Lao Birthday Revue

I've gotten a lot of questions about how I celebrated my birthday in Laos. In short, the Lao don't celebrate birthdays. But here are some photos of what we did instead!

To make things easier, Monica and I doubled up our birthday and farewell parties. Monica was supposed to leave back in June, but has stayed on this long until CARE found a replacement. Now she can finally go back to OZ to finish that six-year master's degree.

I ordered birthday cake from a Lao bakery for the party. During the day, I found out that Khampy, the CARE Lao AI project manager, had the same birthday as me! He hadn't told anyone at all, but I was still able to get his name onto the cake, even if it did appear as an afterthought. I think it's cute. :-) Khampy thought it was hilarious that he was able to get such a birthday celebration without doing a thing. The cats on the cake were Phit's idea!

I had been planning all week to go out dancing after the party. In fact, there were so many fun activities to choose from. DJ Pierre was playing as Martini at 10pm. Vieng and Noi were going to a music club with a a cowboy costume contest. Not and French friends were going bowling. New friend Yumiko was having a girls-night-out at a transvestite club. And Dave and Jessie were gonna do whatever I did.

I went home to drop of my work stuff and found this wonderful note and a wonderful cake left in the refrigerator from the Parkview management and staff. How delightful!

But I was exhausted from the week, and couldn't muster the energy to go back out. So Dave and Jessie came over to my place to eat cake. So much for a grand night out, but I didn't mind at all. I'll never forget my 30th birthday in Laos and everyone who made it a joy!