December in Luang Namtha

This month it has finally gotten really cold in the mornings (much belated compared to last year) and we have stunning blue skies every single day.  December has seen us achieving many different things and attending quite a few events.

Baci ceremony for Bounmee and Sai's babyThe first one was Bounmee and Sai’s baby party for their newborn baby girl.  We attended the Baci ceremony and spent the day with them.

Then we went to a wedding with Thong and Paet for the son of the largest hotel owner in town.  It was exceedingly lavish with a Chinese stretch 4WD limo and a lot of non-Lao alcohol on every table.  It was quite different to other Lao weddings we’ve been to, and a good time was had by all.

Lao wedding in Luang Namtha

After this we moved into our new home, which is so big and with beautiful views of the mountains and valley of Luang Namtha.  We also spent a couple of days repairing the pizza oven, with new thick stone tiles so now the pizza is even better.  Homemade bread from the oven is now really popular too.

Forest Retreat Laos Christmas

Christmas was celebrated with the customers and staff with christmas pizza and turkey in the pizza oven.

Japanese food in Chiang Rai

We made a trip to Thailand for Dre’s birthday where we stayed in flash place and went to our favourite sushi restaurant.  This was combined with finally picking up our new sofas and chairs!  We were so excited to get the long awaited furniture for upstairs in the shop and also stopped to get some more plants to move ever closer to our Forest Retreat office in town becoming very foresty.

Forest Retreat Laos new couches

We are super excited about the upcoming months when we finally have some westerners coming to help us with the business here and having some more time to work on our next upcoming project and visit some awesome places!