hello....i was stationed at u'ta'pao from jan, to dec, 1974...sec police......i worked at portsmouth naval shipyard portsmouth n.h. in the welding shop for 31 yrs....i retired in feb of 2009......i traveled back to thailand in march of 2009 ...to meet my thai lady.....i stayed in with her and her family in thailand for 6 months....we've been together now for almost 30 months.....i just opened a claim with the va for possible herbicide exposure.....anyways....i'll be traveling [ home ] to thailand in oct......the little lady n i bought a new toyota truck a yr ago....we spend about half out time in her moms village in yasathon...thats about 100 klicks west of ubon....we've driven up to mukdahan 3 or 4 times for my cross border visa run....we also have driven down to rayong 3 or 4 times to spend a few months renting a place on the ocean.....when i return in ocy we have made plans to drive down to ; bang saphan... were gonna rent a bungalow on the beach down there and hang out and enjoy.....anyways......we haven't made it up to nkp yet.....i have a retired thai teacher friend.....he and i want to spend a couple weeks in laos....we want to take our dirt bikes and ride some of the ho chi minh trails.....if any of u folks r interested....if u can come to thailand maybe we can get together.....my teacher friend....i call him mr kool......kool means teacher in thai anyways mr kool said he has plenty of room for guests.....we'll meet u at the ubon airport and go from there......