Stranger No More

Our early departure from Song Pan began with a quick run to Sarah’s for a couple of the great breakfast sandwiches to eat on the bus. We had the tickets that Mike had hooked us up with the day before and like the bad kids we were at the back of the bus. We were however thrilled by the expansive leg room provided by no seats in front of us.

Sergio Update: Sr. I’m-So-Sick-Can’t-Continue apparently began to feel so well that Friday night was spent at The Shamrock where he picked up and went home with a German girl. If it didn’t happen it would be unbelievable. Note to self – no camping/excursions with Sergio.

We spied a couple of lao wai near the front of the bus and chatted them up at what turned out to be our only stop of the day. Seriously, the driver stopped for lunch at 10:30 and never made another stop. No bathroom breaks. No fuel breaks. Amazing. Anyway. Jen and Andreas are friends that met a few years ago while he was a foreign university teacher finishing his degree and she was a foreign teacher at the university. He is from Austria but sounds nothing like Arnold and she is from New York, upstate if I recall correctly. They were real nice and we agreed to meet up with them for dinner at a hot pot place I know. They wanted spicy and I knew of a great place. Chongqing hot pot that really kicked ass.

Lisa called Evan and so she came along. It was really a nice group and we had great conversations. Evan began to feel ill and decided he need to go home. With Lisa. The rest of us, Andy, Jen, Jon and I then met up with my boss, Teresa, at MGM a disco I’d never been to. Roberto also joined us. I really like that guy and it was great to see him. Since Andy and Jen were flying out early the next morning, we danced and drank and played dice for a bit before it was time to call it a night.

Thus ends the Song Pan story. We had a great time, learned a lot about each other and stood naked together on a mountain.

This entry was posted on Sunday, May 22nd, 2005 at 2:41 pm and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.