THE UNEMPLOYED 8: The Train to Oudomxay

There was my way of leaving unwanted shirts and old underwear at airports and hotels...

...and there is The ASEAN Way, an anthem about the beer tap of a samanera and the rain TG 574 dumped over the new office and a virtual meeting in Vientiane, the ballad of zombies from Yuxi who boarded the train in Luang Prabang during a 375-kilometer trip to Muang Xai where a tribute of 5 goat dishes was offered for the ceaseless pouring of Beer Lao. 

There was Olivia Newton-John's Xanadu and there is the train to Oudomxay, the Northern City in a sea of clouds and the hill tribes who modeled new unwashed polo barongs that survived a waterfall of pee near an empty Khmu village where the shifting gears of a borrowed bike crooned like John Devenver after being proposed with a contract.

There was a group photo between incessant rains and two mornings of validation.

I had my second love shot despite a cancelled hike to a waterfall and a butterfly park.

We pledged our continuing support and had a sandwich dinner on the train from Oudomxay.

Almost 24 hours, a communique, two airports, two bus stations, and a short nap later, I took my oath of office in Bongabon for my continuing service to the Craft, evaded a fellowship for a proper sleep, and celebrated Tadej Pgacar's dominance of the Giro d'Italia at a birthday party of sweet brandy, tinumis, lechon and bopis...