Bad Pee
An absurd childhood: tales of the third world
The Notorious Green Latrine Nightclub, Vientiane
It was Paris and we were sitting outside a café, blissfully sipping wine and studying the backside of Notre Dame de Paris. A friend had just returned from the bathroom. “Ah,” she sighed, settling into [...]
Coming home to Vientiane, Laos
Coming home to Vientiane, Laos, after an absence of more than 40 years.
Our Gift from Laos
Most siblings get a few months head’s up about impending newcomers, but we’ve always done things a little differently in our family, so Sean just kind of popped in one day: ten days old and the cutest baby in the universe!
Great Pumpkin in Buddha Park
Vientiane is special to me and many of my schoolmates because, well, we lived there. But let’s face it: most tourists hit Vientiane solely as a jump-off point to Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, or other [...]
Six useful travel phrases
It's always helpful to have some useful phrases down pat when you're traveling. When people ask me how many languages I speak, I usually 'fess up to "market language" in a number of languages. This usually involves [...]
1966 Embassy Post Report–Vientiane, Laos
As I get my stuff together (and studiously avoid having to deal with iMovie this evening!), I thought I would start out our trip back to Laos with the 1966 U.S. Embassy Post Report for [...]
Third-Culture Kids: a Folie à Plusieurs
For reasons probably dictated by watching too many movies about the war in Southeast Asia and having lived here during the 60s and 70s, I have a continuous stream of Credence, Stones, and Hendrix running [...]
A $50 pair of socks?!
Your first thought on seeing this post is probably: Really? The first photo she posts from this magnificent journey into her Southeast Asian past is a pair of freaking SOCKS?! To which I must respond: [...]
Getting there
I just arrived in Taipei, my transit point for the first leg. Tomorrow morning (at ohhhhh, dark-thirty), I fly to Manila to visit friends. China Airlines, LAX to Taipei Pleasantly, China Airlines did not live up to [...]