Our friends Micheal (Jakarta, pictured here) and Walter (Rangoon, no photographic evidence of his presence in Vientiane) came in TDY to help out with the Deputy Secretary's visit. Michael was here Monday through Sunday, and spent 3 nights with us at our lovely abode. Walter was here Tuesday through Saturday. Anyway, notwithstanding the long hours associated with the visit (e.g 2:00 am quit time for me on Thursday, 4:30 am start time on Friday for Katherine) we had plenty of chance to hang out with them, eat and drink on the Mekong, and generally catch up with all their goings on. And there's talk of a possible meet up over New Year's on Koh Chang, an island in the Gulf of Thailand. Anyway, that's about it from here