I just finished phoning my friend Nai in Laos and he breathlessly reported that Vientiane experienced an earthquake last night. I had trouble understanding him at first, but he told me, with his sometimes-bad pronunciation and his humorous, but creative, fracturing of English, that:
Last night we have same-same NieuwZhelind (it took a few repetitions for me to understand he was talking about the recent earthquake in New Zealand) and my house dancing (shaking) too much.
So, I searched the Internet, and, sure enough, there was a 4.6 magnitude ‘quake in the region last night. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but he said, in so many words, that some buildings had been damaged in the capital.
Strange and unusual, I thought, but a more powerful, 6.1 temblor struck in May of 2007 that rattled windows as far south as Bangkok, and again, fortunately, no deaths were reported. I’ve never thought of Laos as an earthquake-prone area, but I guess it happens every so often.