

In terms of visits we recorded about 1,150 visits since the beginning of my trip in October - this is very good since I did not advertised my blog on public spaces. Looking it by country, main visits come unsurprisingly from France (558) and Belgium (297), followed by Spain, the UK and the US. I also have visits from Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, The Philippines, India and Nepal, which shows that some people I met during the trip actually go to my blog (wouhou). Special thanks and big up to the person who connected from Armenia!

I understood Christmas is starting in Europe (commercially I mean). Mind you, it is winter here too, and all the Lao people are wearing some scarfs (15 degrees at night as Luang Prabang is in the mountain).

Hope all is well for you and whist I certainly do not look forward to be back at this point, I do look forward to see you next year.