now that i'm over a week behind . . .

• sorry guys, i've been mostly away from internet access for the last several days. now that i'm at micah & heidi's house, i can post more often, at least for the next few days until we travel over lao new year.
• so i think i left off with leaving new zealand - en route to bangkok, i stopped over in sydney for a long layover and spent the afternoon hanging out with andrew, a friend from chicago. he was vacationing in australia at the time and was in sydney for a few days, coinciding with my seven-hour layover. he met me at the airport, and though the woman at customs and immigration insisted i really didn't have time to leave the airport, we took the train into the city and then a ferry across the harbor to manly island, where we ate lunch near the waterfront. unfortunately the weather was terrible - we narrowly avoided getting soaked over lunch at the outdoor cafe - but i did get a nice view of the famous opera house from the ferry. and, as we waited on the ferry to begin the trip to the island, we noticed a massive cruise ship docked nearby. turns out it was the rhapsody of the seas, the same ship i'd seen in doubtful sound a week earlier! crazy. also the ferry was moderately exciting - crossing the open part of the harbor, the water was rather rough. andrew enjoyed it so much he said he planned to go again just for the ride after i went back to the airport. in spite of what the immigration officer said, i had no trouble at all getting back to the airport on time, and in fact it took less than twenty minutes to get through passport control, customs, and security, which meant i had an hour and a half to kill before my flight. i should have stayed out longer.
• the rest of the trip to bankok and vientiane was pretty uneventful. i arrived in bangkok in the middle of the night, got some baht, found the meeting point for my hotel, and was quickly shuffled onto a bus and off again into the hotel lobby. even late at night, the heat and humidity felt like a slap in the face with a hot wet towel after weeks in cool, mild new zealand. the next day i took a taxi to a big shopping mall, hoping to find an optometrist - and right there, four shops in from the entrance, was a place with shelves and shelves full of contact lenses. i was out of there in fifteen minutes with a month's worth of dailies. if i'd known it would be so easy, i wouldn't have extended my stay in bangkok for three days - i kind of expected i'd have to look around a bit to find them. i had all day to kill, and the mall was airconditioned, so i poked around, snacked my way through the various food stalls, used an internet cafe (i think that's where one of my more recent posts was typed) and got sort of lost in some of the off-the-main-walkway market areas. i bought a pair of capris - as i flipped through the rack at a tiny market stall, the proprieter said, 'i have size for you! large!' i've never been a large in my life, but in southeast asia, i'm kind of oversized, so . . . i swallowed my pride and bought the large. the woman was right, too - i put them on at the nearest toilet, and they fit like they were made for me.
• i stupidly decided to leave the mall around five that afternoon, which of course was rush hour - it took twice as long to get back to my hotel, and by then i was exhausted and pretty much ready for bed. next day i was a little sick and didn't feel like doing much, so i ate the 'american breakfast' included with my room (two fried eggs, one slice of ham, two cocktail-sized hot dogs, two slices of white-bread toast, and a cucumber/tomato/iceberg lettuce/shredded carrot salad with sickly-sweet salad cream) and hung around the hotel all day. i think i would have preferred fried rice or something - 'american breakfast' is the default morning food served to white foreigners at most breakfast-included hotels, but it's not much like what i usually eat at home. also the 'orange juice' is usually orange kool aid. but whatever, it comes with the room, so i eat it.
• and friday - i think that was the next day - i packed up my stuff (again) and headed for laos. the hotel staff seemed eager to get rid of me - they kept putting my luggage on the airport shuttle at every scheduled trip time starting at 9.30, even though i didn't need to be at the airport til late afternoon - so after a few rounds of this, i gave up and just went along with it. i spent several uneventful hours moseying around the international airport and had a delayed, though uneventful flight to vientiane. it took over an hour to get past passport control - first you wait to hand in your documents and apply for the visa, then you wait to get your passport back, then you wait to pay for the visa ($35 for americans, but it varies by country - and no matter where you're from, they only accept us dollars in cash, though i did see a few people successfully pay with thai baht). and then you get in another line and wait to get your passport stamped. by this time the luggage has been sitting in the baggage claim for ages - no waiting! - and the military police smile and wave you through customs and out into the lobby.
• heidi, micah and frances were all waiting for me when i arrived - frances, of course, did not remember me from my visit 18 months ago (she was under a year old at the time) and acted very shy at first, though she's certainly warmed up since then. (actually, early this morning she escaped from her mom and wandered into my room stark naked, demanding to know: bef! what you do? she seemed shocked that i was sleeping when she was ready to play.)
• this post is getting cumbersomely long now, so i'll have to fill you in on the last few days later - but now you all know i'm still alive and well and i can still count the mosquito bites on my fingers, though i suspect that won't last long. also the heat makes me awfully sleepy and lethargic. time for a cold drink.