Laos to Bangkok

This blog posting will be short on cultural richness but long on breaking news.

We are back in Bangkok prematurely. Jane needed medical care, she got it, and all is well.

Last Monday a wound on Jane's leg---origins unclear---looked infected. We were still in Luang Namtha, Laos, a remote place. We checked the Laos Lonely Planet Guide for advice on receiving medical care in the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic. Basically, Lonely Planet said to forget it.

Joe, just back from his (excellent) three-day trek, volunteered to escort Jane to Bangkok, where my infected leg was treated two years ago and Joe had shoulder surgery last year. He knows the territory when it comes to good medical care in Thailand. Lao Airlines has just three turboprop flights a week in and out of Luang Namtha, and luckily one was coming and going that afternoon and space was available. (We had arrived in Luang Namtha overland, eight hours from Luang Prabang, bumpity-bump.) Joe and Jane flew off at four that afternoon, first to Vientiene, the Lao capital, then on to Bangkok on Thai Airways. They arrived at Bangkok Nursing Home Hospital after midnight.

Some of you may wonder, who are these people Joe and Dick are traveling with? Jack Prebis is a good old friend from Peace Corps-Ethiopia days. He worked on the Peace Corps staff, then for VISTA, then as a budgeteer for the federal Office of Personel Management before retiring to Western Massachusetts. He's a terrific photographer. Jack and I went back to Ethiopia in 1988 for the Washington Post and traveled in rebel-held Eritrea. That is when we first learned to appreciate (a) potable water and (b) not having to think about getting shot at.

Jane Campbell Beaven was a Baltimore debutante who ran off to Africa early. She was on the original Peace Corps staff in Washington and then in Ethiopia. She was married for many years to John Beaven, a British diplomat who died about five years ago. Jane was deputy director of Unicef in Nigeria, Sudan and Indonesia when John was posted in those countries. Jack and I visited John and Jane in Khartoum in 1988 when we were en route to hooking up with the Eritrean Peoples Liberation Front. Wherever she went, Jane was thought of as supremely competent and a real sweetheart. Still is.

Jane is now out of the hospital and back in her digs at the Oriental Hotel. The wound was not infected, it turned out, but it had not been healing, and it was good that she received top-notch medical care right away. We all did the right thing. Jane flies home tomorrow, via a few days in Singapore, as planned. Jack flies to Burma tomorrow for a week, then home. Joe and I will have lunch today with Jack and Jane at the Oriental. The hotel is letting me in now. Two years ago, I hiked over there in the broiling sun (Joe was off in Chiang Mai taking cooking classes) and was refused admittance because I was wearing shorts. Now I dress like a grown-up---i.e., uncomfortably---and I swagger into the Oriental as if I'm Joseph Conrad or Noel Coward.

More breaking news: Joe is going to have his shoulder fine-tuned. After his surgery last year at BNH (to fix a long-standing problem), he never recovered full range of motion in his left arm, and the shoulder was often sore. While Jane was recuperating, Joe saw Dr. Somsak, his surgeon, who immediately recognized a "frozen shoulder." That's something about scar tissue forming (details to come). Dr. Somsak said he could fix this with minor surgery involving an injection of some kind, so it's back to BNH for Joe next Sunday. Joe is relieved that the problem is one that can be easily fixed. Dr. Somsak, was not able to do the surgery sooner, because, a nurse confided to Joe, the queen will be traveling and Dr. Somsak always accompanies her on her trips. Who knew?

Meanwhile, despite all the medical adventures, none of us has neglected eating well or---with Jack and me---acting like carefree tourists. While Joe and Jane were in Bangkok, Jack and I made our way to Nong Khiaw, Laos, and took the wonderful six-hour boat ride down the Nam Ou river to Luang Prabang. (See our 2007 blog for Joe's and my Nam Ou glorious journey.) Jack and I finally made it back to Bangkok yesterday, and we dined with Joe last night at Harmonique, near the Oriental, where frugal Jack is staying on Jane's ample dime. Harmonique was a bit of a ferenji-bate (Ethiopia Peace Corps types will know what this means), but the food was good---tom yam, pork larb, and chicken grilled on the ends of lemon-grass stalks. Yum.