Posts under ‘Laos’

Earlier this week, I was fortunate to get an email with those three little words that make my heart leap with joy and anticipation: “Food Festival Invitation.” Woo hoo! I quickly skimmed over the list of local restaurants scheduled to participate in the cooking competition, but the words “free public sampling of dishes” were all [...]

These days in Laos, everybody’s trying to get out of the rain. This frog spent an afternoon on the cool surface of my boot recently. He was the exact color of the mud outside our gate, so at first I thought he was just a big mud blob. Lucky for him, I decided to not [...]

As we wrapped up our first week back at school, I was feeling neglectful of The Guide Hog but too busy to do anything blog-worthy. And then Mother Nature handed me a story. Rain pounded Vientiane overnight, but that’s nothing new in this wet season. As we headed out the door for school this morning [...]

Sometimes, when you spend an extended period of time on the toilet because stress over the new school year in this far-away place has made your bladder seize up, … … you stare at the plastic boxes that hold your year’s supply of toothpaste, Citrucel, hair dye, and other toiletries, … … and you realize [...]

Date: June 17, 2010 Significance: First Day of Summer Vacation! 5:30 a.m. – Sunlight pours through the curtains of the guest bedroom, where I had sought sanctuary from Tony’s snoring. A quick wave of grumpiness over the early hour immediately subsides when I realize we are leaving today to spend the summer with friends and [...]

During a recent bike ride with some girlfriends along the Mekong River south of Vientiane, I encountered a full-on fire-and-brimstone smackdown about heaven vs. hell, good vs. evil, the chosen ones vs. the infidels. I found the graphic warnings so engrossing that I actually forgot to write down the name of the temple. Split into [...]

When your whole life feels like a dog-and-pony show, there’s nothing to do but go to the circus! According to my trusty Lonely Planet, the Russian Circus was established in the 1980s during a time of strong Soviet influence in Laos. The circus stages performances just a few times each year, so when my friend [...]

Yikes, it’s been a long time since I’ve written anything here. In part, that’s because my brain was numbed by two weeks of administering English language proficiency assessments followed by countless hours of composing report card comments. I seem to be suffering from a cranky restlessness that I chalk up to an obsession with summer [...]

Just when you’ve worn a new pretty frock from Bali to the European Film Festival … Just when you’ve enjoyed a splurge of a dinner at a fancy Italian restaurant with a splendid glass of red wine … Just when you’ve closed the cover of a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and sat reflecting on the horror [...]

Martin Luther once said: For in the true nature of things, if we rightly consider, every green tree is far more glorious than if it were made of gold and silver. I’m afraid I beg to differ, Mr. Luther. As I’ve mentioned before, tuk-tuk drivers often congregate outside our front gate, where a full leafy [...]