my month and a half long trip to SE asia was a crazy adventure filled w/ all sorts of risky moments. riding scooters through impossible terrain, going out to a cambodian shooting range, etc etc. like i wrote previously in my journal, pretty soon you start really feeling invincible over there. always in my head, whenever i’d go some place or try something new, i’d think “what’s the worst that could happen?”. well, apparently, sometimes the worst can and does happen.
today my friend forwarded me an email from someone currently traveling in Laos. 3 days ago a group of anti-government rebels shot up a bus that was traveling near vang vieng. about 10 people were killed, including 2 frenchmen who happened to just be biking by at the moment. how scary is that??? i was *just there*. only like 10 days ago. this attack could have happened just a little earlier and i could have been the one caught in the crossfire. it’s so freaky to think about.
all these unstable countries out there…. and sure it seems like this big fun adventure to go out and explore them…. like you can just go out there and be “roughing it” without any reprecussions… and then come back and think to yourself “wow, i just survived going to Laos, isnt that wild!”… but every once in a while, someone slips though the cracks, and it becomes very evident that these countries are *not* disneyland funparks… and there are people out there that mean serious business.
*sigh*
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/southeast/02/06/laos.attack.reut/index.html
-vlad
I was in Israel about six years ago for a summer… I remember hearing about one of those suicide bombings occurring in Jerusalem on a street I had been walking on just several days before. Thirteen people died. The margin we walk is so narrow.