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Lao People's Democratic Republic/Don Không Round the world trip 2008
3-11
We’ve been luxuriating in the many comforts of Luang Prabang for a couple of days now. This little city is tourist heaven with western food, top accommodations, and 5 star shopping for local handicrafts, book exchanges, internets, cooking classes and even banks. The city is colonial French mixed with lovely traditional Laos architecture all connected by brick walkways lit at night by ceramic lanterns. Mekong river and Nam Ou riverside restaurants dance with festive lights. The thumb of land between these two rivers makes up the old town and the major tourist attractions: wats, museums, and shops. Projects to aid local hill tribe people are set up to introduce their endeavors and seek additional aid from tourists. Two good examples are the Lao reading room/library where young Laos are loaned cameras to document their environment, as they learn many skills. An exhibit of these photos demonstrated the success of the program. One young man we met was published in a San Francisco newspaper and paid for his efforts. The main focus of the library is reading and language development: English, Thai, Chinese, plus learning to read and write their own language. The second project is Brother Mouse, a small book publishing project creating delightful Laos language books for native hill people. The staff suggest tourists buy the books to give to children as they travel into tribal areas. Most of these children have never seen books before. A donation of $250 will provide a library to a village, plus one book to each child. Many of these books are written and illustrated by local youngsters.
The road here from Vientiane has been documented, altitudes graphed in profile maps, stopping spots identified in great detail. At no other time during our around the world journey have we had such information. Part was good: knowing where we could stop and expect over-night accommodations, but sometimes the knowledge of a 16 kilometer climb and then another and then another was not necessarily appreciated. Art never wanted to know and I, in my navigator’s roll, announced every gradient: strenuous, humongous, etc. It might be good to lose the commentary. We leave in another day. I need to shop and mail stuff home, first!
March 13 Lao People's Democratic Republic >
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March 07 Lao People's Democratic Republic
We’ve been luxuriating in the many comforts of Luang Prabang for a couple of days now. This little city is tourist heaven with western food, top accommodations, and 5 star shopping for local handicrafts, book exchanges, internets, cooking classes and even banks. The city is colonial French mixed with lovely traditional Laos architecture all connected by brick walkways lit at night by ceramic lanterns. Mekong river and Nam Ou riverside restaurants dance with festive lights. The thumb of land between these two rivers makes up the old town and the major tourist attractions: wats, museums, and shops. Projects to aid local hill tribe people are set up to introduce their endeavors and seek additional aid from tourists. Two good examples are the Lao reading room/library where young Laos are loaned cameras to document their environment, as they learn many skills. An exhibit of these photos demonstrated the success of the program. One young man we met was published in a San Francisco newspaper and paid for his efforts. The main focus of the library is reading and language development: English, Thai, Chinese, plus learning to read and write their own language. The second project is Brother Mouse, a small book publishing project creating delightful Laos language books for native hill people. The staff suggest tourists buy the books to give to children as they travel into tribal areas. Most of these children have never seen books before. A donation of $250 will provide a library to a village, plus one book to each child. Many of these books are written and illustrated by local youngsters.
The road here from Vientiane has been documented, altitudes graphed in profile maps, stopping spots identified in great detail. At no other time during our around the world journey have we had such information. Part was good: knowing where we could stop and expect over-night accommodations, but sometimes the knowledge of a 16 kilometer climb and then another and then another was not necessarily appreciated. Art never wanted to know and I, in my navigator’s roll, announced every gradient: strenuous, humongous, etc. It might be good to lose the commentary. We leave in another day. I need to shop and mail stuff home, first!
