35 Reasons why we have to attend RL35!

1) To prove that we really did survive “Youth in Asia”, even if we can’t remember it any more

2) To listen to the “oldies” like “Paint it Black”, “Proud Mary”, “Yellow River”, “American Pie” and “Black Magic Woman” where we heard them for the first time

3) We can have an “adult beverage” in front of our teachers and not get in trouble!

4) To hang out at Le Spot and see what that was all about, because some of us were too young to go when we lived there

5) To raise a toast to those who didn’t make it out of Laos, and to remember those who we have lost in the years since

6) The Royal Air Lao ticket said “Let it happen to you in Laos”. Let's see if we can find where “it” happened

7) To revisit the wats and That Luang because we didn’t appreciate their significance when we were young

8) We can say “Bo Peng Yang” all we want and people won’t look at us funny

9) To see if we can find our old homes, however, mine's been torn down....8-(

10) There’s nothing like drinking a beer and watching the sun set over the Mekong River (especially from our riverside hotel)

11) We can climb up to the top of the Monument and peer into the “den of spies”, aka the USAID compound

12) To give back to the Lao people, in a small way, for the wonderful experience we had living there

13) We miss drinking sodas in plastic bags

14) Do the Lao women still sit under the street lights at night and catch bugs for snacks?

15) We lived history here – 1973 Peace Accords, the Kong Le coup, Lam Song 719, the 1975 evacuation

16) Because we need new baci strings to ward away evil spirits!

17) No one else would believe the aircraft we flew, what we flew with, and that we flew with the ramps down

18) To get into KM-6 and see our old alma mater (singing the school song is optional)

19) Get up the nerve to ask that cute guy/gal to dance or at least have a conversation with them

20) To visit Luang Prabang or Pakse or Angkor Wat, with old friends

21) Do they still burn the rice fields and does it still smell the same?

22) We know that the Air America pilots were nothing like the movie with Mel Gibson! (But the scenery was pretty authentic)

23) Can we raise the GDP of the Lao PDR by buying all those wonderful fabrics we just took for granted?

24) Because no one else would believe that we really ate at a restaurant called Phu Ky’s and that they had really great noodles.

25) We have to make it back to Laos before the first fast food restaurant does

26) To find out what happened to our fellow Lao students

27) We have to enjoy a cup of Lao coffee, now enjoying a resurgence

28) Did the “Most Likely to Succeed” folks really succeed??

29) To reminisce about our horse, our motorcycle, our swim in the Mekong, the jungle camping experience or the night train to Bangkok

30) To remember being 12 or 15 or 17 and the wonderful adventures we had in the “Land of a Million Elephants”

31) Compare notes between the floods of 1966 and 1971

32) To relive those days in May 1975 when the KM-6 compound was held hostage and we walked out of our houses with a single suitcase

33) Because we have been to a previous reunion and we know how great it was!

34) Or perhaps you haven’t made it to a reunion yet and you want to know what all the fuss is about!

35) For those of you who can't make it, you will be there in spirit, or perhaps virtually, and those of us who get to Laos will miss you!