And our new guests arrive. Mother and daughter reunited, and enjoying a bit of beer, tea, and spicy noodles last night.

Alan arrived healthy and happy. Diana arrived unhealthy...and happy. A trip to the doc in Udorn today resulted in a diagnosis of 'nothing serious' and a whole lot of pills to choose from. Total cost, $40. Again, medical care in Thailand is fun.

Basically Diana brought a bad cold to Laos, and it was likely exacerbated by many hours in a tube of stale air hurtling through the sky, known as a jet in the common vernacular. Didn't stop her from enjoying a lovely beer Lao last night, though.

Alan took the opportunity to not wear shoes today, meaning he didn't leave the house. There's something nice about taking a day to just hang around the house. Unfortunately, I had to work. But I think Alan enjoyed the solitude.

And Vone made him lunch, which must have been a plus (and the fact that she was here probably took a bit of the edge off the whole solitude stuff).

Oh, and I have tentatively reserved our February trip with Sarah and Scott to the Boat Landing in Luang Namtha, a province chock full of kayaking, nature hikes, mountain biking through minority villages, and other stuff we probably won't do because we'll be too busy smoking opium 24/7. Or not.

Anyway, they haven't signed off on the whole Luang Namtha trip, but I don't really care. Wherever they say they want to go, we'll just go to Luang Namtha and tell them we are wherever they wanted to go. I mean really, with a different language AND alphabet, how the heck would they know the difference?

New glasses arrive tomorrow. I'm still mad at that damn monkey. Fun thing is, I don't even remember what kind of glasses I picked out (by which, of course, I mean Katherine made me pick).

Time for bed.