It's November

It's November, in this part of the world.

Exams in 13 days - hell where did all the time go? And leaving for Laos in 29 days.

Which leaves me little time to continue my postings. Looking forward for the post exam period where ill try to get the Burma posts done before jetting off to Laos.

Laos seems to be the new buzzword amongst the backpacker grapevine, its name whispered among independent travellers as someplace yet largely untouched by tourism and commercialism, somewhere where the travel experience is still authentic and somewhere where travel itself is the attraction. I remember sometime back it was postwar Cambodia, appealing to the danger travel crowd, and decades ago it was Thailand and her many shimmering tropical islands.

I guess i was somewhat influenced by the hype in choosing Laos, wanting to see it before it becomes another package tourist destination, like Siem Reap with the Angkor Temples are now and Thailand's many gorgeous beaches that were serendipitous paradise islands before these were claimed by tourism and corporate interests.

So far, i guess Burma has been my most authentic travel experience, beating largely my own trail and not seeing foreign faces around me most of the time. Bokor in Cambodia ranks pretty highly on my list as well, the hauntingly beautiful French casino and hill station, along with the Catholic church that stand as silent sentinels on a cold, remote mountain top, bearing witness to many things time itself has even forgtten, surrounded by lush primary forest trying hard to reclaim the single track up. Finding my own paradise. Hedonistic? Not actually. Just a reminder of how simple and uncomplicated, beautiful life can be.