Tomorrow, Judy and I are flying to BKK and will be there over that auspicious date, the 22nd, and have ready access to email. We plan to meet casually with some of the guys that we hung out with during the Bangkok years and still consider fast friends.
On November 23rd, we will head to Vientiane, Laos, for a couple of days. It’s a nice city on the Mekong and the capital of Laos. There is lots of French and other foreign influence from the embassies there, making for an enjoyable atmosphere. I think we’ll have a French dinner for Judy’s real birthday celebration.
By the way, we met our first French Foreign Legionnaire at an expat bar on the Mekong on our first trip to Vientiane. Before joining the Legion, he had been a butcher by vocation in London. Hmmm.
After that, we will travel slowly toward Khon Kaen, stopping en route for a day in Udon Thani, an Isan city which we had always intended to see but didn’t. In Khon Kaen, we’re set up to visit with some of our teacher friends, some students, and a doctor friend. We will enjoy Thanksgiving dinner at the Sofitel Hotel and remember most thankfully of all of you back home and toast to your health and happiness.
We will return to Saigon on November 30th. Once back here, we will probably try to fit in all the things we intended to do, but didn’t quite manage. We’ll finish out our English-for-Medicine class the day before coming home on Dec. 11.