Sometimes my surroundings pass by too quickly from the seat of a motorbike, as I scan the road for dogs and potholes and other potential beginnings of an accident. As I blink rapidly, trying to clear my eyes of the ever-present dust in my contact lenses, I miss the details around me.
For this reason, along with the constant need to remind myself to embrace the bo pen nyang a bit more, Sunday at dusk has become my time for “microvacations”–tiny pauses from productivity to notice the here and now. Last week, my housemates and I took a walk to some rice paddies only 10 minutes from my house and got a glimpse into another world, perhaps a look at what Vientiane was like several years ago.
Naturally the tranquility of this bucolic landscape was juxtaposed with the thump of karaoke music at the giant convention center/movie theater/mall/bowling alley just next door. The cows munched on grass and local boys looked for frogs in the creek, while K-Pop throbbed in the background–another typically paradoxical Vientiane scene.