Lao New Year in Konglor Village
Sabaidee Pi Mai! It’s Pi Mai time in Laos! That festive time of year when the temps and crime soars, beer and water flow unrestrained, social mores are cast aside, and expats attempt to flee Vientiane in droves […]
Laos
Laos Life: 1-9 April 2017
It’s Pi Mai season in Laos! Pi Mai is Lao New Year — the biggest and most widely-celebrated festival in all of Laos! It also coincides with the hottest time of year here in Laos, […]
Night at the Museum
The National Museum is moving out of its downtown home of forty years. So, how do Laotians mark such an occasion? With a little Michael Jackson, of course.
Imojev and Breastfeeding: Another (Minor?) Crisis
Is it safe for a breastfeeding mother to get the Japanese Encephalitis IMOJEV vaccine? How we suddenly found ourselves asking this question, after-the-fact, and what we learned from the experience.
Date Night
Date night in Vientiane! Three bars, two puzzling toilets, and one quirky French restaurant. About as exciting as it gets for a date night around here, and that’s just fine with us. In a previous post, I mentioned that we […]
Hiking Phou Phanang
This day hike in a National Bio-Diversity Conservation Area might be as close as it gets to a true Vientiane-area hike.
9 Months with Noe
Nine Months!!! Another eventful month with the Mister in Laos. He’s [scarily] becoming more and more human every day, which is both exciting and challenging […]
Uncle Lee & Aunt Jamie Visit Laos
In early January, we were very excited to get word that our close friends Lee and Jamie were going to come out from the Bay Area to visit us in Laos […]
Laos Life: 7-12 March 2017
Noe’s back on his feet after feeling a bit under the weather the past few days. Seems that everyone’s kids are sick these days. Cold season, I guess. Well, not cold as in cool, of course. We’ve been having something […]
Naga View
Noe seems to have strange fixation on the sunrise, as he wakes Lori up right about then every morning to feed. Can’t say I blame him. It’s been too long since we visited our beloved “Baby Lady” restaurant and […]
Sunday Fun-Day
Saturday was all about getting stuff done. A visit to ITECC mall to get some lightbulbs and other odds and ends was in order. We were having some unusual weather — overcast and considerably cooler than it had been, and wondered […]
8 Months Old
Our little baby boy is growing like a weed. This month it seems as though Noe’s gone and become a little person. He’s becoming much more opinionated about things, and also learning new ways to […]
Endless Summer
We had something of a “heat wave” this past week. Temperatures soared to the mid to upper 90s (F). Sounds more dramatic than it actually was. When it’s regularly hitting the upper 80s over several weeks, a jump to the mid-90s […]
Laos Life: 27 Jan – 8 Feb 2017
Friday morning at the French Clinic. Nope, Lori’s not trying out new DME (Durable Medical Equipment) for work. While running down a very good road at sunrise, her heel landed on an errant rock […]
Seven Months
It’s that time of the month again… And the Mister has had quite a month. Hard to believe it’s been seven months with this guy. At times, whole months seem to speed by in the […]
Departures
Up early at 6am to catch tak bat, the almsgiving for which Luang Prabang is famous. Despite having visited Luang Prabang since moving to Laos in September, this is our first time up to see tak […]
Luang Prabang: Bamboo Bridges
Monday morning in Luang Prabang with family and friends. Miraculously, we beat the retirees to breakfast. Not sure how that happened with the babe, but it happened. A good morning to be up early […]
Luang Prabang: Day on the Mekong
Lori and I thought Grammy, Grampy & co. might enjoy some time on the Mekong, so we headed down to the navigation office across the street from Saffron Coffee and hired a boat to take us up to Pak Ou cave […]
Luang Prabang: Dry Season & Visitors
Lori’s parents are here visiting for 2.5 weeks — our first visitors here in Laos. Close family friends, John and Shirley joined them for the final week. We spent about three days in the […]
Two More for the Road
Ten days into Lori’s parents’ stay in Vientiane, we added two more guests to the mix — John and Shirley, close family friends from Portland, Oregon. Shirley (not to be confused with Lori’s mom, […]
Déjà Vu
When we have visitors anywhere, we generally like to distribute the time across places and things we’ve seen and done with some new adventures as well. From the first week in Laos, we started to make a mental list of places to […]
Grammy & Grampy Visit Laos
Grammy and Grandpa arrived on a Saturday evening, fresh off a flight from Tapei (via Hanoi). They had been traveling with a couple of close family friends who planned to join us all in another ten days. For now, it […]
New Year’s on the Nam Ngum
I snuck out of our bungalow at Green View Resort while Lori and Noe were still fast asleep to get some much needed kayaking in. We had heard that the sunrises here are pretty amazing. After a star-filled night the […]
Green View
Lori had Friday and Monday off for New Year’s weekend, so we thought it might be a good time to get out of town and spend three of those days on a lake about 2.5 hours north of the capital. It’s […]
Date Day in Vientiane
An unexpected discrepancy in Lori’s work schedule and Noe’s nursery school schedule means the perfect opportunity for heading out into the city sans baby for the first time since moving to Vientiane.
Christmastime in Laos
Join us on a journey through the bizarre and unexpected world of Christmastime in Laos’ capital city.
Laos Life: December 2016
Sunsets, birds, weddings, and a mysterious Christmas Eve partial power outage. A look back at the highlights of our first December in Laos.
Ban Haysoke
Spending some time in one of Vientiane’s more intriguing and historic neighborhoods, Haysoke Village, taking in the crumbling Bauhaus architecture, food, and people.
Vang Vieng: Keing Nyui Waterfall
A short drive east of Vang Vieng is a small cluster of waterfalls at the base of a ridge. The waterfalls might be modest in dry season, but the hike is a worthy trip from town.
Vang Vieng: In the Jungle, Looking for Caves
We find ourselves wandering the nearby jungle at midday with a baby…on a much longer hike to a much farther cave than expected.
Vang Vieng: Chasing the Wild Life
Exploring jungle, caves, and funky watering holes, and discovering Vang Vieng’s infamous past…with a baby.
Vang Vieng: A Walk on the Wacky Side
Laos’ outdoor adventure mecca of Vang Vieng is one wacky place. But it used to be a heck of a lot wackier.
That Chinese Ghost Town Down the Street
Exploring (and making sense of) a bewildering and mysterious collection of vacant structures in the middle of a swamp in Vientiane—just minutes from our doorstep.
Laos Life: 23-30 November 2016
It’s nice to be back in town for the last week of November. It’s full-on dry season now, so we’re trying our best to take advantage of the cooler, sunnier weather.
Tham Piu Cave: Lessons on Life from the Jungle Cave of Death
An unexpected journey to Tham Piu Cave (aka the “Missile Cave”) in the jungles of eastern Laos reveals humanity’s penchant for both destruction and compassion.
Xieng Khouang: Cemetery Sunset
Taking a sunset walk to the mysterious old Chinese cemetery overlooking the picturesque frontier town of Phonsavan.
Xieng Khouang: Plain of Jars
Exploring a mysterious network of mammoth, 2000-year-old stone jars from a lost civilization.
The Xieng Khouang Frontier
Welcome to Xieng Khouang Province, gateway to northeastern Lao PDR. The frontier, both culturally and literally.
The Most Heavily Bombed Place on Earth
Grappling with the heartbreaking legacy of the American Secret War in Laos at Ground Zero.
Laos Life: That Luang Festival
Scenes from a very special night here in Vientiane — the final day of Boun That Luang (Festival of the Grand Stupa).
Luang Prabang: North Bank
We spend our last day in Luang Prabang taking a leisurely stroll around the UNESCO peninsula, and a local ferry across the Mekong to explore a small village and a hilltop jungle temple.
Luang Prabang: Return to Phu Si Hill
First thing on the Saturday morning agenda? Hike up Luang Prabang’s revered temple hill, in the heart of Old Town.
Daddy Days In Luang Prabang
While Lori went on site visits with her technical team, Noe and I spent quality time together exploring the religious and historical heart of Laos.
A Gloomy Day, Indeed
Returning to the UNESCO Heritage town of Luang Prabang after a four year absence, to discover a place largely unchanged – and a world forever changed.
Laos Life: 1-8 November 2016
The first month of November in Vientiane brings more exploration, more quirky coffee and beer joints, and more baby hijinks.
Laos Life: 21-31 October 2016
Spending some time in Vientiane between Lori’s work trips, soaking up the sun, and exploring our adoptive city.