Laos | Creative Choice

June 1. Stay another day…

On our extra day we visit Peuan Mit again, have a nice cup of coffee there and I donate what is left in kip to their program. That is a no-brainer for travelers, of course. Whatever you have left IS part of your budget so don't come with "I don't have money" it won't work ...

12 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

Laos, Peuan Mit, stay another day, Vientiane

May 31. Worst War crimes ever?

Cornflakes and coffee, and it's already ten. Lazy bastards, you think. Where's the early morning gymnastics, the 2-mile-walk, the 150 pushups and the rigor-vigor?

Anyway, we visit COPE today and have a good look at the museum that displays handmade prostheses, we are talking about wooden leg, cast iron pparts nailed together with ...

12 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

COPE, Laos, Vientiane, warcrime

May 30. Volleyball in rural Laos.

It is so nice to have 100cc of boiling hot metal shafts between my legs, that I decide to rent a motorbike in the afternoon and tour around Vientiane. We take the main highway north (direction Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang) with the option of taking a dirttrack to a beautiful waterfall. An option that ...

12 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

Laos, motorbike, Volleyball

May 29. Borrowing vintage bike.

Shaun, a friendly Australian guy living here offers us his little vintage motorbike in the morning, and we gladly accept that enhancement of our mobility.

We will be taking that green bike to the friendship bridge and back today. Not that there's much to see - the friendship bridge is essentialy a concrete corridor ...

12 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

Laos, motorbike, Vientiane

May 28. What is ten dollars?

We have a brunch with a German lady, Dagmar, who tells us her compelling story: she is editing and publishing an autobiographical book about a Lao monk. It's what keeps her here, and what keeps us listening. It is really nice and I hope she will publish the book.

I pick up my Vietnamese ...

12 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

Laos, Vientiane, whiskey

May 27. COPE-ing with UXOs

Our arrival in Vientiane should be different than Vientiane, I think, and stick obstinately to my idee fixe when we arrive at the bus station. NO tuktuk, we are FINE, we know our way around. We walk a couple of miles and indeed, reach central Vientiane and lose about an hour. We make ourselves comfortable ...

12 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

COPE, Laos, UXO, Vientiane

May 26. A very nice man.. not!

Rather than niceness, it are the events of flat bluntness that stick to a traveler's memory. I have this experience this morning at "bigbrothermouse". This is a small ngo aiming to increase literacy in rural Laos by publishing and distributing bilingual children's books. It is and remains a wonderful concept, and so we visit their ...

12 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

bigbrothermouse, Laos, Luang Prabnag

May 25. Hey. Pssst. Motorbike?

Countless curves await us on the eight-hour busride to Luang Prabang. The scenery is pretty as we expected, and makes up for our diet of dry cookies and sodas. I remember having a can of beer during the break, but apart from that, don't expect any events from the busride.
Arriving at Luang Prabang comes ...

12 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

Laos, Luang Prabang, motorbikes

May 24. Of motorbikes and hospitals.

We almost miss our morning ride to Namtha. I have the bus tickets and the bus (there are only a few daily) stops at Bryan and Leila's house early. We rush to the streets and take our seats in the crammed minibus. Quick handshakes and best-of-luck constitute our goodbye to these wonderful people. I want ...

11 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

accident, Laos, Luang Namtha, motorbikes

May 23. Easy bashing German state aid.

We have a delicious noodle soup for breakfast in a place that looks like what you would expect of a Lao eatery: the wooden terrace was built in the field, and farmers are ploughing in sight. This valley has always played an important cultural role as many different hilltribes interact here. Even today, local schoolchildren ...

11 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

Laos, Muang Sing

May 22. Paper mash.

The accident could have been avoided. It was my idea to do paper maché, and I feel a little bit guilty about it. The kids gather at the porch as usual and when we let them storming in they are enthousiastic as always. Yeon prepares a bowl of glue and we start dipping little pieces ...

11 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

accident, Laos, Muang Sing, paper mash

May 21. Jump around.

We have found a beautiful place. We stay under the mosquito net long this morning, before enjoying an extended breakfast, as far as the reconstruction goes. The house is really quite, despite the main road that crosses the fertile valley and should connect to China and Thailand. The local market in Luang Namtha does offer ...

11 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

Butterfly children, Laos, Muang Sing

May 20. Butterfly children.

The bus to Muang Sing leaves early in the morning, and after a nearly two hour ride through the staggering subtropical beauty of a national park, the road winds down into the big valley of Muang Sing. This region has the most different ethnicities of Laos, and is currently being discovered by travelers and nonprofits ...

11 July, 2010

Kamiel Choi

Butterfly children, Laos

May 19. Lao mores.

We cross the border without any difficulties. The Chinese authorities stamp exit in my passport and we walk to the Lao side, a shack with a line of waiting tourists in front of it. I study the government poster of do's and don'ts in Laos, learn about the status of the monks, the sad occurences ...

28 June, 2010

Kamiel Choi

Laos, Luang Namtha

May 18. Crossing into Laos.

We get up early to take what will be our penultimate Chinese bus to Mengla. It's still a long ride down, but when we finally reach the border town of Mohan, and are in sight of the border post, we high-five like two Elvisses leaving the building. However, the border is "closed" after five o'clock, ...

28 June, 2010

Kamiel Choi

bio-engineer, Laos, Mengla

May 17. Ordinary day.

Early morning we move to yet another town called Jinchang. We hope to get back to the main trail heading south towards the Laos-border. The road is beautiful again, and induces appetite for more.

We try to hitchhike here, but my stuck-out thumb is either not understood or all the drivers on the ...

28 June, 2010

Kamiel Choi

hitchhike, Jinchang, Laos

COPE Laos

COPE Laos, VientianeVientiane, Laos. June 2nd, 2010We visit the good museum at the COPE center and learn about the results of cluster bombs. COPE helps victims of "bombies" that are sadly still prolific in remote areas of Laos, to get a tailor made artificial leg.

We have donated four legs.

NameCOPE Laos, ...

9 June, 2010

Kamiel Choi

artificial leg, Asia, bombie, cluster bomb, clusterbomb, COPE, Laos, prosthesis, Vientiane

Peuan Mit

Vientiane, Laos. June 3th, 2010Peuan Mit ("strong friends") in Lao, supports former street children with vocational training. They run a restaurant themselves that serves delicious food.

We donate what we have left of our Lao KIP, following the suggestion of stayanotherday.org.

NamePeuan Mit through stay-another-day.orgAim
to reintegrate the children into their society ...

9 June, 2010

Kamiel Choi

Asia, children, Laos, Peuan Mit, restaurant, streetchildren, Vientiane

Butterflychildren

Muang Sing, Laos. May 20th - 23rd, 2010The butterfly children's center in Muang Sing, northern Laos, provides scholarships to children and functions as a drop-in center for underprivileged children.

We buy stationary for the center, do workshops with the children, and make a monetary donation.

NameButterfly Children Development Center and School, Muang ...

23 May, 2010

Kamiel Choi

Asia, butterflychildren, children, education, Laos, Muang Sing