Letter from Laos

---

Last letter lost in cyberspace. Hope this one takes.

We arrived in Vientiane last night on Air Lao, an airline not certified yet by international standards, but the propeller kept going round and round and got us here safely from Bangkok. After checking into our rooms at the Settha Palace, lovely French colonial restoration, we had dinner at 10:00, one of our best the whole trip. It was french cuisine, and I had delicious lamb chops, Tom had sirloin and Manuel eggplant. We were in heaven after a day of travel.

This morning after a less delicious breakfast we meandered into town, a small city actually, the capital of Laos, but pretty rustic. We visited a few Wats (vats, here), walked through town checking out the shops and had a delicious Lao lunch. Lao is known for its hand woven silk, silver and wood carving and we saw beautiful examples of it all. They bought silk pillow cases and I nothing, yet. After lunch I did have a wonderful foot and leg massage ($4) and am not back at our lovely hotel. Did I mention that in Vietnam, Cambodia and now Laos, the dollar is the preferred currency? So, it's easy to manage the financial arrangements.

A little about Bangkok: After arriving on Christmas Eve afternoon and checking into the Sheraton Sukomvit, which was a spectacular big city hotel, we went to Tom's friend, Bill Warren's, house for his traitional Christmas Eve dinner. His home is traditional Thai, filled with exquisite Thai art pieces. bill has live in Thailand for about 45 years, has written many books and articles on Thailand and Asia and is something of a local celebrity, and grand dame of the ex-pat gay community. There were 15 people, 7 couples and me, the only female. But I was treated so warmly. They had a traditional gift exchange and there were presents from each couple to me. So nice and welcoming of them to do that. The guests included Ken Hom, a Chinese-American chef of some renown, a Jim Thompson executive, local university professors, a wine distributor, Bill's publisher from Singapore, most with Thai or Asian partners. I loved the evening!

Christmas Day: We had breakfast by the pool at the Sheraton, a beautiful site on the third floor, open and planted to resemble a tropical paradise. After breakfast, we sat and read by the pool, had lunch by the pool, read by the pool some more and then had spa treatments. For Christmas dinner we went to a restaurant on the Chao Phraya River, looking much like a home/cottage, and had lobster, fish, shrimp, and wine. It was quite a traditional Christmas Day, wouldn't you say? Our Bangkok experience did not include sight-seeing, just "being," as Tom would say.

I am reading a book Bill Warren gave me (inscribed), called "Anna and other stories," which debunks the Anna of The King and I, plus includes articles on other Asian topics. Other books I started have not held my interest long, except for the guide books to prepare me for the next experience.

Next is Luang Prabong, a larger Laotian city, then Chiang Mai for New Year's (again with the Christmas Eve crowd, minus some and plus others), and then back to the USA. Our tickets are first class on Korean Air which has been on strike just about since we landed. Hope they work things out by Jan. 2. If not, hope the universe takes care of us.

Happy New Year to you all. I'll try and write again during this last week. Love, D

---