Lao Voices

You are browsing the archives of 2008 June.

Students Dannavieng Elementary finished their first year year at the newly built school earlier this month. The incomplete school was being used to its full extent. Even with dirt floor, the students were happy to be inside holding classes. They spent many months under the shade while the construction was going on last year. The [...]

Here are some short video clips of the naming ceremony at Ban Phonsikhay as Lao cultural village of Pakse, Champassak Province.

Additional photos from the naming ceremony of Phonsikhay as Lao cultural village of Pakse, Champassak Province.

Ban Phonsikhay, home to one of our book box library has been named a cultural village of Pakse or Ban Wattanatham. There are several crierias that a village must met before being given a certificate of recoginition. The ceremony took place on the school ground and was covered by Lao National Television. Below are photos [...]

The description of the video read, “Cue the Jurassic Park theme!”, but to us, Lao is the Kingdom of Lan Xang or Land of a Million Elephants. I came upon an article at preetamrai.com called The land of million smiles (Lao PDR) that said, “In Lao people always seem to be smiling. They use [...]

Many villages in Champassak Province would celebrate Boun Ban or Village Festival on an annual basis if they could. When they is a village festival, the people would make khao phoon and would feed anyone that would make a visit to a home. Usually when one village will have a boun and then the next [...]

Laos… Jewel of the Mekong is the top destination for travel this year. Pack your bags and get there before it is too crowded. Check out the must hot travel spots in Laos, from the northern to the southern region. Below are promotional video clips from the Lao National Tourism Administration.
Laos… Jewel of the Mekong, [...]

More photos from Wat Phu Festival 2008. The next festival will take place in February of 2009 so mark your calendar and get there. This is a place that must be visit by all khon Lao, even for once in a life time. As a little kid I had a dream of seeing this historical [...]

On the last day of Wat Phu Festival there is a Morning Alms Giving with long lines of Buddhist faithfuls, eager to make merit on this special day. Hundreds of people would travel from all over the country to take part in the festiviy. They would camp out the night before on the holy ground [...]

Here are the rest of the photos from NongDong Elementary School in Muang Phone Thong, Khang Champassak.

NongDong Elementary School is located in Muang Phone Thong, Khang Champassak, not too far from the Lao/Thai border. The name is special to us because we (members and visitors) to the site (formerly Laoplanet) donated a book box library to the school in March of last year (see photos in the Gallery). We now have [...]

Check out Montreal Landscape architect/artist make fruits from artificial materials. For few Laotian, this may be a surprise they wake up in Vientiane and see fruits made of plastics all over the place. It is a change to see synthetic material instead of bio material once in a while.

A few weeks ago my two aunts in Vientiane went to visit the relatives on the papaya garden for the second time this year. Most of the papaya trees have been picked and there were not much papayas left to sell to the merchants. These days the merchants would go straight to the supplier and [...]