Ron & Nancy in Paris

After a long 13-hour overnight flight from Kuala Lumpur, we arrived in Paris shortly before 6:30 a.m. on Saturday morning, December 15th. We took the "B-train" from the airport downtown and then made a transfer on the Metro to another line that took us a short journey to a stop very close to the apartment we rented. (The pix shows Nancy on the street right by the apartment.) The other picture (below) was taken by the Seine after a lengthy evening walk.

Since our small apartment is very close to a large park (Jardin du Luxembourg), we walked through a small part of the park early-on in our visit and I took a picture of a fairly impressive sculpture. While the garden is obviously much more impressive "in season" -- when there's foliage on the trees and flowers all around -- it was well worth visiting, even in winter. - rw

On to Vientiane

We left My Dream Boutique Resort in Luang Prabang and flew to the heat of Vientiane. On our first evening we explored the area around our hotel.

. Our hotel in Vientiane overlooked a Buddhist Wat. The roof lines of the buildings are stunning.

First thing in the morning on our one full day in Vientiane we rented a tuk-tuk and went to see the sights of Vientiane. Our first stop was Pha That Luang, the most important national monument in Laos. It is a symbol of both the Buddhist religion and Lao sovereignty.

There were many elegant building near the Phat That Mounument.

We walked around the Patuxai (Victory) Monument that is a Laotian rendition of Paris' Arc de Triomphe. It was built in 1969 with cement donated by the USA for the construction of a new airport. Hence, at times it is referred to as "The Vertical Runway."

On the grounds there were several signs like the one below. We didn't quite understand the translation. One other thing that was interesting ... in visiting the National Museum we saw a sign that referred to President Lyndon Johnson as "JonhSen." - Nancy

Day #2 in Luang Prabang

Since our hotel had arranged an afternoon cruise up the river to the Pak Ou Caves, we had the morning to explore, and decided to use the bikes at the hotel to ride about 2 km. up the road to a craft village. Weather was hot, and we did work-up a sweat, but showers awaited us back at the hotel!

At about 1:30 p.m. we were picked-up at the hotel and driven down to the boat docks where a pilot took just the two of us (!) in a long boat (like the one pictured below) two hours upriver to the caves. It was cool on the river, and the ride was nice. The caves were less-than-spectacular (compared to Batu Caves in KL), but the cost was reasonable, and the "sunset cruise" on the way back was very nice.

We actually visited two different caves -- an upper one (many stairs!) and a lower one. The upper cave was extremely dark inside and rooms were visible only with flashlights or the illumination provided by flash pictures. Allegedly, one thousand small Buddha-statues were positioned in the various rooms in the upper cave.

Again, the "sunset cruise" was much cooler and very nice. - rw

Our "intro" to Laos

A "Kenya Event" in Kuala Lumpur

On Friday night, November 9th -- just as ISKL's "Deepavali Holiday Vacation" was beginning and many of us were preparing to fly out of KL on a holiday trip -- Gary & Terry Piech (center) hosted a very nice dinner with ex-ISK-er Connie Buford who was in town for an AISA administrators' conference. (Between her and Charlie on the right is none other than Doug Woodward [Tracy was sick on Friday night and couldn't come.]) Pictured on the left are ISKL "newbies" (currently in their first year), Patricia and Michael, who arrived at ISK-Nairobi the year that Connie left her post. Nancy and I are pictured next to them. Gary and Terry prepared a super-delicious dinner! - rw

The U.S. Election in KL

A large group gathered Wednesday morning in the ISKL library to watch U.S. election results -- thanks to Nancy's careful preparations that even included refreshments! (Teachers were invited to bring their students for a time in the morning -- since in KL we are now 13 hours ahead of Eastern Standard time.)

Notice how attentive Doug Woodward is with computer on his lap during the event!

Later in the morning Doug and Tracy were actually sitting together in the library watching events unfold on CNN. When the day was over Nancy announced that the "Election Event" was a grand success. Students and faculty members really seemed to appreciate the chance to be right in front of the TV to monitor election results as they unfolded. -rw (For those with an eye for detail, the 07/11/2012 is the Asian approach to describing dates. The day comes first, and then the month!)

Nancy in Mongolia

While Mongolia was not on my bucket list of places to visit when I was asked to be one of the ISKL teachers to go as chaperone for week to Ulaanbaatar I said yes. Traveling companions were 17 grade 11 ISKL students and 2 other ISKL teachers.

When we arrived it was snowing so we got to enjoy the snow for a few days until it melted. For some of our students it was the first time that they had seen snow. Early in our trip we hiked in the mountains and quite enjoyed the open spaces.

We had one day to explore a bit in Ulaanbaater which is the coldest capital city in the the world. We came prepared with our long johns and many layers to keep warm. Even in the city we saw some traditional gers (Mongolian yurts).

Our main goal for traveling to Mongolia was to do service at an orphanage. Our students, cleaned, sorted, taught English, and played with the Mongolian children.

On our final day in Ulaanbaatar we had some time to visit two museums and Sükhbaatar Square and see the huge statue of Genghis Khan. - Nancy