Vientiane, Laos. Again!

Finally got around to inserting my photographs into my blog on Vientiane. If you're interested in seeing them at last, here's the link:

Vientiane

And if that doesn't work, try a cut-and-paste of this:

http://travels-with-denise.blogspot.com/2008/12/vientiane-laos.html

Naturally, there are a zillion more snaps that aren't in there, and some of those are truly gorgeous, but, gosh, inserting photos is painful. It took about four hours to put in the ones I did, and now I have a sore and stiff neck and desperately need a massage, so am off.

Will be up in China over the rest of the week, so "Hung Hei Fat Choi" to all of you ... oh, and if you want to be all cross-cultural and witty, write "Happy Nui Year." to your Chinese friends. "Nui" is Cantonese for "Ox" and since 2009 is The Year of The Ox you'll be wishing them a great time for the entire twelve months.

Oh, and one more thing: if you read my post on Tung Chung Fort I talk about how it's disputed as to who built is, and how I needed to find a Chinese calender to solve the mystery. You'll recall how the date "1832" is carved into the fabric of the fort in calligraphy, but since that was before the British took over, it made no sense for it for the year 1832 to be the same as our 1832AD.

Well, I have since found it: according to the Chinese calender, 2009 is the year 2551AB, which means Tung Chung Fort was built in ... lordy, lordy, lordy, this means doing Maths! ... 1290??? Is that right? And since Northern China claims they built it in 1130 (from memory) that rules out that one out of contention.

But enough of this! Again, Hung Hei Fat Choi.