Camp Champions Blog

This should make an odd blog.

Yesterday, I mentioned the fact that one van no-showed on us and that we spent over an hour attempting to arrange another.

We are falling for Laos.  The people are unfailingly pleasant.  The country is beautiful.  The food is good if not excellent.

Luang Prabang is physically the size of Marble Falls, has 105,000 people and is the third largest city in Laos.  As I told you before, it was formerly the capital and is still the spiritual center of the country.  Monks in saffron robes stroll the street, accept gifts of rice in the morning, do chores during the day, pray intermittently and talk on the occasional cell phone.

I have not missed a day blogging. Not in 56 days in Europe and not in the first 49 in Asia. When I had no internet (Nepal), I still wrote and then posted all of them when I got a connection.

My grandfather was a newspaper man and a great collector of stories.  I wish I could have a week with him now that I so deeply appreciate great story-telling.

I, however, do remember one of his favorites.

Today was a transition day.  We woke in Bangkok and are now in Laos.  More specifically, we are in Luang Prabang, the former capital and Laos' spiritual center.

It has recently become an incredibly popular travel spot.  They have almost 100 hotels/guesthouses now.  Fifteen years ago, they would have had less than a dozen.

When we decided to take this trip, we contacted our frequent travelers, including Susie Silver, a business school friend of Susie's.  For the sake of clarity, I will call her Silver Ma'am.  Silver Ma'am is a truly seasoned world traveler, having been to Asia over a half dozens times.  To our delight, she had plans to be in Laos and Thailand around the same time we would be here.  We rearranged our trip slightly to spend 5-6 days with her.

Today, we linked up with her.  Here she is.

Little happened today, unless you count reducing Susie's stress level.

I am not sure what type of blog I want to share, so I will do a three part offering.

I am not sure what to write.  It is Christmas  in Bangkok.

I could write about the lovely pictures my family sent from Midland, Texas.  They sent holiday wishes,