Crocodile rock?

So I'm writing this email from a little cafe in Battambang where one minute ago I was sitting at a quiet corner table having a crepe and minding my own business and the next minute I was in the center of what can only have been an impromptu performance of some sort of traveling child circus. Suddenly, the hula hoops were just everywhere, and then as abruptly as it began the show was over and everyone acted like nothing happened. Is it normal here that ten year olds juggle apples after dessert? Maybe so. Battambang just might be that kind of town, and I'm actually perfectly ok with that.

Moving right along.

I went to a beach in Thailand for a week for a conference with all the volunteers in my region, plus four randos who aren't in our region at all and were not in any way required to present themselves at this conference but who just tagged along anyway because, well, what can I say, I guess my region is just that cool. Plus, Railay beach -- wow. So there was the white sand and turquoise water draw too, I guess, but I think it was mostly us. And I do feel that we rose to the occasion in a big way, for example by taking over an entire bar and leading everyone in a rousing chorus of a mostly a capella "Hey Jude" and then dancing our feet off til the wee hours -- and doing it all over again every night for the rest of the week. That is what you call a bender, I believe, and what followed I think is sometimes known as the ouchy head of the goddamn century. I'm over it now, but just barely.

Still recovering, I headed up to Bangkok to meet Mom in the train station and catch the night train to Vientiane along with two VIA friends and a box of See's chocolates -- it was Valentine's Day, after all, and I can't remember the last time Mom has failed to provide each of her chickadees with a box of See's on Valentine's day. And I don't care where you are in the world and how much fun you're having -- there is no journey that can't be improved by a couple of helpings of nuts and chews. Add a People magazine and you are fast approaching heaven.

In Vientiane we had a long lingering lunch and shopped for scarves --FINALLY-- and then headed to the airport to catch a flight to Luang Prabang. A sign posted above the toilets in the airport bathroom read "Do not to sanitary into the lavatory" and that's about all there is to report about the Vientiane domestic terminal. If you can believe it.
We arrived in the afternoon in Luang Prabang and spent two and a half very pleasant days wandering the narrow steets with monks of all shapes and sizes, shopping for scarves, cruising around on the river, and then also shopping for scarves. We went one day to a series of waterfalls just outside town, a lovely place that reminded me a lot of Krka and Plitvice in Croatia but instead of trout (really happy trout, man it would be nice to be one of those trout) there were lots and lots of butterflies. We spent probably a good hour sitting by one pool watching them flutter around until they got comfortable with us and started landing on my flowery sarong, poking their little probisci around and trying to pollinate me. I didn't resist. It was quite amazing, really, and there were so many of these exploratory landings taking place that at one point a Chinese tourist stationed herself at my feet and tried doggedly to capture the spectacle on film. Of course my little beauties were frightened by this intrusion and kept flying away, so I'm fairly confident that she ended up with nothing but a series of close-ups of my knees. But it just so happens that my knees are almost as pretty as a tropical butterfly, so maybe she won't be too disappointed.

And now as I mentioned I may have inadvertently joined the Battambang circus, so if I end up staying here and making my living riding a dancing Cambodian crocodile whom I've trained to sing show tunes, I expect you all to come and support me.