This is a good time to re-kick start my 'blocked' blog after a series of humorous yet life threatening events that have once again added colors to my slow but gradually vivid life.

First off, my first birthday as an expatriate. Went drinking with my client, colleague and owner of the club. Then came along a gal-friend whom I known quite sometime. she got drunk that night along with my colleague's gal-friends. We sent them back to our place. Being a Saint, I carried my gal-friend to my bed while I slept on the sofa in the living room.

The next morning, I thought i was Sane to do the right thing...then the first sentence encountered by my face from my colleague's gal-friend was "Ah Vince, you Gay?" WTF...in fact, this was the second time I've carried a gal to my room without doing anything and that gal was there on both occasions.

Its amazing that Laos girls are so 'open' and the gal who put me to Shame was a typical good gal unlike what you might be imaging her to be, someone loose etc. I actually have some gal saying this to me "Even if I push myself to Vinc, I can rape him yet he won't do anything to me one.." I'm a Shame to the male society. I always thought Singaporeans are in an open-minded society...then again, I guess in terms of this aspect, Laos are one step ahead hahaha.

I called that a Genuine Slumber party where gals come to your place, drink, get touchy, kissy in front of you, then when the party is over, touchy couples would get to their rooms and finished off what they wanted to begin in the first place. These parties are so common in my place. Though I always made the Sane decision by being a Saint...yet I always felt being Shame for missing these opportunities. What a bum.

Now for the Serious part, I survived a car crash on Wednesday night 9pm+ (5th Aug). I was supposed to be in my province trip for a week, but it was shortened by the abrupt car accident.

All I could remember was..it was rainy night, the car was reaching a right bend but it skidded and spinned twice before going down a short slope, eventually crashing into a tree. I closed my eyes during the spin either by my body reaction or perhaps I was already injured during that spin.

Luckily, all 4 of us survived. When the crashed stopped, I opened my eyes immediately to see a bloody face in front of me, my staff suffered 3 stitches above his left eye ad 2 stitches on his right lip. My Singaporean colleague injured his chest & could hardly breathe.

Me? I was sitting at the right back seat but ended up leaning over to the left driver side. My head knocked against the roof, my right head swollen, sharp pain in my back and a strained neck. The driver was the luckiest one who suffered only a swollen lip.

My customer sent us to the nearest hospital..Sepon Hospital...it seemed more like a 'bunk' rather. We did an immediate X-ray and was informed that nothing was broken on our fragile human body. We slept on that hard bed from 1am till 6am in the morning before our customer sent us to their office for resting.

Why not back to a better hospital you might think...From the accident location,its an 8hr drive from the capital where my office is. So we had to wait at our customer's office for our driver to pick us up. The worst part of this accident was the 8hr drive back with your injuries. And we actually drove past the accident area to see our damaged car still lingering at that tree. Wonderful sight.

To add spice to this drama, one of our customers' car actually had an accident at the same location but unfortunately one of them died from that accident. After hearing that, I told myself I am a lucky fuck.

We reached back capital at about 12midnight Thursday, went for a hospital checkup to reassure our battled bodies. Still nothing broken as adviced from the doctor.

I'm glad my office staff and Lao friends have been taking very good care of me, cooking, serving us medicine and water, massaging, carrying me up and down, staying overnight in case we encoutered any problems. Both Jon and I actually couldn't carry ourselves up from the bed for the first two nights. Now I'm slowly recovering though I am still not as flexible as before but simple sitting, standing and walking can still be accomplished. Injections, massage and medication are my dearest friends for this week, sadly but miraclly effective.

Your voice was angelic and comforting to my recovery. Though I know its just psychological effects..afterall, I'm a mere mortal with emotions. Just chatting with you makes me feel lighter and away from this near-death experience. Nightmare to Dream. I thought I lost the opportunity to visit my homeland but it looks like I'm given a 2nd chance.

I still have not regret coming to Laos, so many twists and turns in this journey yet I'm still a Survivor. A hard fought life-threatening yet enriching journey...I'm still walking like what Johnnie Walker always preach about...Keep Walking.