Week in Review

Vang Vieng, Laos

We spent just under a week in Phonsavan with a lot of time spent meeting with people who work at a vocational college there. We got to sit in on the graduation ceremony for a group of about 20 future tour guides who took a course that combined lessons on English with details about attractions in the area and practice putting together attractive itineraries at competitive prices. We rented a motorbike for a couple of days and enjoyed the freedom to explore some of the dirt side roads and get to places tourists rarely, if ever see. The weather was quite moderate with temperatures dipping into the low double digits at night. Not too many tourists come to Phonsavan as its a bit off the beaten track. Most white people we've met work here either in mine clearing, education, or mineral exploration.

With the lack of tourist crowds comes a lack of variety in food options. Our standby comfort food has become rice noodle soup. It comes in a huge serving size bowl with a big bundle of noodles and a weak broth. On the side they give you a plate full of aromatic herbs and vegetables that you can throw in. Every table comes equipped with a bottle of fish sauce (salty) dried and pickled chilis (spicy) and a variety of other sauces you can add to customize your soup. We find ourselves becoming more and more adventurous when it comes to adding the fresh veggies. I think that will all come to a crashing halt with the first case of "traveller's tummy".

On Tuesday we left Phonsavan for Vang Vieng. It's a lot hotter here and the most popular tourist activity is tubing down the river. It's a great way to spend the day. The water is cool and there are frequent places to stop along the way for either a beverage or a rope swing or a zip line into the water.

This is a thriving tourist town and for some reason there is a strange cult following for the TV show 'Friends'. On one street there are a number of restaurants set up in exactly the same way. Row on row of low tables and mats watching reruns of Friends back to back to back.

On Thursday we volunteered for the morning at an organic farm and country school. We worked at shovelling compost and mixing it with the garden soil for a couple of hours and then headed to a school where we taught English for an hour in front of about 35 school kids. It was definitely an interesting experience. We read a couple of basic books and did all the fun games we could think of and still had time to spare. We didn't emphasize discipline and so we got to see kids coming and going during class, spitballs being thrown, stuff being thrown out the window, and kids being pushed off of shared benches. We hope that they learned something.