Lao Voices

On a foggy morning of November 7 th, a 901-foot container ship sideswiped the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. The crash spilled 58,000 gallons of fuel into San Francisco Bay. Authorities shut down many of the beaches, including Baker Beach, Crissy Field, China Beach, Kirby Cove and Fort Point due to the contamination. [...]

I wrote a post on yellow color called My Yellow World, which at the time the Thais were wearing bright yellow shirts every Monday to celebrate the King Bhumibol’s 60th anniversary on the throne in 2006 and they continued to wear yellow every Monday for the last 2 years. I never knew the reason [...]

The sights and sounds of Boat Racing Festival in Pakse 2007. From watching the clips I want to get up and dance. How do you know that I am not dancing at the moment? I do miss Laos and all the festivals a kid in me can enjoy.
Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

More clips to come.

For the first time in the history of the ruling government since 1975 there was a parade with candle light procession to Wat Loung, with representatives (students, teachers, and elders) from all the villages in Pakse district. Many tourists (farangs) asked to join in the parade and were dancing to sound of khene. Including in [...]

When we hear the term “smoking,” most of us only think of cigarettes. As mentioned by Dallas that he feels that the novice monks violated rule #5 of the percepts that reads, “Suramerayamajja pamadatthana veramani sikkhapadam samadiyami, I undertake the precept to refrain from intoxicating drinks and drugs which lead to carelessness.” As Dallas [...]

The Boat Racing Festival in Pakse this year was bigger and better than the Vientiane Boat Racing Festival. Viewers on Lao Television all agreed about how grand and spectacular the grand finale at Pakse was compared to the event in Vientiane. Even though both cities had the same set up with vendors, selling food [...]

Video description: HOUAY NAMIEN, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, 16 November 2007 - Worldwide, measles kills more children than any other preventable disease, and Laos suffers regular outbreaks, including two this year that killed at least 10 children.
UNICEF Representative in Lao PDR Laila Ismail-Khan said that the government’s commitment to eliminate measles by 2012 was cost-effective [...]

This common flower, found in many Lao and Thai homes, has gain much interest in Hawaii. But there are some landscape designers in Southern California that find it attractive too. In Lao we call it, “Dok Said Tee” which translates to “the wealthy plant.” In Thai, it’s called Poysean. It English, [...]

The Vientiane boat racing festival (Boun Suang Huer) took place on October 23rd to the 27th with the official competition on the last day. It was a lively event with thousands of spectators that came out to cheer on their favorite team.
Many vendors had set up stalls along the route of the boat races selling [...]

I think it is harder to let go and adapt to changes when you’re older, as young people are more readily to adapt to changes. I know in many situations, and most work places that people never appreciate in what they are doing, but when it’s time to let go of that duty then it’s [...]

Since Ginger made a very informative post about the 529 Plan, I just wanted to mention another neat idea to save for college. These plans are similar to shopping reward cards, but the rewards is cash to be deposited into your child’s college savings fund. With every purchase you make, the retailers will deposit [...]