Laos & Bangkok (accidentally) Initial Post
I tell my mother that I'm nervous about this trip.
She points out that my travel luck to date has been better-than-average. Sooner or later, it's going to run out, she predicts.
I agree: with travel comes risks. But my rational self knows that The Universe is not tracking my Luck-To-Date and determining that I'm well overdue for a mishap or two. If anything, if I were a gambler, I'd regard my history of successful travel as a good predictor of successful future travel.
But who's really rational, when it comes right down to it?
For instance, Oliver recently suffered an eye injury worried that might have required me to cancel my trip (he recovered quickly). On top of that, a few weeks ago civilian protestors closed the Bangkok International Airport (Suvarnabhumi) for a week, leaving hundreds of thousands travelers stranded.
I would have been screwed had I scheduled my trip for slightly earlier than late December. I have six flights booked in and out of Suvarnabhumi: it's my Southeast Asia "base of operations". I fly in to it, depart on to Luang Prabang (Laos), return and continue on to Denpasar/Bali (Indonesia), return once again, and finally fly out of it back to Chicago.
Between Oliver's health run-in and the airport shutdown, I harbor a superstitious foreboding that my unlucky vacation shoe has yet to drop: everyone knows that bad things come in threes.
Mom and I further discuss the Suvarnabhumi closure.
"There are worse places than Bangkok in which to be stranded," I proclaim.
