Holidays Abroad

Significant holidays I've spent abroad:
4th July 2000, Dubrovnik, Croatia
4th July 2002, Ensenada, Mexico
birthday number 22, some beach, Mexico
4th July 2005, Bangkok, Thailand
birthday number 25, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Thanksgiving 2005, Bangkok, Thailand
Christmas 2005, Bangkok, Thailand
New Year's 2006, Vang Vieng, Laos

We celebrated the New Year at an open air bamboo bar overlooking the Song River. Me, Angela, and a couple dozen other Westerners, all sipping Beer Lao and drinking whiskey from small yellow beach pales. I stood beside a palm tree and watched as, off in the distance, away from the center of the party, a middle aged Laotian funneled cheap liquors into name brand bottles.

According to Lao national law, all bars and restaurants must close by midnight. Somehow, probably through some behind the scenes string-pulling and bribe slipping, Vang Vieng's riverside establishments - the ones exclusively patroned by backpacking party animals - were exempt from the curfew. Maybe the authorities recognize the importance in keeping the dollar spenders happy in a dusty rural village.