We flew to Luang Prabang, Laos on another turbo prop plane.
We decided to stay for six days rather than hop around to several places in Laos, and we're glad we did. We had time to experience all of Luang Prabang, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and we loved. Kristina is in front of our charming hotel that had only three rooms. The UNESCO designation has controlled growth in the city, making it a very special place to visit.
Our hotel was across the street from a temple, and heard the drums and bells early each morning. There are lots of temples in Luang Prabang, and the name of the city means Royal Buddha. This is Wat Nong Sikhounmuang with beautiful red and gold colors.
Cynthia and Kristina are in front of Wat Xieng Thong.
We loved these Japanese glass murals from the 1950s that had scenes from Laotian folk tales.
The old name for Laos is Lan Xang, which means land of one million elephants.
Unfortunately there are probably less than two thousand wild elephants left. We spent a day at the Elephant Village so we could get close to these gentle giants.
There were 8 domesticated elephants, all female except for Maximus Gigantus who is five months old.
Maxi has been around people since birth, so he's really playful. He knows how to get out of his pen as we witnessed. He weighs 300 lbs now, so he has gotten too big to play with people.
His mom is corralling him back into the pen.
It was fun to feed the elephants bananas and sugarcane. These elephants seem to have a good life, but they had been rescued from brutal conditions in logging camps.
Our guide Deng was new to his job but was very sweet.
We learned the verbal calls that the elephant handlers use to control the elephants, then took turns riding bareback on her neck.
An elephant sways a lot as it walks!
Cynthia was the elephant handler as they cooled off in the river.
We took a boat up to the Tad Sae waterfalls to bathe an elephant.
It was more like riding on the elephant while she enjoyed a cooling dip in the waterfalls. It was really fun!
When the mahout was leading Pete out of the water on the elephant, she sprayed water on our guide Deng to everyone's amusement. It wasn't obvious, but we think the mahout gave the elephant a signal to play this practical joke.
This elephant had stepped on an unexploded bomb ten years ago and had lost part of her foot. The purple color is from iodine to help her wound. The bomb had been dropped during the Vietnam war, but it didn't explode for over 30 years.
We visited the Unexploded Ordinances (UXO) Museum. We learned that 270 million submunitions in cluster bombs had been dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973, with an estimated 80 million that didn't explode on impact. This is one cluster bomb, which typically contains 300-1,000 submunitions the Lao call bombies.
These unexploded bombies still contaminate the land in the poorest regions of Laos, and even now injure people and animals by blowing off limbs and causing blindness.
Last year our friends Mary and Heather loaned us books from a mystery series set in Laos. While in Luang Prabang, Kristina and Cynthia devoured Slash and Burn by Colin Cotterill with Pete now reading it. Set in the 1970s, the main character Dr. Siri investigates a Vietnam war MIA soldier's suspicious death and uncovers the extent of UXOs and napalm's impact on Laos. The author donates all royalties from the series to Laos organizations like the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE) that helps UXO survivors.
Near our hotel was this school. Each morning the kids would line up while the flag of Laos was raised.
This is Sally Piper who started a non governmental organization (NGO) named D'eau Laos Solidarite to help to improve the sanitation facilities at schools. Sally was also staying at our hotel so we enjoyed talking with her, and were happy to contribute money for a drinking water filtration system at a nearby school.
Part of what makes Luang Prabang so peaceful and beautiful is that it's located on the Mekong River and surrounded by mountains.
Boats are a common mode of transportation here. We even saw a few monks ready to be ferried across the river one morning.
We took a boat up to the Pak Ou Buddhist caves and saw a wonderful jumble of 5,000 Buddhist statues.
The Kuang Si waterfalls were pretty.
On the banks of the river are gardens with beans, lettuce and other vegetables.
After seeing rice fields in many different countries this year, we booked a half day event to learn how rice is grown. This is Living Land Farm, a Laos cooperative involving seven Hmong families.
This is Laoli, our delightful guide. He is a Hmong, which is the third largest ethnic group in Laos.
Pete and Cynthia tried plowing with a water buffalo to prepare the field for planting.
Kristina is planting rice seedlings. It was really muddy!
After a rice is planted, the farmers place this animist sign in the paddy to ask the spirits to protect the rice.
We harvested by hand using scythes. The scythes were made on the farm from salvaged rebar.
Here Pete and Kristina are threshing the rice.
After pounding the rice to remove the bran, we used bamboo baskets to separate the grains from the chaff. It's harder than it looks!
Pete was pretty good at walking on stilts.
Living Land has offered this rice tour for two years, and it was clear that Laoli was passionate about preserving his cultural traditions. His degree is in teaching, and he was an amazing person to learn from.
The impact of French colonialization is still apparent in the architecture and numerous French restaurants in Luang Prabang. Pete and Kristina are toasting Cynthia for her birthday (belatedly). We enjoyed a delicious French meal at L'elephant.
We went for two orders of chocolate fondant that was cakey on the outside with a molten chocolate center - yum!
Next the three of us fly to Cambodia to continue our adventure.
We decided to stay for six days rather than hop around to several places in Laos, and we're glad we did. We had time to experience all of Luang Prabang, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and we loved. Kristina is in front of our charming hotel that had only three rooms. The UNESCO designation has controlled growth in the city, making it a very special place to visit.
Our hotel was across the street from a temple, and heard the drums and bells early each morning. There are lots of temples in Luang Prabang, and the name of the city means Royal Buddha. This is Wat Nong Sikhounmuang with beautiful red and gold colors.
Cynthia and Kristina are in front of Wat Xieng Thong.
We loved these Japanese glass murals from the 1950s that had scenes from Laotian folk tales.
The old name for Laos is Lan Xang, which means land of one million elephants.
Unfortunately there are probably less than two thousand wild elephants left. We spent a day at the Elephant Village so we could get close to these gentle giants.
There were 8 domesticated elephants, all female except for Maximus Gigantus who is five months old.
Maxi has been around people since birth, so he's really playful. He knows how to get out of his pen as we witnessed. He weighs 300 lbs now, so he has gotten too big to play with people.
His mom is corralling him back into the pen.
It was fun to feed the elephants bananas and sugarcane. These elephants seem to have a good life, but they had been rescued from brutal conditions in logging camps.
Our guide Deng was new to his job but was very sweet.
We learned the verbal calls that the elephant handlers use to control the elephants, then took turns riding bareback on her neck.
An elephant sways a lot as it walks!
Cynthia was the elephant handler as they cooled off in the river.
We took a boat up to the Tad Sae waterfalls to bathe an elephant.
It was more like riding on the elephant while she enjoyed a cooling dip in the waterfalls. It was really fun!
When the mahout was leading Pete out of the water on the elephant, she sprayed water on our guide Deng to everyone's amusement. It wasn't obvious, but we think the mahout gave the elephant a signal to play this practical joke.
This elephant had stepped on an unexploded bomb ten years ago and had lost part of her foot. The purple color is from iodine to help her wound. The bomb had been dropped during the Vietnam war, but it didn't explode for over 30 years.
We visited the Unexploded Ordinances (UXO) Museum. We learned that 270 million submunitions in cluster bombs had been dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973, with an estimated 80 million that didn't explode on impact. This is one cluster bomb, which typically contains 300-1,000 submunitions the Lao call bombies.
These unexploded bombies still contaminate the land in the poorest regions of Laos, and even now injure people and animals by blowing off limbs and causing blindness.
Last year our friends Mary and Heather loaned us books from a mystery series set in Laos. While in Luang Prabang, Kristina and Cynthia devoured Slash and Burn by Colin Cotterill with Pete now reading it. Set in the 1970s, the main character Dr. Siri investigates a Vietnam war MIA soldier's suspicious death and uncovers the extent of UXOs and napalm's impact on Laos. The author donates all royalties from the series to Laos organizations like the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise (COPE) that helps UXO survivors.
Near our hotel was this school. Each morning the kids would line up while the flag of Laos was raised.
This is Sally Piper who started a non governmental organization (NGO) named D'eau Laos Solidarite to help to improve the sanitation facilities at schools. Sally was also staying at our hotel so we enjoyed talking with her, and were happy to contribute money for a drinking water filtration system at a nearby school.
Part of what makes Luang Prabang so peaceful and beautiful is that it's located on the Mekong River and surrounded by mountains.
Boats are a common mode of transportation here. We even saw a few monks ready to be ferried across the river one morning.
We took a boat up to the Pak Ou Buddhist caves and saw a wonderful jumble of 5,000 Buddhist statues.
The Kuang Si waterfalls were pretty.
On the banks of the river are gardens with beans, lettuce and other vegetables.
After seeing rice fields in many different countries this year, we booked a half day event to learn how rice is grown. This is Living Land Farm, a Laos cooperative involving seven Hmong families.
This is Laoli, our delightful guide. He is a Hmong, which is the third largest ethnic group in Laos.
Pete and Cynthia tried plowing with a water buffalo to prepare the field for planting.
Kristina is planting rice seedlings. It was really muddy!
After a rice is planted, the farmers place this animist sign in the paddy to ask the spirits to protect the rice.
We harvested by hand using scythes. The scythes were made on the farm from salvaged rebar.
Here Pete and Kristina are threshing the rice.
After pounding the rice to remove the bran, we used bamboo baskets to separate the grains from the chaff. It's harder than it looks!
Pete was pretty good at walking on stilts.
Living Land has offered this rice tour for two years, and it was clear that Laoli was passionate about preserving his cultural traditions. His degree is in teaching, and he was an amazing person to learn from.
The impact of French colonialization is still apparent in the architecture and numerous French restaurants in Luang Prabang. Pete and Kristina are toasting Cynthia for her birthday (belatedly). We enjoyed a delicious French meal at L'elephant.
We went for two orders of chocolate fondant that was cakey on the outside with a molten chocolate center - yum!
Next the three of us fly to Cambodia to continue our adventure.
