Laos - More than elephants, monks,and river cruises

We enjoyed all the normally tourist things in Laos, but it was our visit to two organizations that will bring us back. Both Laotian organizations are improving the lives of Laotians. Big Brother Mouse adds to their literacy and the number of people who read for pleasure. Saoban, the product of years of community development work, empowers local artisans to produce quality products and set fair prices for them. If you are a tourist in Luang Prabang buy a book to keep or donate. In Vientiane shop!

Big Brother Mouse: Yikes, we didn't take any pictures. A photo of bungalow with books won't lift one's spirits as much as just walking in. Big Brother Mouse (BBM) is an all-Lao (Lao-owned, run, and staffed) book publisher and distributor located in Luang Prabang. Its mission is to show Laotian children and youth that "literacy is fun." For some children part of the fun may be a visit by a part-time staffer, Boom-Boom, an elephant who helps deliver books to remote areas.  BBM designs, writes, and publishes books in Lao and Lao/English. Some stories are original. Others are translated. A good story is a good story no matter where its from.

Visitors to Luang Prabang can drop into Big Brother Mouse and purchase books in Lao to leave in villages or give as tips. We bought a small packet of pre-selected books for the staff to include in a book party. At set times tourists can engage in English conversation with local people. We met a woman who learned  about the lives of novice monks from her conversations at BBM.

BBM seeks donors to sponsor the publication of a book or a book party. Sponsoring a book or book party may be an ideal gift for a special occasion - birth, bar mitzah, retirement, and so on. We plan to sponsor a book now, and perhaps a book party when we return to Lao. Visit the web site to learn more, to be impressed and inspired.

Saoban: First our back story - I am not much of a shopper. We have everything we need and then some. After buying virtually nothing in India - I later regretted that we hadn't purchased hostess gifts and the like. We can give interesting gifts, and more importantly we help local artisans. I vowed not to make the same mistake in Laos. By our last day in Vientiane we had a suitcase full of gifts.Good karma must have been radiating from Saoban. The store's display was beautiful, and the story behind the shop was awesome.

Saoban is a social business that evolved out of PADETC, a Lao community development NGO. During our visit we chatted with Shui-Meng, the shop's owner, about her work in community development. She worked with village women help them think about and set fair prices for their products, e.g., that their labor was not free and that materials (even if locally accessed) had monetary value. As part of pricing their labor the women needed to think about what they wanted from their work, e.g., ability to educate their children. They learned the importance of setting prices and sticking to them, especially the need not to accept lower prices for their products and thus undercut each other. She helped them understand the importance of quality - using natural dyes rather than cheap chemically produced dyes and keeping consistency between products.

Doug and I with Shui Meng -
An inspiration for all those who want to empower women

Shui Meng  and other developers did not lecture village women. Rather they undertook the long process of gaining the women's trust and soliciting their input. One consequence is assuring the sustainability of a way of thinking about how to value work, especially if new products and crafts are developed. While Saoban sells the products these women produce, the weavers are free to market their products to other shops and outlets.Truly the women are empowered. Here is an observation Shui Meng recently posted on Saoban's FB page "You will no longer take for granted what goes into your bowl of rice or how much work goes into your little scarf or bamboo basket once you spend sometime with the people who grow the rice or make the stuff you use everyday."

What did we buy? A piece of fabric, now hanging on our wall. We hadn't found anything that won us over and had decided to wait until "next time."  I took a photo, but it doesn't give it justice. Here is a youtube presentation to show how such pieces are woven. It suggests what our design looks like. We also bought scarves and napkins. After a short debate we decided against spoons crafted from aluminum contained in bombs dropped in Laos. We had sympathy for the project, but didn't know what we would do with more spoons. While we talked about the spoons Shui Meng quoted a women in a bombed village "Why did they (US) hate us?"

We talked with Shui-Meng for about 20 minutes. Afterward we Googled Saoban and PADETC. Our admiration grew. Saoban's FB page includes videos and slide shows of the artisans at work. Visits to Saoban's villages can be arranged - something for our next trip. PADETC's website said that it welcomes experienced and skilled volunteers, preferably volunteers who can stay for at least 3  months.  In 2013 it is particularly interested in hearing from Environmental experts who have time to volunteer in Laos. A sabbatical or transition to retirement project? Makes me wish that I had some hands on skills.

The PADETC website had a link to Sombath.org that tracks the status of Sombath Somphony the founder of PADETC who went missing on 15 December.  A reminder that a tourist can overlook the human rights and development struggles that go on in Laos and other countries.

Touring Vientiane

To avoid missing the highlights of Vientiane we booked a one day tour with Green Discovery Laos. Our guide, Noy, willing answered our many questions. We learned so much from him I am writing more about what we learned than what we saw. If my comments are wrong or not quite correct – it is my fault (bad memory or misunderstanding), not Noy's.

At Wat Sisaket, the oldest surviving temple in Vientiane, we talked about the difference between Lao Buddhism and Bhutanese Buddhism. Absent from the temples were prayer wheels, prayer flags, butter candles and flowers, and cash offerings in front of the Buddhas, nor could one circa-ambulate most altars. When I saw the joss sticks and numbered cubbie holes filled with papers, I assumed that the papers had standard prayers (similar to the prayer flags). Wrong. The chop sticks had numbers. So a devotee would mix them up, draw one, and get his “fortune” from the numbered box.

On right hand side - numbered chopsticks and cubbie holes
On left (toward back) altar to burn papers & burn joss sticks

Stupa at Wat Sisaket

Some stupas had embedded photographs. The stupas contained the ashes on the pictured couple. In Lao Buddhists are cremated. Unlike India, where the oldest son lights the funeral pyre, a selected attendee lights it. The next day family members return to the cremation site and gather the bones. The remains may be put in a stupa or elsewhere, perhaps a family garden.

The niches pictured below contain over 2000 images of Buddha. Among the large seated Buddhas some have pointed head coverings and others don't. The pointed coverings were removed by invaders or vandals, who believed that gems were hidden in the Buddha images.

More Buddhas - More Merit?

Our next stop was Ho Prakeo “image of the Emerald Buddha.” We heard more about Lao’s history, a history filled with wars primarily with Thailand, including Laotians being used as slave labor in Thailand. The Emerald Buddha was stolen and is housed in Bangkok. On the grounds is a jar from the Plains of Jars – we learned that only 3 areas in the Plain of Jars can be visited because of unexploded landmines and unexploded cluster bombs, which still kill or maim Laotians.


Noy told us that this father had been in the Pathet Lao where he met and married Noy's mother. She had joined the army when she was 14 and was trained as a nurse's aid. Noy said members in the present Laotian army where boys who had not finished school. Primary education is free, but secondary education isn't. In the rural areas, where we assume may students do not go beyond primary school, marriages typically take place among 15-16 year olds. In the cities couples will often wait until they are in the 30s. Marriages are love matches and at least some, if not all, ethnic groups prohibit marriages between people in the same village.

Our third, and last temple, of the day was Wat Si Muang. The temple was filled with worshipers, so we spent our time on the grounds. The linked video suggests that we need to revisit the temple and go inside. Devotees were carrying flowers, making offerings, and circa- ambulating the temple. We saw a display of Linga, the symbol of Shiva. Noy’s description of the linga as representing Shiva's power, lacked the scatological presentation of our guide at My Son near Hoi An Vietnam.

Selling birds for release - a harmful practice

Corridor filled with linga

Monkey making an offering to Buddha

Weaving is a major Laotian handicraft. We stopped at Carol Cassidy's shop/studio. Ms. Cassidy is an American designer who has been in Lao for 20 years. As we were wandering around we eavesdropped on a tour she was giving. Until recently she was marketing to museums and collectors, but now with an easing of visa restrictions she also has included retail items. `The Vientiane studio hires local women who learned to weave at home. The weavers work from patterns designed by either Ms. Cassidy or another master designer. She has also has a major role in Weaves of Cambodia, which employs disabled women (including land mine survivors).

Weaving from a pattern

Having glasses can add years to a weaver's career

After lunch we drove over a "dancing road" to the Buddha Park. It reminded us of Tiger Balm Gardens (now Haw Par Villa) in Singapore. Tiger Balm Gardens were created to teach children traditional Chinese values. Buddha Park was created by a Lao mystic who wanted to unite Buddhist and Hindu faiths. Why similar to Tiger Balm Gardens? Our first impression of both was that they were bizarre. Both seem delapidated. The structures at Buddha Park are 55 years old, to me they seemed much older.

Back in Vientiane we went to the Patuxai, the victory gate. It was completed in 1968 and built with the American-supplied cement used to construct the airport in 1958.

The Patuxai

View from Patuxai - note the light traffic about 4:00 p.m.

During the day we traveled by tuk tuk, a major form of short distance public transit. Climbing in and out was a challenge and our heads were bumped nearly every time. We would have welcomed an auto rickshaw.

Cooking in Vientiane Lao

In keeping with our recent tradition of culinary lessons in each country we visit, we joined the staff of Lao-Experiences for a half day tour of the morning market followed by a cooking lesson in a villa garden on the banks of the Mekong River on the outskirts of Vientiane. Among the various options we picked a cooking school based upon a brochure in our hotel, The Hotel Khamsongsa. We wondered over to the Full Moon Cafe, several blocks away and made our reservation...for the next morning at 8 am.

After a full breakfast (the light french option at our hotel consisting of filtered coffee, banana smoothie, fresh croissant, jam, butter, yogurt with honey, and fresh tropical fruits), we walked the short 4 blocks to the cafe and arrived just before our hosts, Nook and Morgan.  Morgan is assisting Nook to establishes her business.  We traveled to the morning market in Vientiane. As we got closer we observed police directing traffic. At shortly after eight we were late to the market...it begins at 3 AM!

Rice Merchant with multiple grades of rice

The Market Tour

We began our market tour with the rice dealers. We viewed the various grades of rice: A, B, & C. Color, size and the amount of broken grains influence the cost. For regular white rice the difference in price of the grades is great ( from 6,000 Kip to well over 11,000 Kip per kilo). The better grades have a nicer aroma, and cook quickly, but the lower grades can cook for hours without becoming soft and palatable. Although represented by one bin out of 15 or so, sticky rice is the staple food of Laos.   Sticky rice is cooked over steam rather than in a rice pot of water or rice cooker. Most sticky rice does not make it to the market but remains in the village. With the exception of one bin of black rice, all was polished white rice. No brown rice was available.

Inside the market we saw tubs of Lao fish sauce (a brown sauce containing the fermented remains of various local fish), not the clear Vietnamese fish sauce or the slightly darker Thai sauce. Each of the different sauces are intended for specific dishes. We saw a wide variety of vegetables.  Most were familiar and available in SE Asian markets.  The herbs included multiple varieties of basil, dill, tarragon, mints, onions, garlic ( including garlic chives), gingers (new, old, turmeric, and galangol), and the SE Asian standby....lemon grass.

Lemongrass, pepperwood, eggplant, and galangol

 Fruits included multiple varieties of bananas, papaya, multiple varieties of mango, durian, and jackfruit. Ever present at this time of year are mandarin oranges, big and small.  Most you will never see in North America (to our great loss).

Vegetables

Tubs of Lao Fish Sauce

Ant Larvae anyone?

Chicken was available (fresh and butchered in plastic bags), as well as all sorts of fresh water fish. Also available were dry season protein supplements: ant eggs, and various larvae. I watched as shoppers walking along sampled larvae from baskets. I did not sample.

Kung's Lao Cafe

We then traveled to Kungs Lao Cafe (at one time featured in a NY Times travel article, can currently has inspired a recipe by Luke Nguyen in his book Greater Mekong) where we had local coffees (Liz chose black coffee with no milk or sugar, while I chose traditional Lao coffee with condensed milk at the bottom of the glass). Tea was served as a chaser. We also sampled sticky rice pancakes with papaya and honey. Some older expats wandered in and were greeted as old friends. We left  satiated, and we still had a full meal to prepare.

Kung's Lao Cafe Menu

Back at the Full Moon Cafe we picked up two additional participants. They were the parents of a French woman teaching at a local university. They spoke minimal English and we spoke even less French. But they were lovely, and equally adaptable.

About 15 minutes later we arrived at the villa. Flowers covered the trees, butterflies abounded, and birds filled the air with sounds. A small dog greeted us, knowing she would end up with droppings from sloppy chefs.

Kung's Kitchen

M. Kung of Kung's Lao Cafe

The Cooking Class

The class started with a review of Lao cooking implements. A woven steamer is a multipurpose device, primarily used for cooking sticky rice. After the rice has soaked it is rinsed and placed in the pre-moistened steamer. Failure to pre-moisten will result in a truly sticky mess. The steamer is placed atop a large boiling pot of water and a woven conical hat is placed over the rice. We were given two sets of timing: gas burner powering the boiling water, or the more traditional charcoal stove. The gas is more reliable, but not a useful in a village and does not impart flavor.

Preparing the stoves

We then made the mat pa (Lao steamed fish and herbs). We chopped herbs, pounded herbs, added salt, fish sauce, and other Lao flavorings. Give it all a quick mix and you are ready to prepare the banana leaf steam packets. Starting with squares of banana leaf, we slightly charred them on both sides over the grill, just enough to make them pliable. We put single servings of the fish pieces in the center and learned how to fold and seal the packets. Properly sealed and identified they were placed in a steamer and set top cook: 25 to 60+ minutes depend upon the heat source.

Liz all decked out and ready to cook!

With the main course prep completed we prepared the tomato and eggplant dip. The tomatoes, garlic, shallots, and eggplant were skewered and roasted until soft over the coal fired stoves. Back at the prep table we squished and peeled the charred vegetables, added herbs, and pounded until it was smooth.

Our fish all wrapped up and ready for the steamer

A green papaya salad was made. We chopped ingredients while the chef assembled them, doing the heavy chopping of the papaya. No squeezing out of moisture from the papaya. I will need to talk to my fruit vendor in KL to get an appropriate papaya.

Our feast, our chef, and our classmates!

Food cooked, it was time to eat. Under tropical trees, with red hibiscus blooming and attracting butterflies, we sat down to a scrumptious meal. But the cooking was not done. Dessert needed to be made. We reduced fresh coconut milk to a thick syrup and poured it over sticky rice and a half fresh mango. We were thoroughly satiated as were gave the chefs our thanks and were driven back to our hotel. On a hot day, after a full meal, a nap was most appropriate.