Christmas in Hua Hin

OK, not your traditional Christmas, but pretty good. Without much advance planning we drove down to Hua Hin, about three hours SW of Bangkok, and spent Christmas weekend hanging out by the pool and the beach, eating lots, getting tanned and generally not doing a lot. We spent part of one morning hitting golf balls at a nearby driving range, but that was as active as we got. The hotel (Marriott) had a Christmas Eve special dinner, but it was 6000 baht a head ($170), a wee pricey, so we went out and had a big steak dinner in town instead. It's Christmas night now, we drove back to Bangkok this afternoon and getting ready to pack it in.....

New Years in Saigon!

Merry Christmas!

Another President Bush

Soon after meeting Bush 43 in Hanoi, Bush 41 came to Bangkok for the King's birthday. He met Embassy staff at the Ambassador's house and did the usual rope line, shaking hands with everyone. When he saw Dung he said, "Wow, you're very beautiful!" Then he wasn't sure he should have said something like that and told me, standing behind her, "If you'd said that it would be sexual harrassment." I told him Dung was my wife so it was OK, I tell her that every day. Nice guy.

Joppe and Koi

A couple weeks back our friends Koi and Joppe got engaged and had the official engagement ceremony at Koi's parents' house with the whole traditional getup. Dung and I had to miss it, unfortunately, but they sent along a whole series of photos. Joppe is Dutch and Koi is, of course, Thai. The wedding's in May and we'll definitely make that.

The Incredible Shrinking Dollar

Over the past year the dollar has sunk to a nine-year low against the Thai baht, the lowest it's been since the 1997 financial crisis when everything went to hell in a handbasket. Every time we change money the news just keeps getting worse, and the predictions are that it'll stick this low. What this means for us is that in the last year we've essentially had a 15% reduction in pay. Phooey.

Fire in the Hole!

Last week we went for Korean with Trent and Julie, and Jim and Maddie plus their four year-old son Max. We got the usual Korean barbecue, which they put in the middle of the table so you can cook the meat yourself. They brought the hot coals over to our table and Max yells, "Fire in the hole!" I think his Dad taught him that....