glover I think that Souphaphone is in Vientenne. I am staying there too this weekend.

Thanks to everyone for their positive comments.
Thanks to Lcuy for the cut and paste
I am not deterred at all. I shall continue on.

It’s the weekend!

Hard to think that you even know when it’s the weekend when you are on holidays but we really enjoyed the free time. Slept in both days and on Saturday I walked around the town with my cameras but never really saw much, it is so much quieter on the weekends.

I had my nails done on my feet. I wont say it was a pedicure as all she did was my nails but it was only $4 so cant complain. Then I got a foot and leg massage and she also did my neck and shoulders as well. I was sitting by the river and took an hour. With tip it came to $6.

Cynthia and I did a bit of shopping at the night market and then headed for a fashion show. It was at ‘Hive’ which looked pretty modern with the mirror ball and loud music playing. It is run by a French Canadian woman apparently and she does a great job. There is a runway and stage at the back with a screen and multimedia presentation with beautiful young women and men wearing some local dress from the various tribes finishing off with some modern silk outfits. It was really interesting.

After the fashion show around six young men ranging in age from 12 to 21 came on stage to do some hip hop. They were amazing acrobats and had some outstanding moves. It was wonderful to see them having such a great time as well.
This happens five nights a week.

Cynthia went next door for some great Thai Curry again at Lao Lao Gardens and then walked home and had an early night

I decided that I wanted to go to see Kuang si waterfall on Sunday, so after breakfast I bought a ticket on a mini van for $6. The drive took us an hour south of town through some beautiful countryside. The gardens on the hill are so lush and green. Acres of gorgeous lettuce and other vegetables and most likely all organic. Water buffalo grazing on the hill, rice paddies with women working in water in their gorgeous silk skirts.

We make our way up the hill and eventually arrive at the entrance to the park. I pay my $2.50 entrance fee and walk up to the top of the hill taking in all the lush tropical vegetation. When I get to the pools I am awed. Living in B.C. it is hard to be impressed by waterfalls as we see them all the time, but these were gorgeous. Little falls that went into gorgeous blue pools that people were swimming in. There was a rope tied to a tree overhanging the water and the younger ones ( 25 year olds) would take turns jumping in. I did not go swimming but enjoyed watching everyone else.

I climbed higher and there were more and more little waterfalls flowing into pools of baby blue water. At the end of the trail was a huge waterfall cascading into a large pool which even by B.C. standards was big. I enjoyed the view and quiet for a while and then wandered down to the bottom of the hill a different way. I came upon a compound that had bears in it. They were like our Canadian black bears only they had a white stripe on their chest. They were laying in hammocks and being very lazy. At first I was really upset as I hate to see animals in captivity but read that these are poached for their various parts so most likely here to protect them.

On the drive back we stopped at a Hmong village. God it was awful. We pulled over to some basic hill tribe homes on the side of the road but these young children no more than six were selling bracelets and singing ‘ five thousand, five thousand’ which related to the price of the bracelets. There was a sidewalk that wound its way in a horseshoe through the village with stalls of goods on each side. It was like a really bad Disney like attraction. I walked up the hill and got a really bad energy and felt very sad. I had to get out of there. I did some trekking out of Chaing Mai a couple of years ago and stayed in some Hmong and Karen tribe villages and they were nothing like this. Is this is the shape of Laos to come?! I hope not.

Back in Luang Prabang I did more shopping in the night market, ( I think I am done) and then went for Indian food again at Nazim on the main drag. Good food and reasonably priced.

I can count to 1000 now in Lao. Its really not as impressive as it sounds. If you can count to ten there are really only about five other words you need to learn to put them all together.

I keep asking servers and shop keepers to help me with my pronunciation etc. I am trying to learn four new words a day.

I was woken at 5AM this morning (Tuesday) to the sound of very load chanting non stop until 8AM. At first it was quite lovely but then I couldn’t go back to sleep so not so charming after a bit.

Teaching again yesterday and today we notice that every day there are more and more students in our class. Today there were only two empty seats. The teacher said that the students are telling all of their friends to come to class because they really like us which is great.

The woman who drives us in the morning invited us into the office before class and presented us with a Lao breakfast. I am not sure what anything was but it was all covered in coconut and very sweet. One was sticky rice for sure. It was very good and so nice of her.

This made us a bit late for class, (but she’s the boss’ wife so okay I guess) and when we walked by the windows of the class to come in the students faces just lit up. It was great because they thought we weren’t coming so happy to see us.
After our lesson today we played one of the games I brought (Bingo) which was great because they really have a hard time differentiating between words like Shirt, Shorts, Socks, and Shoes.
They really enjoyed it.

Today I climbed up Phousi Mountain. I took the very steep steps in front of the Museum up. After climbing a lot of stairs I came to a ticket seller and purchased my $2.50 ticket to continue on. Someone had written on the bottom of the next set of stairs.
Only 190 more stairs to go.

The view at the top was great and allowed you to see all of Luang Prabang. There was a small Wat at the top and then the path went down towards the river side. On the way down there were many Buddhas representing the days of the week as well as a huge reclining Buddha all of them in gold. I think this is probably a must do in LP.

Today and tomorrow is some sort of Buddhist holiday I was told but didn’t really understand what. There was a lot of singing and chanting from all the Wats around, more than usual.

I went to a Wat on one of the side streets that I had been to when I first arrived where the novice monks beat a huge drum and others symbols and make this amazing beat of music. Because it is a full moon tomorrow they told me it would be again tonight at 4PM so I was there at 3:30 to be sure not to miss it. I wanted to record it on my video camera for the sound to add as background to some of my video. Two of the novice monks arrive and start up a conversation with me. They are 16 years old and want to practice their English. The others arrive and there were around 6 in total on this little platform ranging in age from 10 to 20.

The bigger ones started banging the drum with all their might in a controlled rhythm while another hit a gong and the third dragged two symbols together. It made an amazing sound and I watched them for half an hour until it was over. They were having so much fun doing it and would take turns as it was very physical for the ones doing the drumming.

We then went over to another Wat an hour later and listened to some monks singing some amazing chants which I captured on film as well.

We went to visit my library which is run by ‘the language project’ who also oversee the library that we are volunteering at. http://www.thelanguageproject.org/

The woman who heads these up, Carol, is from the US and an amazing woman. She showed us around and told us so much about her projects and how she gets donations and funding. It is all by donation. She is the person I got the information from about what to bring. There were pictures on the walls of some photos that some of the students have taken and they are really quite fantastic. We learned a lot about a lot from her.

If anyone wants to bring things to Laos I would go to her website and take a look. They can use some more digital cameras and there are a list of games on their as well.

It was time to go to our library and play scrabble so off we went.

Some facts about Luang Prabang that may be of use:

There are four ATMS on the main street that seem to work for Bank cards okay. I have the best luck with only one but no one seems to have a problem with getting money.

There are money changers on the main street that give a fair price to exchange US and other currencies. I was given advice to bring travelers cheques which I didn’t need but cashed them today at one of the exchange places on the main drag. The first one I asked was going to charge me 4% but the second one only charged me 1%.

They also will give you cash advances on your Visa or Mastercard.

Very few places take credit cards and if they do charge 3 or 4% s/c

Most vendors will accept US dollars but prefer KIP

There are mosquitos at night. They seem to arrive around 4PM and stay until dark. Bring repellent.

There are some good bakeries on the main tourist drag, Scandinavian is one that we have been to a few times. They have great Lao coffee, pizzas and bakery items. Yesterday I ordered a ‘cinnamon bun’ but instead of cinnamon they used cardamom. Quite funny but still good.

We go quite often to Café Ban vat Sene. They have great fruit shakes, wonderful salads and muesli (which is really granola) with fruit and yogurt. It is a little pricier than some others but we really like it and the staff is great
.
Last night we went for a bottle of South African red wine which cost $18 so much more expensive than any other drink. Sometimes you just need a good bottle of wine though. We went to Ban Pack Luck on the main drag and sat in couches that looked onto the road. They have a hotel a couple of blocks away of the same name with really nice rooms for $45 a night.

We have eaten on the river many times and never had a bad meal anywhere really. As mentioned we have also eaten some street food without incident as well.

Cynthia at at Three Nagas and said that it was very overpriced for food that was not better than the other resaruants we have eaten at.

We find the drivers here very courteous and cautious. They drive so much slower than they do in India that is for sure.

A lot of hotels and guest houses have a midnight curfew. Most places are closed by then anyhow and the seedier side of LP comes out late at night it seems.

I will write again in a couple of days.

Loving your report! The climb up Mt. Phousi is a must, I agree. And the young monks love practicing their English with visitors.

Nice report! I remember having to go to 2 or 3 ATMs before finding one that works. Those steps by the road opposite the museum looked horrendous! Also, did you go up to the very top level at the falls?

BTW, every full moon is a holy day, or "won phra". Try giving alms in the morning, very moving experience and merit making at the same time.

I guess we'll have to return to LP to climb Mt. Phousi. It was so friggin' hot when we were there that we did not bother. Enjoyed the Kuang Si Falls though - that $2.50 entrance fee must be new...

Great report!

Haunaman, do you mean to the top of the tall waterfall? no i just stayed at the bottom.
Craig it seems that most things charge a 20,000 kip fee. The caves, waterfall and mt. phousi.

Looking for information re train BKK-Ubon R. for onward travel to Laos, I stumbled on your Fodor blog. I didn't really want to read it all, since I'm finding that there is so much info on the net that I'm afraid I won't be able to experience anything myself. However, I did read it all and I enjoyed every word.

We will be spending a couple of days in Luang prabang and I was wondering if you could give me more information about the weaving person you visited?

And even though it's fun to discover everything on ones own, I've made a note of your recommended cafes in LP. Thanks.

keep it coming...

Still an avid reader of this blog....Your teaching experience sounds terrific...Are the students interested in speaking or just writing and reading??.

b_b I think they prefer the speaking to reading and writing. I feel kind of sorry for them though because all the tourists and volunteers are from all over the world so they get a different prounciation of all the words. We have to follow a cirriculum however and do the grammer etc., the the teacher really needs us for the pronunciation as they are Lao and want a native English speaker to show them how it is said.

Taha 1 , the weaving place is on the map and just out of town. We paid 30,000 Kip to get there by tuk tuk, ($4) and he asked if he should wait for us, which we thought there would be lots of traffic there when we left so only arranged one way. I am glad he asked as he did stay and charged us the same on the return. He could have charged double as there were not taxis around.
Its called Panom handiraft village

I am curious what the comment was that was removed???? and by whom do you think?

Probably some sort of an advertisement.

oh, okay thanks.

Ryan - I suggest you start a new thread as this is someone's trip report on their volunteer work in Laos.

More on Luang Prabang

Our last few days have been busy. It was Cynthia’s 34th birthday yesterday so she got up early and bought a birthday cake to take to the school. When we arrived the woman who drives us once again prepared breakfast for us. She had bags of fresh fruit and went into the back, gave it to someone who prepared muesli yogurt and fruit for us. Again we were late for class. We did our lesson and then the class sang Happy birthday to Cynthia and while we ate cake played Hangman.

The library is closed today because of exams so we didn’t go. The manager of the project is now in New Zealand so we talked to him on skype and he gave us lots of info which would have been really useful to have a week ago. Too bad. It is also a shame that the library is closed this week. Had a very lazy afternoon and then Cynthia and I walked up to a restaurant and shortly were joined by Eddie. We ordered Laos barbeque which was similar to Korean I think.

The waiter takes out the middle tile of your table and inserts a hibatchi of sorts. Then he places a tin container on the top of that and you pour broth in the bottom. He gave us each a large basket of glass noodles and vegetables. I recognized carrots, lots of different kinds of mushrooms, cauliflower, and I think I had swamp cabbage and river weed too. He also gives you minced garlic, chilis and some chile sauce. You put the vegetables into the broth and let it cook, remove and eat. Cynthia and Eddie also got meat which they put in as well. They had pork, water buffalo and chicken. We really enjoyed it.

We also decided to have some wine. And some more, and some more. We went through four bottles of wine in a couple of hours. We had so much fun. It is great that Eddie is only 21, Cynthia 34 and me 56 yet we all get along so well. We had some fantastic conversations. We laughed a lot and then at midnight had to leave. All the places close down at midnight and most of the guesthouses have a midnight curfew.

And then that chanting again at 4AM. Even with my earplugs in I could still hear it, it sounded like there was a loudspeaker in my room.

In the afternoon Kenny picked me up at 2PM to go to teach some monks as we weren’t going to the library.

Ken and I walked towards the school and then went down a dirt road which got smaller and smaller until eventually it was a small trail which led up a hill. At the top was a small Wat (temple) with a few buildings around it. This is where Kenny studied to be a monk and he still has some friends here

A young novice monk of 17 came out and we sat in the shade and talked for two hours. He wanted to practice his English so I asked him many questions about being a monk, life in Laos etc.


His day starts at 3:30AM when he wakes and does prayer for an hour. They then walk about ½ hour to the place where they get Alms, which I mentioned I had gone to last Sunday. They then walk back to the Temple, have breakfast and then walk back into town and go to school from 8A to 1:30PM. He walks back to his temple, does some cleaning and sweeping, studies his Buddist books and school books, has dinner and then to bed by 9PM.

He said that parents are usually happy when boys become novice monks because it means that they will be taken care of. They are mostly from poor families out of town.

There was a bunch of rice on some boards lying in the sun. I asked what it was for and was told that it is left over from the Alms they received that day and so if they cant eat it all they leave it out for the poor. The area we were in had a lot of poor people.

I decided that I needed to have my pedicure today. I had almost given up as no one would scrub my feet only do nails. We thought maybe it was a cultural thing where they coulnt clean your feet or something,

Cynthia and I went for a snack and she saw a sign that said ‘foot scrub’. It was heavenly. A ½ hour foot scrub and believe me I needed it and then one hour of reflexology foot massage. I almost fell asleep. Total cost with tip was $19 for 90 minutes.

It is sad to leave.

This morning we had our last class and really feel that we made some headway. The kids are so shy that when you ask a question they all shrink down and avoid eye contact……Please don’t look at me!!!!

So today we asked each one to come to the front of the class one at a time and do Pictionary with the words we learned. All but one girl did it and we were so happy. Then we asked all of them to stand up and say their name, how many people were in their family and how old they were. Sounds like a really simple thing but they are so shy that it was terrifying for them, but they all did it. And with a smile. As soon as they did they could sit down so it was a big incentive.

At the end it was sad to know we wont see them again and a little awkward. The woman who drives us presented us each with beautifully wrapped presents. We were not sure if it was polite to open them in front of her or to wait. I also had a gift for her of some Wild smoked salmon which she was quite happy to receive.

We left by tuk tuk today so when we got in the tuk tuk we opened the presents and they were gorgeous silk scarves . Mine is bright purple and Cynthias’s bright green. She was outside so we thanked her profusely in the Lao way of our hands in prayer and bowing and saying thanks in Lao. She was beaming and waved until our tuk tuk was out of site. It was really quite moving.

This afternoon I printed off some of the pictures I took of the monks who were drumming and dropped them by the Wat. I had said that I would give them a copy of the pictures when I took them. I went in and saw one young monk outside and showed him the pictures. He beamed a smile and called out a name and the young fellow I had been speaking to that day came out and saw the pictures. He was very shy and not sure about it all but I think he was really pleased. He called out the other monks that I had pictures of all well and they were all smiling when I left.

Tonight we had a going away dinner with the three of us, the library manager and two of the Lao volunteers and Kenny. We had a great Lao dinner and SS the library manager said he really didn’t want to say goodbye to me. He was very emotional. At the end we all did the little bow with our hands in prayer but I really just wanted to give all of them, especially SS a big hug. Of course I couldn’t but it was so strange not to do that. We bowed and said goodbye for about 10 minutes. People at other tables were kind of looking at us like ‘get on with it already!’. We all wanted to cry when they left and SS had tears in his eyes.

Cynthia and Eddie and I went across to the bar for one more drink and then said our goodbyes. Cynthia’s friend from Holland flew in today and they are hanging out in Luang Prabang for a couple of days and then we will meet up in VIentene for one night before they fly to Vietnam and I to Pakse.

Eddie is flying to Cambodia in the morning to meet some friends for two weeks of vacation.

The three of us have agreed to meet back here this time next year. We will see what happens.

It is hard to leave.

What to bring to Luang Prabang if you want to help.

If you want to help out you are better off not bringing anything from home really unless they are digital cameras with chargers for the batteries.

If you go to Phousi Market which is a local market a 10 minute tuk tuk drive from town, there are stalls that sell school supplies. The library manager said that buying English Lao dictionaries (around $2.50 each) are great as well as blank exercise books and pens and pencils. The exercise books they use here are different from ours.

If you take them to a school library, especially the large high school in LP, Santhipab, they will make sure that the students who cant afford these things will get them.
Or probably any school.
The dictionaries are especally helpful.

I'll bet it is hard to leave after your great experience in LP. Thanks so much for your report!

Thanks for a wonderful report live42day and particularly for these tips on what to bring...