Home Sweet Home

It's nice to be back home after a fabulous two months on the road!

French Pastries

While Walter and his wonderful cousin Guido skied in the Alps, I drank cafe au laittes at ski lodges, rode in cable cars, and went into the town of Megeve where I found a bakery and indulged in eclairs and cakes:-).

Photos from our Visit to Geneva!

Back home

We made it back to DC by 10 PM!. Good to be home.

Geneva

Went skiing today near mont Blanc (Mount Whitey). Off ot US tomorrow. Having a great time!

In Paris

We are in Paris. Nothing noteworthy to take pictures of though.

Paris is a small, sleepy town devoid of ay soul. The only form of entertainment is to drink moonshine and bet on chicken fights.

More to follow.

In Belgium and Leaving for Paris Tomorrow

It took us 40 hours to get to Belgium from SE Asia but we made it! We arrived on Tuesday and have been having a wonderful time the past few days with visits to Antwerp, Neil and Brussels. And of course Leuven. Belgium is a beautiful place!

Tomorrow we leave for Paris on the high-speed train which will only take 1.5 hours:-).

Some Photos from Vientiane

Yesterday before going to the airport, we did some sightseeing around Vientiane: the gold stupa, the arch, the presidential palace, etc. All the usual things that tourists should see. The first photos is of our guesthouse (the "tall" white building on the left).

Not So Fast...

...said the immigration officers in Kunming, China. We are not allowed to fly through China without a visa, even though the Chineses website, the Airline and a travel agent told us we could. So we are trying to fly to Vienna via Seoul, Korea an international city that connects to Konming.

It is a very modern airport here. We are using the immigration office computers to update our blog. Very unofficial, but very generous.

China looks very modern, clean and well airconditioned from our perspective here inside the interantional air terminal. What population problem. It also looked great from 20,000 feet.

All hail Chairman Mao.

Belgium, Here We Come!

In a few minutes, we will check out of our guesthouse here in Vientiane and take a tuk-tuk to the aiport for our flight to Brussels (via two stops in China). I can't believe it's our last day in Asia. This morning we woke up early, had a delicious breakfast at the Scandinavian Bakery, walked to see the Presidential Palace, the Lao Arch de Triump (it was built with U.S. funds given to Laos in the 1960s to build an airport (expats refer to it as the "vertical runway"), and the gold stupa that it located in the northeastern section of the city. I'll post some photos later!

Leaving Luang Nam Tha (LNT) Today

We fly to the capital of Laos, Vientiane, today at 4pm on Lao Airlines. It was either a 50-minute flight or a two day bus. After the experience of the minivan going through the mountains in record time the other day, we opted for the flight. We'll be in Vientiane for 3 nights and then we head to Europe via China since when we booked the tickets, the Bangkok Airport was still closed. I was looking forward to returning to Bangkok because it's a super cool airport and I saw a Starbucks as we were running through the terminal about a month ago to catch a flight. I really want a gingerbread latte. Speaking of lattes, we found a lady here in LNT who makes wonderful lattes from a wood hut along the side of a dusty rode and we're on our way there now for breakfast.

Our days in LNT have been nice for the most part, other than it being unexpectantly FREEZING in the morning and at night. We're staying in a nice guesthouse that costs $8.50 a night (a photo is posted) and has a good restaurant...but no heat and no insulated walls. We rented a moped the other day and explored the mountains where we had the chance to see some villages and got to wave to the kids who ran to the run to shout "Sabadee!!" (hello in Laos). We saw children as young as about 4 or 5 walking out of the woods with piles of firewood on their backs. Yesterday, we rented bikes and road out a little bit past the airport and then down a bumpy dirt road to a restaurant that Walter found the last time he was here. We had a delicious meal of sticky rice and chili paste, fried noodles with vegetables, ginger soup, steamed vegetables and lime juice.

I just walked past a local clinic and it looks like they're having some sort of free vaccination day because everyone is driving up on their mopeds with their babies. Very exciting (not the driving with babies on mopeds part - the public health/vaccine program part)!