Muay Thai boxing at Lumphini Stadium in Bangkok

Stop 34: Bangkok

Of course there was an elephant wandering around the night market near the muay thai boxing stadium. Why wouldn't there be??

Luang Prabang cont'd

Stop 33: Luang Prabang

Luang Prabang, in northern Laos, is a very pretty little town located on the Mekong River (like seemingly half of the towns in Southeast Asia!). It is a UN World Heritage site, which essentially means that both tourists and government officials are supposed to play nice with the locals and with the local environment. It's a bit of a tourist trap thanks to its official status, but is still gorgeous.

Stop 32: Laotian countryside

The vehicle whizzing by in the foreground is one of the most brilliant inventions I saw in Southeast Asia. It's basically a big engine on a stick (mounted on an axle with two wheels). It can be adapted for just about any agricultural need, or linked to a truck bed and used to ferry people around!

Mexicans in Laos???

I know the prevailing theory is that American Indians came into North America from northeast Asia by way of a land bridge, then distributed down through Central and South America. That seems to me a load of hokum, not least of all because there is almost zero resemblance between the indigenous inhabitants of the Americas and people in northern China (or Russians, for that matter).

Indigenous Americans do, however, look almost exactly like the inhabitants of Cambodia, Laos, the Philippines, and various Pacific islands. Imagine my shock, then, to find in Laos the above carvings, which look exactly the same as Mayan carvings in Central America! Obviously the centerpiece gods are different, but otherwise the above art looks to me about as American as it gets!

Stop 31: Wat Pho (near Pakse, Laos)

The enormous Wat Pho (pronounced "poo") temple complex was once part of Cambodia and the Khmer empire. It's now a good 150 km into Laos. Apparently Cambodia has been losing territory to its neighbors throughout the last couple centuries (though, unlike its relations with Thailand and Vietnam, Cambodia is currently on very good terms with the Lao P.D.R.).

The temple complex was fascinating because it was Buddhist only in the loosest sense. Bas relief carvings of Hindu deities were everywhere, as were more animistic relics, such as venerated rock formations resembling an elephant's head and a crocodile.