Dear All,
It has been a very Lao week. After 3 years here I still am amazed at how strange the Lao people are, and still amazed how perfect they are too. I adore Laos and adore Lao people, usually.
On Tuesday we had a goodbye meal for one of the lead staff on one […]
Dear All,
I’ve now been in Laos exactly 3 years, and to celebrate (I’m clearly such a party animal) I thought I’d share with you my 3 year statistics:
-I’m now onto my 4th house
-2 of which have flooded
-my 5th Meiban (housekeeper)
-4th mobile phone
-3rd laptop computer
-3rd camera
-I’ve been stopped by the Lao police or army 27 […]
Dear All,
I’m just back up to Vientiane from the mulberry fields of Sekong, from the silk farm down there. It is interesting work, though getting villagers to produce high quality silk thread is somewhat difficult, there are just so many different steps needed to turn a worm egg into consistent quality […]
Dear All,
I bought a walking stick, for the 5% of the time I now need one. I rushed into the shop, quickly paid the money ($5 USD) and walked out realising that perhaps it was the most expensive $5 USD item I’d ever bought. But if I need it 5% of the […]
Dear All,
It has been a steady, if rather difficult week. My arthritis flared up on Sunday again, and has left me feeling weak and nauseated all week, it has proven to be an unusually uncomfortable flare-up and so rather discouraging. I’m still able to swim mercifully, which is essential for my health as it stretches […]
Dear All,
The rainy season has finally arrived here, actually it seems to have arrived with its entire extended family, as the last few days have been somewhat moist. The heavy rains are desperately needed for the rice, with so much of the country having had to replant after such a dry start […]
Dear All,
After very almost 3 years here in Laos I’m learning pungently that one’s ability to succeed encouragingly is greater than ever before here, but one’s ability to screw up considerably also seems to be growing too. In this past week I’ve been down on a farm in Sekong province, in the […]
Dear All,
It has been a mercifully steady calm week, with unusually few traumas. After almost 3 years in Laos I’m more surprised when a week doesn’t have trauma, than when it does. You can’t be neutral about living here, you either love it or hate it; it is a nation that divides the finest people […]
Dear All,
Last weekend I was in Sainyabouli Province meeting goverment officials, it was a fairly normal trip up country: saw 2 elephants, 2 machine guns and a mongoose. Fortunately none of the machine guns were pointed at me. It was a good trip, we put in about 28hrs travelling over 2 1/2 […]
Dear All,
It has been a rough week; a physcially extremely painful week as my arthritis flared aggressively up again Sunday night and has remained high since then. But otherwise life is good, and despite the pain I’m in I do so adore Laos, lao people and living; it will surely take more […]