Lao Voices

Taste of Laos for day 16 and the first day back in Vientiane. I was under the weather and didn’t join the relatives for breakfast. For lunch aunt Kian made bamboo shoots soup and fried sweet Lao sausage. For dinner it was Phun Pa or Fish Wrap with already made sauce from the market.

Happy Friday everyone. Here is the second set of video clips from Boun That Luang Haire Pasad Pheung on November 11, 2008. One more set of videos and we can continue on with the Morning Alms Giving and the concert on the last night of the festival.

Lao green papaya salad in the making at Banh Phonthan Tay, video by Bounthieme Sonenarong.

We have all heard the famous generalization of the Lao by the French with the phrase, “The Vietnamese plant rice, the Cambodians watch it grow and the Lao listen to it grow.” While the statement is not meant to be a flattery, I agree part of that statement is definitely true. After pouring their sweats [...]

Video description: Mekong River is the Mother River of Southeast Asia. Millions of people rely on its natural resources for their survival and livelihood. But the river is now under the threat of destructive development. The Chiang Mai-based NGO, Living River Siam, produced this video to expose the truth.

Lao villagers’ story about fish and human: Fish and river as a couple like human can not live without food, since the ancient time till now fish is the main food of human. Rivers in Laos there are a thousands different kind of fish. Most of people who catches fish in the river they are [...]

An Uholy Alliance is a 1996 documentary that “examines the relationship between the drug trade and war, detailing the involvement of the CIA in Vietnam and Afghanistan during the Cold War”. Regarding Laos, the French used heroin trafficking to finance the anti-communist guerrilla army (recruited Hmong tribes). When the American later took over the Vietnam [...]

My trip to Laos would not be completed without making a visit to Akat Elementary School and to see how our Lao Book Box Fund is making a difference in their lives. So, on November 18, 2008, I made a surprise visit to Akat Elementary School in Vientiane to check on the status of the [...]