I heard that the GM is petitioning to get his Sheraton to secede from the other Starwoods.

ghecko is excellent... poor internet.. more tomorrow

i'd like to see that birth CD in fact.. think about it.. why not just produce it in the first place?? why all the big deal??

the gm must be looking for another job.. in fact i received an e mail from him today

Been waiting for the report on the GG. $800.00 +++ per day and no wifi??? Or was it the 4 distracting you....

we need details

we made it to vientiane, laos this afternoon right after lunch.. so far its quite charming and we love our hotel the salana botique. more later

Looking forward to hearing about Vientiane...

Tuesday 11/13

We had a nice sleep our last day at the sheraton krabi. Would we return there I am not sure. There are many things we like about the place, and it has memories for us, but it just not seem like us, as does the jw marriott in khao lak.

After breakfast Karen and pat took a few of Andy's ashes out onto the sheraton lawn where Gpanda used to entertain RaRa the elephant with his tricks, placed them on a couple of flowers and left them there. see photo.

We paid our bill and jumped in the car for a drive over to Phuket where we were staying that night at the Renaissance.
The drive was interesting as it had been going to krabi. Lots of roadside activities and huge rock formations.

We arrived at the R and were told we had been upgraded to a pool villa which turned out to be very lux with our own small pool, a bathroom the size of a small house, a deck with 2 loungers next to the pool... The girls swam.

We had dinner in our room around our coffee table with the pool lights reflecting on the water. The girls loved the bottled of red wine sent from the manager. Breakfast was a bit quick in the breakfast and was quite nice with all the usual breakfast suspects.

Our flt back to bkk was at 10:55 on thai air with a connecting flt to Udon Thani in Issan. We met up with Beth and friend maureen at the gate in bkk.

PLEASE NOTE: If you buy tickets on thai air and some other airlines, you will be required to show the credit card you used at check-in. I have now had problems with this twice.
So B&M were stuck at check in and we were in transit and I had the card used to charge all tickets. Thai would not help out by meeting me as i deplaned at bkk. It was a mess and they were stuck at check-in for 1.5 hours.. Totally my fault, but....

Anyways it worked out in the end. We arrived at UT right on time and found our host waiting for us outside the terminal.
He loaded our luggage into the van and we were off with a ride of 1 hour to Green Gecko, the private villa we had rented for the next 3 nights. Cost: 25,500 B for the villa (sleeps 4 in two guest rooms w/shower), pool, transport and all meals. That's $819 for 3 nights. This included beer and soft drinks too. Wine available for about 700 B per bottle--decent.

more after dinner.. French tonight

The villa is very nice and the surrounding area of Issan (poorest part of Thailand) is very agricultural. We saw veggie farms (not many); tons and tons of rice, mostly now being harvested; arrowroot plants at all stages of life; new rice plants; harvested rice drying; sugar cane; some fruits, but not many and more. K loved the colors of the maturing rice plants: sort of a golden brown, all blowing in the gentle breezes. We saw some thin cattle, lots of free range chickens and dogs of course.

The villa is 3 northern thai style buildings with peaked roofs set on a platform with a small pool built into the platform, which is chest deep. Water was lovely. The bldgs are a red color, not unlike the jim thompson house in bkk. The owners are thai: Ten and his wife Euang. Ten speaks english if you speak slowly. She speaks some, mostly about food. They have two women helpers.

The villa has 3 bldgs: one is an open sala with table and 6 easy chairs. One contains 2 bedrooms with a king bed and a double bed... the king room has a large bathroom with a shower outside on a covered balcony, the other has a shower in the bathroom. Rooms are not large but adequate. the king room has a safe. Bedrooms are well air conditioned.
The other building contains a sink food prep room, a kitchen with a large fridge, a combo dining, entertainment and living room area. The dining table has 6 straight back chairs, the entertainment area is sunken and has music facilities, a tv and dvd's and books. the living area has a large table 2 sofa's and lots of windows---they look out into the wooded area and to the pool.

The food: breakfast was normally fruit, juice, rice soup with chicken, and tons of toast, butter and jam, plus coffee and tea. lunch, for which we returned from sightseeing each day for was a one plate meal. One day it was rice, shrimp and veggies, another day it was phad thai. bananas for dessert. dinner was 4 thai dishes cooked with the amount of spice you desire: beef, chicken, pork, veggies, rice.. bananas for dessert or fruit platter. I bought cookies.

Beer and water were in the fridge all the time.
There is a pool table under the villa.

You can bike ride but the roads are mostly dirt. In a car you are 15-20 minutes off a main road thru farming country.
I consider the place to be rural.

We took a few excursions. We went to the museum of the oldest pre-historic dig in Asia or maybe it is SEA. We went to a clothing market (cotton and silks). The girls bought cheap clothing there, but basically it was not that nice.
We went to an open air food market near to udon thani. The most fun thing we did was to visit the lake. It is a large body of not deep water. We hired a motor boat for an hour which slowly took us thru the floating water lilies, lotus flowers and other flowers, plus birds, including an endangered grey herring. At some points we were surrounded by pink flowers for as far as you could see. 500 B. We all loved this. The boat had a 9HP motor and the boat was a new fiberglass 16-18 footer.

One afternoon we lazed around at the villa.

We don't think that we would return but we loved our time there and especially loved being in Issan.

E-mail: [email protected]
Charles Coleman, an english speaker will respond to you for the owners.

www.thaivillarent.com


We had pre-arranged for a ride from the villa to Vientiane, Laos thru Ten.
The price ended up being 5000B. Two sedans drove us to the border where we had to do thai immigration, then we crossed the friendship bridge into Laos where we were passed off to a van and driver. They transferred our luggage from one car to another. The paperwork took almost an hour and cost $36 ($1 extra for overtime--saturday---only in asia). One picture required. I did not see a picture facility there but there probably one there. Extra cost for weekends????

The new driver was very nice and a bit of a character. We have hired him for 4 hours Sunday for a Vientiane tour--$50.
The drive into town was about 12 miles. Roads were very good.

They are getting ready for the asian games shortly so there is lots of sprucing up and some new facilities.

Our hotel is on a side street in the center of town. The salina botique hotel. We are paying $110 (single), $120 (king), $130 (twin). Our rooms were not ready until 2 so we had a lovely lunch in the dining room---cheap--soup and sandwiches--all home made style.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring our section of downtown--its quite small. We did shops and tried to get $$ from atm's--still no luck. Some really lovely shops with almost everything priced in dollars. A few things purchased--clothing.

can't write more tonight.

ATM problems? That's why I don't rely on them when in Thailand. Can't risk being short of funds.

Thanks for the description of Issan and Green Gecko. The lake sounds nice. The Gecko sounds very Thai.

Enjoy Vientienne.

for sure Issan is the "real thailand" that everyone looks for...

ATM's--- i would not do it any other way, especially in thailand. Bkk atm's are very reliable. if one doesn't work, move to the next.

Dinner was just around the corner at L'adresse, cuisine by tinay; wat ongteu, ban watchan-chanthabouly D.
strange address but near salana hotel.

this is a small place with both inside (a/c) and outside seating. the owner is 35, french trained and well spoken. he is a whirlwind, running the kitchen, front of the house and the staff. he is charming.

food was diverse and outstanding. dinner was $204. for 5, but don't let that scare you off there was an inclusive fixed priced meal at 160,000 kip or $20. we had escargot, not in shells but served on a bread with a lightly scrambled egg... a fried spring roll with goat cheese (yum--house special)... lao tenderloin which he had aged for a week with various sauce choices and fresh made FF... lamb ribs from rack of lamb.. shepherds pie... wine by the glass--excellent... delicious desserts... offered house made lemoncello after the meal...

interior of rest. was fresh and nice. front was was rustic brick.. nice place settings.. comfortable relaxed setting... a keeper as they say.


Sunday nov 18


breakfast at 8:30... ok, but not fab.. adequate.

Driver came for us at 9:30. dropped off laundry near-by--ready at 10 tomorrow. taken to an international atm site a few blocks away on street bordering park and river. some cards worked, some not. i got 2,000,000 kip.

Were taken to a nearby wat which was quite lovely. girls stayed at 2nd wat across the street from 1st while i returned to hotel with some stomach issues. decided not to return to sightseeing. girls left to fend, quite well, for themselves.

The following is written by karen.

Our tour included Haw Pha Kaew museum. This houses some of Laos oldest historic relics, It is also the site the Siamese stole the Emerald Buddha from and took it back to BKK.

Across the street is Wat Sisakit the oldest remaining Wat. It's murals are still very colorful despite age and water damage. It reminds one of wat Pho in Bkk with the Buddhas. It's historic claim to fame is it is where the Lao loyalist swore loyalty to first the Siamese and then the French.

The third stop was Wat Si Meuang. The new Jade Buddha is here. In addition couples come here to pray for children. There is a resident stork in the court yard to give credence to the place.

Thatluang Stupa was next. One of the most sacred places in Laos for Buddhists. Very important politically also.
Patouxai is Vientiene's arch de Triumph. This is made with American cement that was supposed to be used to build an airport after the war (Vietnam). Great use of our tax dollars. It stands looking unfinished in a park.

A quick trip thru the morning market left us nonplussed-- not very exciting merchandise for us. Back to the hotel for lunch and to cool down.

We shopped in several neighborhood stores after lunch. Found Saoban where we all bought something. It is a village handicraft store where profits are returned to the villagers.
Located on Chao Anou Rd, same as our hotel.

I continue to be amazed at the Kimballs' energy. Well done.

Not much has changed back here. Winter is on the doorstep, ushered in as always by November's grim collection of increasingly-short, gray days. (Though admittedly the last few have been sunny, though cold.) And here in Mass., they'll be playing The Internationale as the anthem before all of the Thanksgiving Day football games, so progress is being made.

that is the same song being used at the coronation on jan 21?

we lazed around for the rest of the day and had a very pleasant dinner in the hotel.. combo lao and western.

purchases here are generally more expensive than in luang prabang and also more than thailand as a whole.

prices are quoted in us dollars, euros and kip.. you can pay in numerous currencies... visa and m/c purchases uniformly have a 3% service charge, and amex 4%. very little bargaining, maybe 5-10% or none.

Monday 11/19

Not much planned for the day, excvept for more shopping... we decided we would prefer to have a driver, so contacted yesterday's driver again and he came at 10. BTW, there are no conventional taxis in most of Vientiane, some modified tuk tuks, but not many.

The girls had a list of a few places to visit and a lunch spot.
The driver stopped at a travel agent friend for a little direction in lao. Almost next door we picked up our finished laundry---10,000 K per kilo.

So our first stop was at Sandra Yuck's Caruso Lao shop. we had made purchases from her in LP in 2007 and have been very pleased with them, including a small table. The shop is directly across the road from the new riverside park at 008 Fa Ngum Rd. Her products are mostly home goods, decorative items, furniture, silks and various items. She is Canadian and has lived in asia for decades. Her items are high end carrying an appropriate price as well. We ended up bying a set of 3 small stacking tables with hard wood burled tops and flared painted legs... For small tables they are very heavy.
They are being shipped to our house for $250+. I remembered them from our 2007 trip and was pleased to see them again. K says they are my Christmas present---maybe for the next few years I added.

We bid Sandra goodbye and moved on to the infamous Carol Cassidy's textile shop. Also located in a fab old house- a mansion of sorts, we got there just before their noon closing. we were given a tour of the work shops behind the house and were pleased to view any number of works in progress and perhaps 20 women busy weaving. One interesting project was silk being woven for a custom order for drapes for a house in manhattan. These were fabulous and involved an intricate pattern of gold and black.... two panels were being woven on looms side by side to assure an exact match for each window.

From there we headed off to lunch.

Speaking of the coronation.... HE's in Thailand/Cambodia for a few days right now. Probably causing traffic headaches, etc...

Are you heading to BKK or to a beach next, after Laos?

Carol is right. This morning traffic was paralysed in Bangkok so that the president can travel from the Four Seasons to the old airport. Traffic had been bad all week with several US VIPs coming prior to the president and the police closing roads for their motorcade.

Bob: you must feel so goid that your Pres is nearby!

betsy--i would feel that way if MY president were near by, but instead the faker is here causing havoc and reading from his teleprompter.

in an hour we will start the drive back to thailand and then fly into bkk this PM for a bit of lux at the st regis..

looking forward to dinner with pook et al in a few days at gaggan.

i will catch things up later