So the visit to the Lao museum put me in the mood to buy one of the many bootleg books at the quicky mart down the street from our hotel. The book has been a quick read so far and many of you know that I hate reading anything more than 10 pages. The subject is about the secret war in Laos conducted by the CIA. I had been interested in the Vietnam war growing up reading and watching many documentaries on the matter, maybe slightly obsessed...my passion for it sort of went by the way side once I got into punk rock.
So I'm reading about a group of selected cowboy pilots who were fed up with the military bureaucracy and their rules of engagement. They were enlisted to fight "the secret war" based in Laos. Is it real, is it the truth...who knows but I'm enjoying it.
The bus ride up to Vang Vieng was quite a treat with the winding mountains and the doped-up, passed out 20 year old girls hogging two seats speaking incoherent sentences. Maybe the opium took away their motion sickness.
The mountain formations are unlike anything I have ever seen. It is hazy from the clear-cutting and random fires. The sky is a faded orange at sunset as we look out our hotel window and across the river. The town is filled with backpacking hippies galore hoping to drink their fair share of Beerlao and consume a "happy" pizza of shakes. Many of the food establishments have the same color copied menu and blasting "Friends" on big screen televisions. I'm not making this shit up, "Friends" really, in Laos. The other alternative is "Family Guy". I swear.
Tomorrow we go inner tubing and into caves along the river...inshallah.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
hey, you know my dad was one of those cowboy pilots fighting the secret war in laos, right? he worked for air america. which book were you reading?
ReplyDelete