Sorry for such a long wait from the last post! Life has been slowing down here as we fall into a daily routine. I had been waiting for something really exciting to happen so that I could post about it, and recently it was necessary for us to go to Bangkok (the capitol of Thailand), since our tourist visas needed to be sorted out. So here are the main highlights of our trip!

Wednesday – May 15th:

Early in the morning we left for the Pakse airport, and caught our flight to Bangkok. After our 2-hour flight we arrived in the Bangkok airport. I think I experienced some culture shock when we first landed because everything was suddenly so big and modern. It was like being on a different planet compared to the rural little village of Laongam.

We soon discovered that the sky train is probably the most important form of transportation in Bangkok, looking at how many people were using it to get around. It was a little difficult figuring out the whole train system, but luckily we managed to get to our hotel!

Thursday – May 16th:

We had a nice sleep at our hotel, and woke up early in the morning. We had breakfast and then we had to go to the train station to get our tickets for our return trip sorted out. After that we caught a Touk-touk to the Royal Thai Palace, and walked around it. It was really big and really fancy, and everything was covered in golden ribbons from the Thai King’s recent coronation.

Near the palace was a temple called Vat Pho (It sounds a bit like Vat Phu!), Mom and I decided to go in and it was absolutely beautiful! We got to see the giant golden “reclining Buddha” and the rest of the temple as well. It was cool to see the differences from a Thai temple to the temples back in Laos.

Because the temple and palace were right near the river, we thought taking a little boat ride would be a nice way to cap off the day. We found some people down near one of the docks and we got our own little private boat (someone else was steering of course). The boat driver took us down one of the canals in a little loop, and we got some pictures of the wildlife, including some beautiful Egrets and giant “Water Monitor Lizards”!

The boat driver dropped us off near China town, so we walked down the street a little bit, just to look at it. We then took a Touk-Touk back to our hotel.

Friday – May 17th:

Today we mostly explored Bangkok, and checked out one of its many giant shopping malls. In the mall, we found a bookstore that had a lot of English books in it, so I was able to get a couple novels. In the evening we found a little park that was putting on a Thai production of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, a play that I did a couple years ago. It was all in Thai, but we could understand a little bit since Lao and Thai language are very similar, and we knew the main story line. The setting was beautiful (it was held outside) and the acting was also really enjoyable! Who would of thought I would be seeing a Shakespeare play while in Thailand?

Saturday – May 18th:

On Saturday we went to a mall called Terminal 21. The really cool part about this mall is that every floor is fashioned after a city in a different country, with cuisine, clothing, brands, and decoration found in that country. The first floor was Paris, France so there was a lot of pastries there. The second was Tokyo, Japan, with a lot of Japanese brands and Japanese food. Then we went up to Istanbul, Turkey and then to London, England. And finally up to San Fransisco, where there was a model of the golden gate bridge.

At the very top of the mall there was a movie theatre, so Mom and I decided to go see a movie for our last day in Bangkok. We saw the new live action Pokemon movie, which was really cute and had very good CGI animation.

We then had to quickly eat dinner and catch the sky train to the actual train station, for our night train out of Bangkok. We managed to get there on time and the train started off towards the Lao-Thai border.

Sunday – May 19th:

On Sunday morning I woke up after a fairly nice sleep on the train. We soon got to the Thai-Lao border, and were picked up by Ou-Ee who works at Cuso. We then flew back to Pakse and drove back to Laongam. It was a long day!

Overall Mom and I really enjoyed our trip in Bangkok, we both missed Laos though, and are glad to be back.

*Word(s) of the Day: I have decided to give you a couple words in Thai, since the whole post is about Thailand!

• Mai (Pronounced: My), it means ‘no’ in Thai.
• Sai (Pronounced how it looks), it means ‘yes’ in Thai.

For the second day of Pii Mai Lao, my Mom’s other friend, Khongxay, had offered to drive us in his truck to Tad Lo (the waterfall with the elephants that is just nearby), as a lot of people like to go there for the New Year. He also offered for me to take along a friend so that it was more fun. When I asked one of the girls to come with me however… there was a bit of a misunderstanding – so it ended up that six of my friends from the neighbourhood all thought that they were coming!

It ended up working out though, and all seven of us piled into the open-air back part of the truck. Because we were in the open-air part, I learnt about another custom of Pii Mai Lao the hard way… throwing water on the passing cars! I discovered this when I noticed that all the girls had scattered to the far side of the truck and were calling me over, but I didn’t have time to react so I got a bunch of water thrown right over me. The rest of the way to Tad Lo we were bombarded with buckets of water, water balloons, and water guns. It definitely made for an exciting ride and was actually very refreshing.

When we arrived at Tad Lo, there were cars, motorbikes, and tons of people as far as the eye could see. In fact it was so full that it looked like a completely different place from when we had last seen it! We headed down to the waterfalls and had fun climbing up them (they weren’t very tall), although it was a little tricky and slippery in parts.

After we had got to the top, we decided to go see the Elephants, which are the same ones that I posted about a little while ago. Mom bought some bananas for us to feed to them, but the elephants didn’t really want them, I guess they were too full already! After that we headed back to the truck and set off back to Lao Ngam – again finding ourselves doused with water as we drove down the street.

Tad Lo, and the whole festival was really fun and I’m really glad that I had my friends with me. That’s all for now, La garn 🙂

*Word of the day: Sang (Pronounced how it looks), It means elephant

Lao New Year (Pii Mai Lao) is probably the biggest holiday in Laos. It officially starts on the 14th of April and goes until the 16th. On Sunday – for the first day of Pii Mai – we were invited by my Mom’s friend, Laty, to go with her and her family to the forest where there was a ceremony taking place. Laty is part “Souei” which is a Lao ethnic group, so this ceremony was more of a spiritual/ethnic ceremony than it was a Buddhist one – the whole concept of it being that we go into the forest and leave offering for the spirits of the woods. When we arrived there, I was a little surprised because there were a lot of people! We sat down with Laty and her family, and Mom got a few shots of the scene.

After being there a little while, we were allowed to go up to this little hut that had been built and give something to the spirits, Laty told us that we could also ask the spirits for good health, good luck and good strength. Mom had bought some food beforehand to put in the spirit house, it was a very special moment. It’s so cool to be experiencing a whole different culture!

Not too long after, our visit was cut short. A snake had apparently slithered out of the forest itself and arrived at the party! Laty ushered us out just so we could stay clear of any potential danger, but she herself said that she believed the snake was one of the spirits and that he/she was just visiting and was happy that the ceremony was taking place.

In the afternoon we met up with Laty again and walked to the temple in Lao Ngam. When we were there we participated in a Buddhist tradition, it consists of dipping a branch into a bowl of water and sprinkling it over the stupas at the temple grounds (the stupas are like the equivalent of graves for us). It is a little bit like the spirit festival in the forest, and is how the Lao people honour their ancestors.

I have a couple more stories to tell about Pii Mai Lao, so I will put out another post as soon as possible! Pop kan mai for now!

*Word of the day: Pii Mai (Pronounced Pii – my), it translates to ‘New Year’. “Mai” means new in Lao and “Pii” means year.

Hello! I don’t have a super long post today, but I wanted to talk about something that happened recently, which was one of my friend’s 13th birthday party. At about 7:30 in the evening I heard calling at the gate, and I went out and found that it was a few of the neighbourhood girls: Kwantie, Kwanta and Gaison. They told me that it was Kwantie’s birthday, and invited me over for the party. So I told Mom that I was going over and she gave me the phone so that I could take some pictures.

It was really fun being with all of the other girls my age, and even though I am still limited on how much Lao I know, I felt that I could communicate with everyone pretty well! After we sat there for a little bit and took a few pictures with the cake…

It was then time to sing “Happy Birthday” and serve the cake. I was surprised to find that they sing happy birthday in English like how we sing it, and blow out the candles on the cake just like us. My best guess is that celebrating a birthday this way is a bit of a new thing and probably in Laos because of influence from North America and elsewhere. I did get the singing of happy birthday on tape, but unfortunately I haven’t found a way to insert videos into my blog yet.

The cake was very saep (delicious), and overall it was a very meaun (fun) celebration.

I’m so glad that I got to be part of a Laos birthday party, even though it was a relatively small gathering. It was really nice to be included, and I feel that I am making lots of new life-long friends and becoming a part of the community.

*Word of the Day: Van-goed (Pronounced: Wan – good), It means Birthday

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.

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

Sorry for not getting to this for a long time, I have had a lot of schoolwork to do and was feeling a bit unmotivated, but here is our time on Don Khone, one of the beautiful “4000 islands”!

February 16th – Saturday:

After getting to the resort the previous day (February the 15th) My Aunt, Uncle, Mom and I settled down into our cute cabins and had a good night sleep. On the morning of the 16th we woke up and had a yummy breakfast, including eggs and delicious crepes. We then decided to rent bikes for the day and peddle around the island. We first peddled down to a waterfall and saw turkeys, lots of water buffalo and even a couple peacocks.

We took a little walk and found a nice beach! The sand was very hot, and so was the water (Mom and I dipped our toes in). Some people were even swimming, though we were a little too nervous to go that far.

Next we decided to go see the Irrawaddy dolphins, a special type of dolphin found only in and around the Mekong. We got on the small boat and sailed out to the spot where they feed, it was a really amazing thing to see and I felt very lucky, as there are only around 92 of these dolphins left in the Mekong.

When we got to their feeding place our boat driver made sure to turn off the engine so that we would not disturb them, the closest one came was probably a few metres away from us, how cool!

After that I read in the sun for the majority of the afternoon and we had a relaxing evening at the resort.

February 17th – Sunday:

The next day we again rented the bikes, only we decided to take a little adventure onto Don Det, another island that is connected to Don Khone (the island we are staying on) by a little bridge. It was a very pleasant bike along the Mekong, we found a restaurant called “King Kong” and met a few very enthusiastic puppies! When we got to the downtown area of Don Det, we each got fresh orange juice before we looped around and headed back for the bridge.

When we got back to the resort, Mom and I decided to head to the pool. At the pool, I met two nice girls around my age named Grace and Maddie, who were from Ontario. There was also a girl named Angie, but I couldn’t communicate with her much as she was from France, and I’m still working on my french skills. We played games like “Marco Polo” where the ‘it’ person closes their eyes and has to try to tag the others. And tried to see who could stay on top of the large blow-up balls the longest.

After being in the water for about 2 hours, I said goodbye and we had dinner by the Mekong, accompanied by the beautiful sunset ❤

P.S. More posts will be coming soon, I have exciting news that in a couple weeks Mom and I will be flying back to Vientiane, where the journey all started, due to a meeting.

*Word of the Day: heua (Pronounced: hoo – ah), It means boat.

Today we went to the famous Vat Phu temple with Auntie Nancy and Uncle Pat (my aunt and uncle). Yesterday we caught a Touk-Touk into Pakse, and from there drove into Champasak town, where we stayed for a night. From there it was only about a 20 minute drive to Vat Phu.

When we got to the temple grounds we got our entrance ticket and took an electric shuttle up to the actual temple. There were a lot of people setting up tents for the “Vat Phu festival” a big celebration at the temple starts on Saturday. I was glad that the festival wasn’t on while we were at the temple though, because there would be a lot of people. The temple magnificent and we had fun exploring the ruins.

After that, we started the hike up to the top of the mountain that Vat Phu is situated on. It was quite the hike, but definitely worth it for the beautiful view from the top.

After we were finished at Vat Phu, we went to the car that would drive us down to Don Khone, one of the 4,000 islands. After a long drive and 2 ferry rides, we arrived and Don Khone. It is very beautiful here and there is a very nice sense of community on the island. More pictures and information to come!

(Just as a side note to clear up any confusion we went to Vat Phu before we even came down to the islands, the timing is a bit weird since I am writing this as I am on the islands. Sorry!)

*Word of the day: Phu (pronounced: pu), It means mountain in English.

Hello! Today’s post is not going to be very large, and is mostly just to tell you guys about how school as going because, as of 2 weeks ago, I started attending the local village school! Tomorrow, however I will be posting our adventures at “Vat Phu” the ruins of a sacred temple that is a big attraction and special spot in Laos.

Monday, February 4th was the first day that I attended the Lao school in the village. I was quite nervous as I didn’t know what to expect and it was a little weird for a while as I really stood out in the crowd. I was placed in “class 5” of primary school, which would be about “grade 5” back in Canada. So they are mostly 10-year-olds. The reason I was placed in a bit of a younger class was so that I could learn the language a bit better (since kids my age would be doing more advanced lessons).

So far, going to school has been really helping my Lao! I can even write a tiny bit now and am starting to recognize words and sounds – something I hadn’t even attempted before. Currently I sit in the class and take notes with the other kids. All the notes are in Lao, so I don’t really understand much, but I am getting really used to writing Lao! I am also making some new friends even though the kids are a bit younger than me. There is one girl named Bosavanh, who is really nice.

That’s all for now, but another post will be coming out tomorrow! As I am writing this I am on “Don Khone” an island that is part of the “4000 islands” in the Mekong River. My Aunt and Uncle are here too! It is really nice to have a bit of family here in Laos. If you have any more questions about school that I did not answer in this post, feel free to comment them and I will answer.

Hope all of you are well!

*Word of The Day: Hone hien (Pronounced: Hone-He-en), it means school

Hi! I have decided to recap the month’s events as well as some things that are going to happen. Since I couldn’t find one particular event for a full post, I thought it would be fun if I combined what’s been happening over here. I definitely will still be doing singular posts if something exciting happens, but if not I still want you to know what’s going on!

First of all, I think I mentioned this in an earlier post, but my Mom has been in charge of growing her own little garden for the Green Earth Centre. I am happy to say that it is going well! Although there was a little conundrum earlier with the ants eating the seeds of the plants. Luckily it all got sorted out, and now there are even some cucumbers that are almost ready to harvest.

Next, while I was doing my schoolwork up at the GEC office, Mom was down at the farm, watering her plants. She noticed that some of the Lao locals were harvesting snails, clams and fish from the pond, and managed to take a couple of pictures. Among these people, Mom spotted a lady who we see a lot in the morning as we ride to the GEC. She is so sweet, and always calls out “Saibadee!” whenever she sees us.

While my Mom was gardening, Omo came to visit her. But there was a bit of a surprise….

Luckily it wore off in the span of the couple days and Omo is now back to her old self! We’re still not sure exactly how she gained these fancy new eyebrows though.

I also would like to share a little update on how the kids in our neighbourhood are doing. They still come to our house after work everyday and sometimes on the weekend. We have fun drawing, playing soccer and volleyball, and I was even taught what seems to be a Lao variation of duck-duck-goose!

Finally, I wanted to announce that I am going to start attending the Lao school here very soon! Next Monday will hopefully be my first day! I am a little nervous, but also very excited! I will be sure to keep you posted.

*Word of The Day: Sii Faa (Pronounced: See – Fa), It means the colour “blue”

First post of the new year! My New Year’s resolution is to be more consistent on my blog posts, which I have already fallen a bit behind on. So here is the next post. From here on out I promise the posts will come whenever something fun or exciting happens, and I will not wait so long to write them.

Mom teaches English class to the government officials, and one of her students invited us to his brother’s wedding, (apparently it is good luck to have a foreigner at your wedding) so that is what happened today! It was exciting to be going to an authentic Lao wedding.

We arrived at around 8:00 am at the grooms house. When we got there Khongxay (my mother’s student who invited us) greeted us. Inside the house there was a “Baci” ceremony in progress. The Baci ceremony consists of kneeling around a structure called a “Pha Khuan” which looks a bit like a tree. The Pha Khuan has marigolds around the top of it (marigolds are very important to the Buddhist religion), and sticks coming out of it which have multicoloured string attached. The next step in the Baci ceremony is taking the strings from the sticks and tying them around the hands of the people around you.

Lao people believe that humans are a union of thirty-two organs and each has a spirit to protect them. The spirits sometimes wander outside the body which causes unbalance of the soul, this might lead to an illness. The tying of the string represents tying the 32 spirits to the body and putting them back in harmony. It signifies good luck and prosperity. Mom and I got lots of strings tied around our wrists, and we both were so overwhelmed by the kindness of the people. Khonxay translated what some of them said as they tied the strings, and they were all along the lines of: “We wish you good health and a happy future.”

After the Baci ceremony, it is then that you go to the Bride’s house, where the actual wedding ceremony takes place. Khongxay drove us to the main road, and from there we walked with the rest of the attendees for a few minutes until we reached her house. When we arrived we immediately went inside for another Baci ceremony, which would signify the couple’s union. It was really interesting to see how different the Lao wedding was from weddings back home. Some people, especially in places like Thailand, have adopted our style of weddings. But this was definitely nothing like a western-culture wedding.

We then got lots more strings tied around our wrists. I think I counted at least 30 of them!

After the ceremony, we headed outside for lunch. It was quite the event, and there were lots of people. There was also a live band and lots of Lao dancing. The food was delicious as well. They had sticky rice, steamed rice, and other Lao delicacies like papaya salad and Laap. Even Mr. Khamlai (who is the deputy governor of Lao Ngam district) made an appearance.

Mom and I also tried our hand at the dancing. You mostly just move your feet and sway while rotating your hands. There doesn’t seem to be too many rules to it actually, which is nice.

After a while (and when the wedding was drawing to an end), Mom and I were feeling quite tired and stuffed from all the yummy food. So we waved goodbye and set off on our motorcycle back home. The Lao wedding was for sure an experience I will not forget, I really felt like I was in a whole different world.

*Word of the Day: Deng Nan (Pronounced like how it looks), it means wedding.