Sao Darly

Little Sidney celebrated her first birthday on April 11, 2008. Since her birthday was so close to Boun Pee Mai Lao or Lao New Year celebration, her parents combined the birthday celebration and also Sou Khuan on the same day. Only relatives and close friends were invited to the party. One thing for sure, they had plenty of food and drinks for the guests. I have no doubt that Sidney is being spoiled by her parents and other relatives.

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I started to call my relatives in Laos starting in 2003 on a regular basis. It was quite expensive with the regular phone rates with AT&T, Sprint, and later South Western Bell when international service became available. When I came here calling Laos was like 60 Euro cents per minute with special deal from Tele2 and that can add up real fast.

I was so happy when I found out about Skype and started to use the service for Laos in 2006. Back then it was like 19 Euro cents per minute, plus tax. Calling to the US was about 3 or 4 Euro cents. I thought I was saving big time but when I came back from Laos and started to call Pakse and Vientiane so much I was spending too much money on phone calls (more than 200 dollars per month) and had to watch my budget.

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