birthday

hello again everyone that reads this blog on purpose or by accident.


the picture to the right: the internet cafe in the airport where i typed up my first entry; we (kham) made a friend there named toum (spelt with a mai thoh) and i promised her i'd put the picture on the blog. so: "sabaidee toum!"

Nongkhai is good; yesterday, we spent the heat of the day sleeping... and then we ate some gooooood food. (as yall may know, i measure the success of a vacation on how much weight i gain; its directly proportional too). yesterday was all about meeting the relatives, kham trying to figure out who was related to who, and which cousins would be legal to marry.* then last night we ate at the buffet to celebrate kham's 31st birthday belatedly. that place was crackin' - they had little tables set up where you could tam your own makhoung (with HOMEMADE padek), make some mee mama or pho, and pick your own meat cuts for the dath sinh contraption (see picture). this "cook your own meat at the table" is a fun way to eat, but i was suffering from jet lag, and what i really needed was someone to cook my food for me. (isn't that the idea of a restaurant?) all the relatives were there, and we sang happy birthday, ate cake, and took family pictures. kham was presented with a bouquet of roses (we have a picture, but he made a face when i was gonna post it, so i didn't*) and i fell asleep with my head on the dinner table.

but to all the naysayers (j.f.) saying that kham couldn't eat Lao food... i've been impressed. he has already eaten mok fish eggs, some plant with a name that sounded like "dead chicken," and (the bravest of all- even i wouldn't eat this!) a hot dog from a Thai 7-11.*

the last picture here is kham's mom and dad: i call it "still in love."


*all jokes about kham are intended for entertainment purposes only, and should not be considered true or in any way an actual depiction of reality.