Hi everyone! It has now been about 2 weeks since we got back to Canada, and I think Mom and I are both settling in to Canadian living. For some reason – to me – it doesn’t really seem like I’ve been away, but it does at the same time.

I am now going to high-school and I am with all of my friends once again. It was so nice to see them (although a little overwhelming as well – I was practically being pulled apart!) and high-school is fun but very different from elementary.

I just wanted to make this short little post to wrap up my blog. Thank you to those of you who have followed it from start to finish, and I hope you’ve enjoyed it and maybe learned a few things. I definitely miss Laos a lot, I miss the smiles, the ‘sabaidees’, and the beautiful people among other things. As much as I miss it though, I am now happy to be back to my life in Canada. I remember how mad I was at my Mom at first when she announced that we were leaving for a year, but now I couldn’t be happier that we did. The last year was an invaluable experience, one that I don’t think I will ever forget.

This will probably be my last blog post for quite a while. But when Mom and I go back to Laos to visit, I will definitely write another post to show you guys how it goes!

Thank you for following the journey!

Taya ❤

Hello, this will just be little post to share some pictures and feelings surrounding our last days in Laongam.

On Monday they hosted a Baci ceremony for us at the Green Earth Center. It was nice to have some good Lao food and be laden with all sorts of blessings from the people at the farm for good strength, good luck, and good health before we left.

Here are some pictures of the ceremony:

On Tuesday I went to school for my last day, and had to say goodbye to my friends. I was sad to leave and I think they were sad I was leaving too. I hope that I can come back to visit soon enough.

And finally, on Wednesday, it was time to leave. We packed everything up in our suitcases, and gave a bunch of the things we were not taking back to our many neighbours. I said goodbye to my friends, and soon enough Khongxai came and picked us up. Here are some last pictures of our neighbourhood.

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We stopped at a temple before our flight, and then drove to the airport. As we boarded the plane for our flight to Vientiane, it was finally time to say goodbye to Southern Laos.

I am so saddened to leave the place that has become a home to me for the last year. The cute kids, wonderful culture, and familiar faces that we would often see out and about at the market each day, are all things that we will be leaving behind. Saying goodbye was so difficult, and lots of tears were shed. But in the end I am looking forward to my life back in Canada, and can’t wait to see all my friends and family again, and of course Phoenie the cat.

I’ll keep you posted on our progress back to Canada. We are in Vientiane until Sunday, we will then fly to Bangkok and then to Vancouver early Monday morning. Bye for now.

*Word of the Day: Kit hawd (Pronounced: kit-hot), it means ‘to miss’ something or someone. I will kit hawd Laos so much!

Sabaidee! It has been quite the roller coaster of a month, as we have been very busy packing and preparing for our departure.

School started back up again in early September, and the streets were filled with girls and boys sporting their school uniforms. I decided that I wanted to go to the village school again for a couple weeks so that I could see my friends before we have to leave for Canada.

Because I studied in “Year 2, room 2” before, I am now studying in “Year 3, room 2”. It turns out that all the same people who were in my class before are still in it now, which was great because I get to see the friends and people I know again. I get a lot of funny questions from the girls, questions about Canada, and a lot of requests to teach them words in English.

I also find that I can understand a lot more Lao now then I could the last time that I was at school a couple months ago. I can continue on conversations a lot more, and I understand more of what the teacher is teaching. Here are a few of my notes from school:

Another thing that has been happening this month is that it has been raining very, very heavily. At the start of the month it rained for 4 days straight (there wasn’t even one break!). Since there are quite a few rivers in Laos, this rain caused some major flooding. Lots of houses in Pakse were halfway underwater, Tad Lo (The place we went for Pii Mai Lao) had to be evacuated, and so did Salavan City (the central hub of Salavan province). Luckily the water is quickly drying up, and people affected by the flooding have been brought food, water, and blankets.

Because of the rain, the animals of the people who live across from us were getting very cold. So while these rains lasted we kept them in our yard so that they had a nice little dry shelter under the stilt-house in our backyard, and plenty of greens to munch on.

Mom also saw this crazy snake at the farm one day while I was at school. It’s called a “Red-tailed Pit Viper”. Even the farm workers seemed terrified of her, so Mom snapped this picture very quickly and made sure to keep her distance.

Lastly, yesterday we were invited to give alms (or “Bai sai baht” in Lao) to the monks at the temple. We have done this a few times now, and I did do a post about it not too long ago, but I wanted to share a few images of the Laongam temple. It is always a very special experience to go to the temple, and I think it was a really nice thing to do one last time right before we leave for Canada.

Currently it is the 14th, and we are leaving Laongam on the 18th. I can’t even fathom that I only have 4 days left in this village that has been my home for the last year. As much as I do feel excitement for getting back, I feel so sad that we are leaving. I will have another post soon about our last days in Laongam, and I will keep you posted on our progress back to Canada.

La garn for now.

*Word of the day: Ngoo (Pronounced: noo), it means snake!

Here is part 2 of our time in Bangkok, enjoy!

Tuesday, August 20th:

Today we went to the Iconsiam mall located near the river in Bangkok. I had heard pretty amazing things about it, and it had cost 1.65 billion dollars (crazy!) to build, so I was excited to see it. We had yummy breakfast at the Pattern and then set off to the mall via shuttle bus. We were greeted by a big elephant statue when we walked in, and a very nicely decorated interior. It was very modern, but didn’t look at all like a conventional shopping mall. All the decorations were very Thai looking – it was a refreshing take on a shopping centre.

One thing I had learnt about Iconsiam before coming was that there were different sections to the mall. This section was called “Sooksiam”, and it was home to the first indoor floating market in Thailand!

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We took a stroll around the bottom floor, and it was very overwhelming. So many things were being sold! Noodle soup, crickets, fruits, juice, baskets, snacks and treats – you name it! After a while we came to the floating market part of Sooksiam, it was really neat!

After we had thoroughly explored Sooksiam, we decided to check out the other floors of the mall. As soon as we got to the second floor, it was clear that we were in the more “shopping” part of the mall, as it looked a lot more like a standard mall you would see in Canada. It was neat to see a lot of familiar brands and stores like “Louis Vuitton” and “H&M”. We also got to visit the first Apple store to ever be built in Thailand.

Just outside of the Apple store there was a terrace that provided a nice view of the city. We sat and enjoyed this view until it started to rain and we had to quickly run inside.

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After seeing all Iconsiam had to offer, it was time to leave, as Ning and her Mom didn’t have too long before they had to catch their train back to Vientiane. (They were leaving by train that night, but Khonxay, Mom, and I were going by plane the next morning).

For dinner, we ordered… pizza! I hadn’t eaten pizza in a long time, so it was a yummy treat! Khongxay had only had pizza once before in his life, as it is very expensive in Lao, so it was nice for him as well.

After dinner we decided to go see a movie! Khongxay had never been to a movie theatre before, so we knew it was a must to go to one before we left.

The movie we saw was called “The Art of Racing in the Rain”. I don’t want to say too much in case any of you watch it, but it follows the life of a dog named Enzo, and his owner who is a race car driver. It was definitely a tear-jerker, but Mom and I really enjoyed it, and I think Khongxay did too!

Wednesday, August 21st:

We woke up the next morning a little bit sad to leave, but happy as well. Mom and I both agree that we really like Bangkok, even though we’re not exactly ‘city people’, it seems to be a city that has a lot of personality and character. We also both knew that the next time we would be seeing Bangkok would be after we had left Laos for good, something that seems to be coming up way too soon.

We savoured our delicious Thai breakfast, and got in our taxi to the airport. Even though we left early we only made it just in time for when our flight was supposed to leave. But… because ‘slow and steady’ is the Lao way of life, we still had to wait 20 minutes for our Lao Airlines flight to arrive.

We made it safely back to Pakse, and then finally back to our home in Laongam.

Bangkok was really fun, but I’m glad to be back in Laos. I hope you enjoyed hearing about our travels… Phob kan mai till next time!

*Word of the Day: Chok dee (pronounced how it looks), it means “good luck” in Thai.

Over the ten and a half months that we have spent here in Laos, Mom and I have met so many new people and made many new friends. Two of our friends in particular (Named Ning and Khongxay) have been very good to us during our time here and can speak English quite well. As a result of their English speaking capabilities we have been able to create deeper connections with them that wouldn’t have been made otherwise. Because of these connections, Mom really wanted to support them to come to Canada sometime and visit us for a couple weeks.

So, over the last month Mom has been helping Ning and Khongxay with their applications for a Canadian Visa. After we had sent off the applications there was only one thing left to do, and that was to get Ning and Khongxay’s biometrics (fingerprints) done. Unfortunately, there is no place to get this done in Laos, so a second trip to Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, was in order.

Sunday, August 18th:

In the morning, Khongxay’s brother drove us to the airport for our 10:30 am flight. We were going to meet up with Ning at our hotel later, as she was going from Vientiane to Bangkok by train with her Mom. It was Khongxay’s first time ever flying on a plane, so I think he was a little bit nervous, he told us while we were on the plane he couldn’t stop looking out of the window because it was just so amazing and different for him.

After about an hour and a half our plane landed safely in Bangkok! and we then had to navigate to our hotel. We rode the subway to the stop nearest to the hotel, which was a bit difficult as the subway trains were completely jam-packed with people.

Eventually, we did make it to our little boutique hotel, called the “Pattern”. The whole story of the Pattern was that it used to be an old clothing factory and was then converted into a hotel, so they still had a lot of decor inspired from the past, like old sewing machines and different fabrics… it was pretty neat!

Almost right after we had got there, Ning and her mother arrived at the hotel too! We said hello and then relaxed in our rooms for a little while. After that we all went out to “China Town” for dinner. It was very overwhelming finding somewhere to eat, but eventually we found a nice little restaurant and had rice, crab, tom yung goong (Thai hot and sour soup), and stir-fried morning glory… yum!

– In China Town

Monday, August 19th:

This morning we had to take the subway to the Canadian Visa office to get Ning and Khongxay’s biometric photos. After that was done, we caught a Touk-touk to Vat Pho. You may remember Vat Pho as the temple that Mom and I visited last time we were in Bangkok, it was nice to go back there and show our Lao friends around. We got pineapple smoothies just outside of the temple gates, they were delicious and a great way to cool off in the scorching hot weather.

Here are some photos of Vat Pho:

– Vat Pho Photos

After Vat Pho, we made our way back to the Pattern hotel and at about 6:00 pm we set out for the “Asiatique Night Market”. The Asiatique Night Market is a fairly new market that was built just on the edge of the river, so you have to take a boat to get to it. The line for the boat was very long, so we had time to admire the fancy boats passing by.

There was much to see and do when we got to the Asiatique market, including the 200-foot ferris wheel, carousels, a haunted house, and other fun rides. But we first we stopped to have a bite to eat.

Unfortunately, the rides were pretty expensive, so we only did the Ferris wheel and the haunted house. It’s a good thing I’m not afraid of heights… because the ferris wheel was very high up!

The haunted house was also pretty fun. I wouldn’t say it was “scary” because all the things that popped out at you were pretty hokey and silly looking, but it definitely was startling, because it was pitch black and you didn’t know when they would jump at you.

Finally, as we were walking back towards the place where we would catch the boat back, a little shop caught our eye. They were selling scorpions, cockroaches, crickets, and all sorts of other bugs. I’m sure they taste better than they look… but I think I’ll pass!

Because we did so much while we were in Bangkok, and I still have a lot of photos from our time there, I have decided to split this post into two parts. The next part will be coming out soon, so stay tuned! La garn for now.

*Word of the Day: Since this post is about Thailand, I think it makes sense to teach you another word in Thai. So today’s word is: Mai bpen rai (Pronounced: my – pen – rai), it means “No problem”.

Today was my thirteenth birthday! And Mom and I wanted to throw a little birthday party at the house for the kids in the neighbourhood. Over the course of the last couple weeks we had been getting ready for the party – ordering cakes, organizing games to play, planning out what snacks and things we would need – and finally the time had come for the party to actually happen!

I started out the day with a delicious birthday breakfast of french toast, honey, and banana. Yum!

Mom and I then walked to the market to get some fruit, and other food for the party. When we got home we had to quickly set up all the balloons, games, and food before the party started at three. People started arriving a little after three, and once we had enough people we started playing our first part game, which was musical chairs. It was a little hard to explain at first, but the kids caught on quite quickly! We ended up playing three different rounds, and we gave a little prize to the winner of the last one.

Once more people had arrived we played the second game that we had arranged which was a version of ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ that we called ‘pin the tail on the water buffalo’ (since they don’t really have donkeys here in Lao). I drew the water buffalo which we pinned up on the wall and made little tails to stick to it.

This game was fun to play as well, it was really funny to watch everyone as they walked around blindfolded trying to find the paper. I had forgotten how hard it actually was to play this game and stick the tail in the correct spot!

Lastly we played pass the parcel. After the parcel had been passed many times, all 18 layers had been unwrapped, and one of the kids had gotten the present inside, it was time for cake! Cake is definitely the biggest highlight of birthday parties for the Lao people, probably because for the average person here a cake is very expensive to buy, so it’s a treat that only comes on your birthday. Luckily, we had three cakes so everyone got to have a nice big piece, or even two pieces in some cases! We sang happy birthday and I blew out the candles on one of the cakes while a girl from down the street named Anda blew out the candles on the other. We wanted Anda to have a cake, because her birthday is coming up on the 10th and we thought it would be nice to celebrate her birthday as well.

The cake was delicious! After I had finished my slice, a bunch of the girls kept coming up to me and feeding me little pieces of cake… I guess it’s a tradition here? They also went around smearing icing on each other’s faces, which was pretty funny and got quite a few laughs.

At the very end of the party we brought out the yellow “Baci” bracelets, and tied them on each others wrists, to wish good luck, health, and strength.

Overall I think the party was a big success! I know that I had a lot of fun and I think that everyone else did as well. Who would have ever thought that I would be celebrating my thirteenth birthday party in Laos? It definitely was the most memorable birthday experience that I have ever had, and I think it will remain the most memorable for a long time.

*Word of the Day: Boom bao (Pronounce: Boom – bow), it means balloon!

The 16th was the first day of Buddhist Lent, so we were invited to go to a nearby temple with my Mom’s co-workers Phoutone and K’tae. We woke up early in the morning to get our things for the temple all ready. We then went to Phoutone’s house and added the cookies and fruit we had brought to the bowls they had prepared for us. The bowls contain incense, flowers, sticky rice, and other food (like candy or fruit). The food is for giving alms to the monks.

We then drove to the temple and found a place amongst the many people to sit down. We sat for a while as the monk chanted and then went up to give alms. We then took part in a ceremony that the Lao people do to respect their family members who have already passed. This ceremony consists of pouring water into your bowl and then going over to a special tree to dump it out. Overall it was a very special experience, I am always so amazed when I get to experience a completely different culture and religion firsthand like this.

After we were finished at the temple we went back to Phoutone’s house. We didn’t get to stay long though because we had promised our neighbour “Cat” we would go with her to her friend’s house for lunch. We rode behind Cat and her husband on our motorcycle for quite a little while through a few villages and through a rubber tree farm before we reached the house. Around the house it was absolutely beautiful, there were the vibrant green rice fields and a bunch of other plants all around us. Living at the house there was a mother, father, and their two daughters.

While Cat cooked, the oldest daughter showed us around the little farm that they had. We also got to look at the rubber trees and feel the rubber! Which was very cool. Here are some pictures that Mom took:

After our tour we ate lunch. We had sticky rice, boiled chicken soup (tom gai), and papaya salad (tam mak houng). It was a very delicious Lao lunch.

*Word of the Day: Tom Gai (Pronounced how it looks). It translates to “boiled chicken” the “tom” part meaning “boil” and the “gai” meaning “chicken”.

Although I was going to do another post about the time we had with Laura and Duncan in Lao Ngam, I found that I didn’t have a lot of pictures to show or things to say. It was a very nice visit though, and we had fun showing them around Lao Ngam. We were both very sad when they departed back for Canada on the 23rd.

On the 30th of June, Mom and I rode our motorcycle into Tad Lo and had lunch at our favourite restaurant.

Afterwards we found this sign and decided to go on a hike to “Kiang Tad Soung”. It was a beautiful little walk, so here are a few pictures from along the way.

On our hike we passed through what we presume was probably an ethnic village. They were very happy to see us, and one of the men helped guide us for a little while when we didn’t know which way to go. We also caught the attention of a bunch of adorable children, and were bombarded with “Sabaidees” and high-fives.

I also had this little guy drop out of a tree in front of me, and I needed to snap a picture of him:

That about sums up our hike. We also saw a variety of people and beautiful faces on our walk, a lot of them were villagers either planting rice or gathering food. We didn’t feel quite comfortable enough to take pictures though.

P.S. I have more puppy photos and updates to share! So that will hopefully be coming soon.

*Word of the Day: Ban (Pronounced how it looks), it means “village”.

Sunday, June 16:

On Sunday we woke up early and ventured into Pakse, we were very excited as our friends Laura and Duncan’s airplane was landing in the afternoon. Duncan is around my age so I was looking forward to actually being able to talk to a friend in English! We greeted Laura and Duncan at the airport and then all had dinner together back at our hotel. We then got a good nights sleep, as the next morning we would be heading down to one of the 4,000 islands – Don Khone.

Monday, June 17:

In the morning we took a van down to the 4,000 islands ferry. It was a long drive but Duncan and I were able to talk to keep ourselves entertained. We soon arrived at the ferry dock and took the little boat to Don Khone.

Unfortunately, the driver dropped us off on the opposite side of the island from our resort… so we had a little bit of a walk. We stopped for lunch and then continued to the Sengaloone Resort which you may remember is the same place Mom and I stayed last time with my Auntie Nancy and Uncle Pat. At the Sengaloone Duncan and I both went for a refreshing swim in the pool. We then all walked down the road and came across a funky temple that we nicknamed the “cat temple” because there were so many cats there.

Tuesday, June 18:

Today we got up bright and early and had delicious crepes for breakfast. We then got on our rental bikes and peddled down to the waterfalls, which were the same waterfalls that we went to last time – but we wanted to show them to Laura and Duncan. Unlike our last visit to the falls we decided to go on the zip line course that was offered. So we got harnessed up and climbed up a lot of steps to get to the platform. The zip lining was really fun, and I wasn’t too scared either having done the very high-up zip lining at Tad Fane already, the scariest parts were probably a couple of very wobbly bridges that we had to cross over. It was also nice because I could speak Lao with our zip line guides, I ended up teaching one of the guides a few words in English. The only downside to the zip lining was that a couple of the platforms were covered in giant, red fire ants that really hurt when they bite.

After the zip lining we walked along the beach near the waterfalls.

We were then going to take a boat to see the Irrawaddy dolphins – but we were very tired, and hungry so we decided to go back to the hotel. We relaxed for the rest of the afternoon and then went out for dinner with Pat (the Cuso volunteer that came to Laos at the same time as us), as she was also at Don Khone with her friend. At dinner my Mom and I tried the classic Lao “Sweet sticky rice and mango” dessert for the first time. It was soooo good, and I can’t believe I waited the eight months we’ve been here before trying it!

Wednesday, June 19:

For our last full day down at the islands we knew that we needed to show Laura and Duncan the dolphins. So we biked out to the edge of the island and took a boat to the dolphin spot. Even though I had already done the boat ride I really enjoyed it the second time, as it was absolutely beautiful and I think we saw even more of the dolphins than we did the first time. We cycled back and over the bridge to the neighbouring island “Don Det” where we had lunch (a delicious chicken and ginger stir fry!). From there we biked around Don Det and we got to see more of the island, we even found a shop that sold “Quebec approved poutine”. On our bike ride, we also saw many animals (cows, water buffalo, geese, dogs, and cats to name a few!).

In the evening we walked to a restaurant for dinner and Mom and I couldn’t resist having another sticky rice and mango dish (they’re just too good!). Before bed we all watched a movie together.

Thursday, June 20:

It was now time to leave Don Khone for good, we were picked up on the little “ferry boat” early in the morning and shuttled back to the mainland. We then caught the van back to Pakse. From Pakse we went to the rental car shop (as Laura was renting a car for us to take to Laongam) and started the drive to Laongam.

That’s all for 4,000 islands, I really miss the place and the atmosphere and I hope I can go back in the future. I have a little bit to post about our time in Laongam with Laura and Duncan so that will be coming soon. Bye for now!

*Word of the Day: Khao niaow mak muang (Pronounced: Kao-nee-ow-mak-moo-ung), it is the name of the sticky rice and mango dish. In Lao “Khao niaow” means “Sticky rice” and “Mak muang” means “Mango”!

Although it is currently way past May 27th, this was the day which Omo (the farm dog) gave birth to her five adorable puppies (2 girls and 3 boys)! We had known that Omo was going to have puppies for quite a while, so Mom and I were both happy and surprised when we came to the office one day and found that the puppies had arrived!

I will keep you updated on the puppies as they continue to grow up! Another post will be coming very soon, phob kan mai for now.

*Word of the Day: Ma Noi (Pronounced: Maw – noy), it means “little dog” or “puppy”