Skype Talk

This evening while I was videoconferencing via Skype with Mike, who is still in Canada until the beginning of December, Steve suddenly popped online. Sharing my excitement with Mike, I told him that we would resume our conversation a bit later.

When I connected with Steve, we couldn't believe how amazingly clear the connection was, considering the distance of about 15,000 kilometres (about 9,300 miles) between us. With the exception of a couple of transmission hiccups here and there, our videoconference was essentially perfect. The conversation, which only lasted for a few minutes, was light and easy. I discovered that he was visiting Singapore for a couple of days with one of his work colleagues from Laos. The time difference between Singapore and Toronto is 12 hours, and at the time we were chatting it was just after 8 AM Monday morning their time.

Hopefully, we will be able to maintain some semblance of communication while they are in Laos, but this will be entirely dependent on where they are and if there is any kind of Internet access available. In major centres like Luang Prabang, this is not an issue. However, as one moves out of the major centres and into the jungle where the villages are, this becomes increasingly challenging.