Sawantee!

Today we got up and ate at the free breakfast buffet @ our hotel. They had a good balance of western food, but also Thai food as well! After that we took a taxi (A real taxi, not a Touk Touk. Another one of the differences between Thailand and Laos) to the Ubon airport, so that we could pick up a car Mom had rented. Mom had rented the car because she heard about a “sacred monkey temple” that wasn’t too far from Ubon.

For Mom, driving the car took a bit of getting used to. Because in Thailand they drive on the left side of the road! For some reason they drive on the right in Laos, but not in Thailand. We drove to the monkey temple (which was in a town called Pha Na). We parked the car, and as soon as we stepped through the gates… well…

It was so surreal! They were everywhere! And the best part is that they were completely free. The forest and the monkeys are very sacred to the Buddhist religion, so they are treated with a lot of respect. The good thing is that the monkeys do not climb on you, they don’t run away. But they definitely give you space, which I was really happy to see.

We had a nice drive back to Ubon, as we listened to Thai music on the radio. I still couldn’t believe how many monkeys we saw, in fact it till seems completely surreal!

*Word of The Day: Khawpkoon Ka (Cop – coon – caw), It means thank you in Thai!

Yesterday we drove into Pakse on our motorcycle, and stayed at Pat’s house for the night. And today we set off to Thailand!

We got up early so that we could catch a Touk-Touk to the international bus station. Once there, Mom got two tickets to “Ubon Ratchathani” or just “Ubon” for short (Ubon is the city in Thailand where we were going to be staying).

We had to wait a little while for our bus to arrive, and the ride to the border was about an hour long. It certainly gave us time to get in some extra sleep! When we did get to the border though, we were both a bit frazzled. We just had to go in the directions that people told us to, and hope for the best. Actually crossing the border consisted of going through an underground tunnel (It confused me as well) and then getting our luggage checked. We then met our bus on the other side, and we were in officially in Thailand. They had the happiest black lab sniff the bus, and then we were good to go. Immediately I noticed differences from Laos, for one, all of the roads were paved whereas in Laos a lot of them are still dirt.

After about another hour drive, we arrived at the Ubon bus station and took a cab to our hotel. The hotel was really nice! It connected right onto a shopping centre that had a bunch of clothes and even a cinema!

Our room was just as nice. For dinner we went down to the restaurant in the hotel and had spring rolls. We also walked about the night market, that was right outside of the hotel. It was a fun day, Thailand definitely has a different atmosphere from Laos.
Sorry for the short post. Another one will be coming tomorrow and a lot more happened, so stay tuned!

*Word of The Day: Sawantee (pronounced: Sa – wa – tee), it means hello in Thai!

I’m so sorry I didn’t manage to get this out before Christmas, I’m trying to keep up with posting, but it can be difficult. Merry Late Christmas to all of you, and I wish you good fortune for the upcoming year!

We went to the “Tad Fane” waterfall (pronounced Tad-fan) to go zip-lining as a little Christmas present to ourselves! I was very excited for the zip-line, but also quite nervous as zooming over a giant waterfall can be a bit of a daunting task. So we hopped on our motorcycle and we were off! When we got to Tad Fane did I was surprised to see that the waterfall was even bigger in person. And it was much taller than I had thought. Making the idea of zip-lining over it even more terrifying. Mom was even getting a little scared!

But eventually Mom and I decided to face our fears, If you don’t try you’ll never know. Luckily we had the guides go with us, so it was a little less scary. It was really funny because before we got on the zip-line Mom started panicking and was trying to talk to the guides to confirm things. She kept asking things like “Am I doing it right?” and “Is this what I’m supposed to do?”

Of course our guides only know basic English, and they had no idea what she was trying to say. Eventually Mom got up a bit more of courage and her and her guide were off on the zip-line. Then, it was my turn…

I just had to keep reminding myself that nothing would happen and that I was perfectly safe. And as the guide pushed off of the platform I found that the actual zip-lining wasn’t that scary at all. It was really nice to be able to take in the beautiful scenery, although looking down was still a bit frightening. Since Mom had got a zip-lining package that included four different zip-lines, we walked a little bit through the jungle to get to the next one. And after we finished the second line, we made our way along the other two lines. They were all really fun, but the first one was definitely the scariest!

After we had finished all four of the lines, we went and had lunch at the Tad Fane restaurant where they had a cute Christmas set up.

Again, I hope you all have a wonderful New Years and that you had a wonderful Christmas.

*Word of the Day: ahawn (pronounced: Aw-han), it means food. I couldn’t think of a word that related to the post, so I just gave you a random one today!

Sorry for the wait. Hope you enjoy!

Today was Friday, the end of the week! And since it is getting pretty close to Christmas and the New Year there was a celebratory lunch party at the Green Earth Centre. In the morning I helped out around the farm a little bit. But as I was down there I saw a snake! It was mostly grey and had a red neck and a green head. I made sure to keep my distance and he slithered into a bush. I told Mom about it after, and explained to her what it looked like. We looked it up and apparently it was a venomous snake called a “Red Necked Keelback,” – eek!

At noon we headed down to the big mango tree, which is where they had set up the celebration. They were still preparing the food when we got there, so we had a bit of time to sit and enjoy the beautiful warm day.

Then it was time to eat! They had two long mats rolled out for us to sit on, and the Lao music was blasting through the speakers they had set up. It was a very cheery event. Omo especially enjoyed it, she was a lucky dog as she got a lot of the extra meat!

What a lovely day and amazing party. The Lao people sure know how to have fun and how to cook a good meal!

*Word Of the Day: Meaun (pronounced: Moo-an), it means fun.

We woke up at Pat’s house this morning and had breakfast. Then Mom decided to see if it was possible for us to get a motorcycle. We were thinking about just renting one for a week to try it out, but instead Mom decided to buy one! I was pretty worried at first – since Mom wasn’t used to driving a motorcycle and since Lao Ngam is a 2 hour drive away – so I wasn’t completely on board. I sat at the motorcycle shop while Mom went around the block a few times to test it out. Then she came back and picked me up. It was my first time riding a motorcycle, and I have to say that it was really fun! Scary, but fun! We drove back to Pat’s to get our stuff and then said goodbye, as we set off to Lao Ngam.

We had a safe journey back home, though it was a little bumpy on the roads! When we were about halfway to Lao Ngam, we stopped at a restaurant because we were a bit thirsty. We both ordered something to drink and Mom’s came right away, but mine… never came. So eventually we just left and payed for my Mom’s drink. Now we joke about it by saying “Yep, it’s a great place to go if you aren’t thirsty!” There is quite a language barrier though, so I don’t blame them, the man also looked a little confused while we were ordering.

When we got back home we saw a very beautiful sunset. Although this picture doesn’t quite do it justice.

I am really glad now that we got the motorcycle, even though I wasn’t sure at first, it will really give us freedom, weather we want to go to Pakse or just get a coconut milkshake! La garn, Phop kan mai! Thank you for sticking with the blog, I look forward to sharing more of this wonderful experience with all of you.

*Word Of the Day: Lot Jak (pronounced: Lut-Jack), it means motorcycle.

Hello! Sorry I skipped a lot time wise, but I found that this was the only major event I had pictures to go with!

Today we woke up at 5:00 to get ready for the Tuk-Tuk that would take us to Pakse at 7:00. We packed a suitcase, since we were going to stay at Pat’s house (Pat is another Cuso volunteer who lives and works in Pakse) for the night so we would be able to be in Pakse for a full day and then arrive back in Lao Ngam on Sunday. While we were waiting for the Tuk-Tuk, we got to see the monks getting their daily rice.

So we took the Tuk-Tuk and met Pat in Pakse. She then showed us her house, which was very nice. The plan was for us to go into a town called Champasak to get some lunch at a restaurant near the Mekong. Judith – one of Pat’s friends – had offered to drive us, so she picked us up. We also then picked up Vivekan who you might remember is another Cuso volunteer. It was a full car! We got to Champasak, and it was really cool. It had a really cute village feel to it. For lunch, Mom and I both split a pizza as a treat, and got pineapple shakes.

After that we drove back to Pat’s house, and decided that we would meet up again at a place called “the Pakse Hotel” for something to drink. So we talked a bit at Pat’s house and then went to the rooftop of the hotel, where there is a little restaurant.

At the restaurant I got a coconut and pineapple (so much pineapple!) drink, yum! We were then able to watch the beautiful sunset from the roof.

To end our day, we went back to Pat’s house and had a nice relaxing rest of the evening.

* Word of the Day: Mak Nad (Pronounced: Mak-Na), it means pineapple

Sa bai dee! I am going to be doing another combined post again, I hope you enjoy it!

On Saturday I talked with a few of my friends back in Canada over the phone, and then Mom and I both went out to pick up some garbage just around our house. Mom picked up the garbage that was around the entrance to our house, and I focused on the garbage in the yard. I noticed that there were a lot of ceramic tiles lying around. So, I decided to try and arrange them to make a little mural. Since we had the gate to our house open, two boys (One about 9 years old, and the other about 5) walked in and started helping me! It was so cute to watch how they found little pieces to put in the mini mural. Then another girl came who’s name is “Tamoon”, her mother actually works at the GEC. Soon enough Tamoon’s two sisters came and a bunch of other neighbourhood kids. Mom put on some music and I showed some of the kids this blog! I would point at something in a picture and tell them how to say it in English, then they would tell me how to say it in Lao, which was really cool.

After that we both went off to eat dinner, but it was a really fun day!

On Sunday Mom made some french toast and brown sugar syrup w/ bananas to go with it. After that Tamoon and the boy who had helped me with the mural came by to say hello. When we showed them the art supplies we had brought they were really happy. “Oh my gosh!” Is what the little boy said, as it was one of the English phrases he knew. They also coloured and made a whole bunch of things, which I will include pictures of in a future post. We then asked if they wanted to go to the market to get something to drink – which was a bit hard with the language barrier, but we managed! – and they said yes. So we walked up to the morning market and each got a drink. When we were walking back Mom bought two watermelon to give to both of the children for their families. We then said “Phob kan mai!” And went out separate ways.

It was a very full and fun weekend!

*Word of the Day: Mak Mu (Pronounced: Mack-moo), it means watermelon.

Its been a while! School has been a bit stressful lately so it has taken me a little while to update the blog. But luckily I have handed in all my work for the term, so I can post more regularly! There was a giant cricket at the entrance of the Green Earth centre, that was hanging out for the whole day. He changed position a few times, but other then that he was there from the morning when we arrived to the afternoon when we left.

There were also a whole bunch of very official people who came for a tour of the GEC. One of them was the Assistant Governor of Salavan province, which is the province that Lao Ngam is located in. And another was a lady, who was the head of the Lao Woman’s Union. My Mom went on the tour with them, though I stayed and worked on schoolwork.

After the day was over, we biked home. It had rained a bit, so when we got home we noticed this:

La garn for now, another post will be out tommorow!

*Word of the Day: Phan (pronounced: Fawn), it means rain

Today was mostly an ordinary day at the farm, but I wanted to show some pictures of what we did!

My Mom is helping plan, a little garden plot at the farm. So we worked on that a bit today.

We also went and visited the pigs and the goats. There were baby pigs that were just born as well as baby goats. Here are some pictures of the piglets.

It was a good day. Although at the end of the day there was a bit of a traffic jam on the road…

When we did get to our street though, there were a whole bunch of kids standing in the road and waiting for us. They proceeded to give us a whole bunch of flowers, it was adorable! As soon as we got home we made a little bouquet.

That’s all for now! Until next time, Phob kan mai!

*Word of the day: neuah (pronounced: nooah), it means cow.

Hi! Today I don’t really have much to say about what actually happened, but I wanted to take some time just to show some pictures that I haven’t been able to put into other posts! So here we go!

This is Omo, she is a doggy that lives on a farm. When we first came she was very wary of us, and usually stayed away, but now we are basically her best friends. We feed her some of our spare meat and cheese and now she wags her tail and runs up to us whenever we come to the office! There are a few other dogs that live near GEC, and they often hang out near the office, but they haven’t quite got used to us yet.

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Here are a couple more pictures. These are of the people harvesting the rice.

Last but not least here are some of the kids we have met in the neighbourhood! They were all very nice, hopefully I can make some new friends.

*Word of the day: Meu (pronounced: Moo), it means friend