Lovely Lao

The Slow Boat is full!

We entered Laos from the Northern Thailand town of Chang Kong, near the Golden Triangle to begin our adventure by slow boat down the Mekong River.  The boat held about 80 people for our two-day trip.  The scenery is magical as we floated down the quickly flowing, winding river. We traveled through the lush mountainous valley filled with teak jungles, banana-laden trees, rice paddies, bamboo huts, people bathing in the river, and water buffalo on the shore.  Life on the river operates at a different pace.  Hours rolled by as we chatted with fellow travelers, drifting off to sleep, reading and watching the scenery.  We arrived at a village for the night and returned to the river early for our next day’s journey.

We pulled into Luang Prabang around 4PM the following day.  Our hotel was lovely.  The staff was welcoming and we came to be good friends with Yee and Hong.  We all found Luang Prabang charming.  Its French influence is undeniable.  It feels like you have been transported to a different era.  The buildings reminded me of New Orleans with an Asian twist.  The people are friendly.  Luang Prabang has a sizeable Hmong population.  Their handicrafts are plentiful at the Night Market.  This is a town to savor.  The townspeople work hard as the tourists leisurely explore this paradise.

The Mekong River

Although Lao is still a communist country, it opened itself to tourism in 1997.  Lao has a strong Buddhist tradition.  Luang Prabang is known for its 350 monks who walk each morning at daybreak around all the Wats collecting sticky rice and other foodstuff.  The procession and offering of alms is solemn and sacred.  The bounty is collected for the temple offerings and to be eaten by the monks throughout the day.

Yee  and Huong in front of our hotel

Our hotel desk clerk, Yee, asked if I could help him with his English pronunciation.  The following day I accompanied him to Big Brother Mouse, a program staffed by volunteer English speakers.  I worked with Yee and when he left for secondary school, I spent two more hours working on pronunciation with two other students.  Lao English study seems to consist of memorizing enormous lists of vocabulary and learning some grammar but the students do not practice basic conversation.  In order to get a good job in the tourist industry, conversational English is essential.  So Big Brother Mouse tries to help the Luang Prabang students speak proper English.  I left my students with homework:  practice pronouncing R, L, B, V, W.  Two days later I returned to check on the progress my young Buddhist monk had made.  His Rs and Ls were much improved.  I do enjoy teaching English!

Three of my ESL students at Big Brother Mouse

At lunch we met a man who had returned for the first time in 27 years to his hometown of Luang Prabang.  He was reuniting with two of his three sisters and planned to surprise his uncle who still lived in Luang Prabang.  Bud had been a policeman but was jailed for six years following the ascension of the Communists in 1975.  He managed to escape and has lived in Florida since the 1980s.

On our third day in Luang Prabang, we took a riverboat with Mr. Thongdy, a former USAID employee, to a weaving village.  The silk products were beautiful.  A few of the townspeople were obviously exceptional entrepreneurs.   We also saw paper being made.  From the weaving village we stopped at a pottery village but a townsperson had died the day before and the kilns were not operating.

Then we headed further south to a village where we took a truck ride to a waterfall and bear sanctuary.  The sanctuary held Moon and Sun Bears.  We arrived just in time for watching the bears eat:  they looked healthy.

The waterfall was tiered and the water was ice blue.  We hiked about a bit and even swam in the icy cold water.

We got in........brrr!

That night we attended a Lao cooking class in the countryside.  The class was professionally orchestrated and the food was delicious.  Patty, Barbara and I enjoyed ourselves immensely.  (Mark chose to pass on the class.)

Beautiful silk at the Night Market

Food in Luang Prabang is a treat.  There are French croissants, good coffee, fabulous Lao food, delicious fruit, pizza and pretty much everything else (including Diet Coke) your heart could desire.  Massages are also plentiful and inexpensive.  One afternoon Barbara and I tried our luck at a place on Main Street.  Luck wasn’t with us---the massage was a first for my masseuse!  The following evening we were much happier; Mark, Barbara and I had fabulous massages at a local shop.  Luang Prabang, like Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, has an active Night Market filled with linens, jewelry, food, traditional handicrafts and collectibles.

On our last day we hiked Puisey Mountain, and had a delicious wood oven pizza at the Bee Hive restaurant.  Then it was off to the airport for our trip to Hanoi.