Vientiane, March 12th – 15th, 2019

Recently, we took a trip back to Vientiane, for a meeting of the different NGO’s (Non Government Organizations) in Laos. It was a really cool experience to go back to the place that our whole life in Laos actually started – it felt almost surreal.

On Monday the 12th, we went into Pakse early in the morning and then caught our flight later in the day. As we were checking into the flight, the sign that said what you can’t bring on the plane caught our eye because of the way that “spring rolls” and “pizza” were singled out as items not allowed on board.

When we got to Vientiane, as I said earlier, it felt surreal. For the first night we were going to be staying in the apartment near Patuxay monument (it was close to the one we stayed in the first time), and then for the next two nights we were going to move to a hotel in downtown Vientiane. In any case, it was really nice to be back in our old neighbourhood.

On Wednesday we went to the same cafe for breakfast that we had gone to when we first came to Vientiane. I’m pretty sure I included a picture of it in a much earlier post. It was really nice to be back.

We then were picked up and driven to an organic farm for a little tour and a gender workshop, where we got to meet the new batch of Cuso volunteers. It was beautiful there and we got to help pick papaya and long beans for lunch, and even make the papaya salad! I found the gender workshop really interesting as well, It’s important to address gender equality issues, especially since there are a lot of rural spots in Laos where there isn’t always a lot of support for people.

We also got to see all of the funny ducks and pigs at the farm, and even a couple really cool pigeons called “fan tail pigeons.” The fan tail pigeons are completely white but look a little like mini peacocks because of how they splay out their tail feathers.

Finally, in the evening we drove back to the hotel we were going to be staying in.

On Thursday Mom had a meeting with all the other NGOs just at a hotel down the road, not a lot happened and for the majority of the day and I mainly did schoolwork. I did go and listen to all the different presentations in the morning though, and I got to be Mom’s tech person and helped her set up for her presentation. I liked hearing about all the things that the organizations were striving towards. Whether it be focusing on tourism, eliminating plastic pollution, education, or improving the overall livelihood of the Lao people.

On our last day, we were free to do whatever we wanted before our plane ride, and decided to walk over to the new mall in Vientiane and get some shopping done. On the way back we saw a beautifully painted mural, I think it was really good at showing the ways in which Laos needs to move forward and is moving forwards currently.

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We had lunch in Vientiane and then bid the city one final goodbye as we set off back to Pakse.

*Word of the Day: Nyoon (Pronounced: Ny – ooh – n), It means airplane