Sa bai dee dawn sao (Good morning)! Today we had another day off since it was the weekend, we decided we would climb up the monument “Patuxay” (pronounced: Pat-oo-sye) since it was right next to our apartment. Patuxay is basically the central hub of the city of Vientiane, it looks like this:

 

So we started our climb, together it cost us 6,000 KIP to go up Patuxay which is about ¢60 CAD. As we went up we noticed some really pretty details:

So after that we kept going and soon reached the top. It was a little bit of a trek but not too bad! And the view from the top was amazing!

When we came back down, we decided to go to the “Morning Market”. We went and got some clothes, since we needed more for the hot weather. And treated ourselves to chocolate chip cookies afterwards. It was a bit hard shopping for the clothes though, since the people selling them speak little to no English and we only barely speak Lao. But eventually we were able to understand each other, with hand gestures and such.

*Word of the day/Phrase of the day: la garn (pronounced: Law-gawn), it means “goodbye”.

Hope all is well, Phob kan mai and la garn!

 

 

 

 

 

Hey! Sorry I didn’t post anything for Friday, it was mostly just a normal day at the  Cuso office, we did go to a really fancy telecom building to get some cheap phones so that my mom and I could call each other if needed, but nothing out of the ordinary. Anyway we had a pretty relaxed day, we ventured out a little bit and found a cool grocery store or “super market” as they would call it in English, the people who even speak English here don’t know what you mean if you say “grocery store” (believe me, mom tried). So when we found the supermarket we got some nice french bread, some blackberry jam, olives, cheese and yogurt. All the things you would find in a store back at home, it is really nice to have the comforts of home but also be able to try out the Lao cuisine. After that we wandered home and went into a temple. We saw the monks and they were having a ceremony, but anyone was aloud to watch. It was super warm out and we had to sit in the sun, but I’d say it was worth it to be able to experience another culture firsthand. On our way home we stopped at this place and got these giant avocados and a papaya. For dinner we went out to this delicious Swedish baking house and got something called “schnitzel” which I just had for the first time and is really good. When we got home there was a “cat Yin Yang” at our apartment:

Image above: “Cat Yin Yang”, the black cat is named “Dash and the white one is “Lilac”. They are both siblings. 

*Word(s) of the day: Phob kan mai (pronounced hop-can-my), it means “see you later”.

That’s it for today, phob kan mai!

Sa-bai-dii! In the morning we had to get picked up instead of Today we had the honour of being invited to the actual Canadian Embassy here in Laos. We met with one of the Ambassadors for Canada. It was a very amazing experience.

Image above: In the Canadian Embassy

Its a bit weird because the “Canadian Embassy” is actually in the Australian Embassy. There is just a part of it that is for Canada. We also had to go through these two doors, and the first door led into a little room where the second door is, and the second door only opens when the first door was closed. But the room was too cramped to fit all of us so we had to go through in separate groups. A lot of effort just to get through a door! It was really amazing though, and it was a huge honour.

Sorry this post was a bit shorter! Hope you are all well

*Word of the day: Ma, which means dog

Today was another day at the Cuso office. One of the ladies brought in a Lao “sinh” for me. “sinhs” are the traditional skirts here. The one she brought me looks like this:

You might not be able to see in the lighting but its purple, and today I was even wearing a purple shirt so it matched perfectly. At lunchtime we went to the market so that my mom and Pat (the other volunteer) could get their sinhs. I got also got another one, as they were only about 17 dollars CAD. We had someone guiding us, but if we didn’t I think we would have got lost in the market. It was literally built like a maze. After that we cycled home to find a little guy in our bathroom:

Image above: little gecko!

It was a pretty normal day, but I still can’t get over the fact I’m in Southeast Asia. I hope you’re all enjoying my blog! More posts coming soon.

*Word of the day: Your word(s) of the day is pronounced bow-pen-ya and means No problem/Your welcome.

Greetings! I have decided to combine the events from Monday and Tuesday, as I’m a few days behind my blog posting (with all the busy stuff going on). And nothing too eventful happened. Anyway, Monday was our first day at the Cuso office! We biked all the way there from the apartments (we had a guide leading the way), and stopped for breakfast at a cafe along the way. Its really nice at the office, Its like a traditional house in Laos, but it has been converted to an office on the inside as it has a whole bunch of desks and a meeting room. We had to take our shoes off before going inside the office because in Laos you always take your shoes off before entering someone’s house as it is considered quite disrespectful if you leave them on. I listened to some of the things talked about, but I mostly worked on my online schoolwork. Right now in school I’m doing a project where I have to write a short story. At lunch time we went to a really nice restaurant and surprisingly they were playing modern day songs you would hear back in Canada.  After that we biked back to the apartments, we were given a map but the guide didn’t come with us this time, so we were kinda left to figure it out as we went. Though luckily, we were able to make it home without getting too turned around.

Image above: our bikes,

On Tuesday it was mostly the same thing except we started our language training in the morning. Our Lao teacher came and started teaching us how to say consonants in Lao. It was pretty hard as there are so many things to remember, but its also fun, and I like the challenge.

*Fun fact about the Lao language: none of their words really have “r’s” in them, as it is very hard for people over here to pronounce the “r”.

*Word of the day: Today’s word is Meao (pronounced may-o), it means “cat” in Lao. This one is easier to remember because its almost like your saying “Meow” which is of course the noise that cat’s make.

I hope all of you are having a great day, the next post should be coming soon.

Hello! Today we rode our bikes to the little coffee shop and a had a delicious breakfast. We also had something called “purple carrot juice”, it sounds weird but it was really good and had a lot of other fruits in it, it tasted a bit like grape.

Purple carrot juice,

We then rode back to our apartment to meet the other Cuso volunteers for a bike ride. We biked along the streets of Vientiane, which I was a bit nervous about – since there is a lot of traffic – but everyone here is really used to seeing bikers so they are careful about giving us lots of space and not running us over! Our guide then brought us to a beautiful temple:

Wow!

After seeing that we pedaled back, and took a “Tuk-tuk” (kinda like a taxi) to go get pizza. After that we got ready to go to the Australian Embassy for a Canadian thanks giving party we were invited to. They had a big swimming pool and tons of things to eat. The food was delicious.

And here is the word of the day: khwap jai (pronounced: hop-chai), it means thank you.

That’s all for now! goodbye!

 

 

We have made it safely to Vientiane, the capital of Laos! We arrived at about 6:00 pm last night. When we landed we were picked up with two other Cuso volunteers (Cuso is the organization my mom works for), and driven to our apartment. When we got to the apartment we were surprised to find 5 kitties there.

This morning we went out and explored a bit, we went to one of the markets with Pat and Vivekan (the other Cuso volunteers), and got some food there. “Kip” is what the currency is called here in Laos, to give you a scale 10,000 kip is about 1 Canadian dollar. At the market it wasn’t very expensive, as almost everything was under 100,000 Kip (or 10 dollars).

Its very, very warm here, even at night time. And we have to make sure to only drink bottled water as our immune systems aren’t used to the water they have here. But other than having to adjust to the heat, its pretty beautiful over here and I’m finding that I really like it.

I also was given a very good suggestion to teach you all a new word in Lao everyday, so here’s your word of the day:  sá-baai-dii  (pronounced: sa-ba-dee), which means hello.  ­

 

 

 

We are now in Taipei, Taiwan and just got off a twelve-hour flight, phew! It was hard saying goodbye to everything, especially my cat, Phoenix. And just overall my house, and Bowen.

Goodbye Phoenie

Goodbye House!

 

After saying our goodbyes, my mom and I set off to the airport for our flight. Before we boarded we put on our “Saint Christopher” necklaces to keep us safe while we travelled.

We boarded our flight, and flew to Taiwan, which brings us to right now. We are currently waiting for our flight to Hanoi, when we get there we will be one step closer to being in Laos! That’s all for now, we’ll keep you posted.

Thanks for joining me!

Only 4 days left until my mom and I take off to Laos, Southeast Asia for one year. I am feeling a mix of emotions, including scared and sad. But I’m keeping a positive mindset that everything will work out for the best. Even though I am a bit worried I am also excited for what is ahead and the experience I will gain.

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton