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导读：老挝人，无论其年龄大小，都是我见到过的最可爱的人。即使老挝是世界上最穷的国家之一，大多数老挝人不太关心钻营敛财之道，也不关心现代化的种种发展。 I had envisaged a quiet time of reading and sleeping; our couple of days in southern Laos would be spent cruising 100 miles up the Mekong in a pretty, old teak boat. I was mistaken. Wonderfully mistaken. Bye! Bye! Bye! was the endless refrain, as groups of tiny children, some in twos and threes, some in their dozens, stood waving at us and practicing their one word of English from the banks. Or from small carved wooden boats. Or, on one occasion, from the top of a giant tree, before they all jumped one after the other into the waters below. 我曾经想象着，我们在老挝南部旅行的几天里会坐着一艘漂亮而古朴的柚木船在湄公河上巡游100英里（约161公里），享受一段只有阅读和闭目休息的宁静时光。但我想错了，惊喜频频出现。再见！再见！再见！是我们不断听到的一个词，一群群小孩子，有些是两三人一起，有些是十几个一组，站在河堤上边朝我们挥手边练习着说他们刚学会的这个英语单词。也有些孩子会站在小小的雕花木船上。或者，碰到那么一回，是站在一棵大树的顶端。随后，他们一个接一个地全都跳进了身下的河里。 | 
