Boun Awk Phanza Festival in Vientiane, Laos

I arrived in Vientiane on 19th October 2013 to a rousing sea of people celebrating the end of the month long Buddhist Lent (Boun Awk Phanza). In conjunction with this Lent, there is the Annual Dragon Boat Race Festival (Boun Xuang Heua) along the Mekong River, with its finals held on the 20th October 2013. Besides the boat race, there were beautiful floats sailing along the river complete with music, dancing and singing.

The Mekong riverside was transformed into a carnival site, completely occupied by stalls selling all kinds of everything from clothings, shoes, mobile phones, food, drinks and beverages, cosmetics, games stalls, and toys, etc, etc.

The crowd in town and at the Mekong riverside was just fantastic. I have not seen so many people in Vientiane before, seems like everyone living in Vientiane and other provinces are here. There were merry making - eating and drinking. I believe the air and sound pollution and the sales of the ever popular Beer Lao these few days must have sky-rocketed. People in Laos are easy going, friendly and always celebrating a happy occasion with good food with plenty of Beer Lao.  

I am very lucky that my work schedule in Vientiane this time coincided with this very important festival in Vientiane.

Vientiane Organic Products Market - Revisited

This morning I revisited the Vientiane Organic Products Market. I had posted on my first visit to this market and an organic farm when I was working in Vientiane, Laos in December 2012. In many developing countries, organic farming had not been very sustainable as it involves more risks compared to conventional farming. The major risks are related to pests and diseases management in compliance to organic certification requirements. Coupled with consumers unwillingness to pay premium prices for organic products, we do see many organic farming efforts being abandoned. In many cases, organic farmers are also constrained by a lack of market access for their produce. 

I arrived at about 8.00 am and the market was very active. Being alone there this time, I spent more time wondering around the market. There are many types of fresh organic vegetables and other products on sale. There are also many customers. I decided to buy some and found their prices are very reasonable for organic products.

With the continuous support by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in promoting organic farming in Laos, this organic market is still very active and doing well, with ample supply from the farmers practicing organic farming. This is an important initiative in strengthening the organic farming value chain in linking producers to the market and consumers. 

Green chillies

Baby brinjal (egg-plants)

Stalls of fresh organic produce

My support: I bought some of the organic products

Organic Mandarin Rice

Organic Black Rice

Ready mixed varieties of beans

Organic Red Beans

Organic Bananas

Honey from Nature Forest

Organic lettuce for my sandwich

Nice mangoes: very sweet

Turnips

Well organised market

Beautiful and Fresh

Lunch in Vientiane, Laos

I arrived in Vientiane, Laos on the morning of 17 March 2013 (Sunday). This is my 7th visit to Laos in 5 years. I started working in Laos in 2009 when I made 3 working visits, followed by 3 more visits in 2012. This is my first visit this year. I have always enjoyed working and visiting Laos. It is a pretty nice country to live in, with its friendly people. There is no "rush", although lately with its fast paced development there are more traffic in the city of Vientiane. I particularly have no problem with the food in Laos. There are a wide variety of local Lao food which I enjoyed, although at times it is a challenge to try some of the food that my Lao colleagues are always very keen for me savour whenever we go visiting the provinces. Each province have their own specialties. And I am always keen to try. 

In Vientiane, apart from the local Lao food, there are a mixture of Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese and western food. When I arrived on Sunday, I decided to go for my favourite Vietnamese fried spring rolls. As it was still quite early and I was not very hungry after having eaten in the airplane, I decided to have a take-away lunch set to eat in the hotel. It comes with 4 spring rolls and a generous serving of fresh salad. Instead of spring rolls, you can have BBQ sausages, which is also my favourite choice. My lunch set cost 18,000 Lao KIPs (USD2.20). 

Lunch set for one person

Fried spring rolls with fresh rice noodles

Fresh salad of lettuce, celery, basil and mint

Raw bean sprout, cili and slices of cucumber, gourd and garlic

Grounded peanuts and cili paste

Sweet sour honey sauce dip for the spring rolls

Back to My Morning Exercise Routine

After being away for 3 weeks, it is nice to be back to my daily routine back home. One of them is my morning walks in the park. Had been so busy working the whole day in Vientiane, Laos, I hardly had time to enjoy my morning nor evening walks on a regular basis like I do back home. This trip, I managed to go for my morning walks along the Mekong River on the two weekends I was there. The air is very fresh along the Mekong river in the morning, but it is too near the main road with traffic already exuding their fumes. During the weekdays, I managed to go for my evening walks for a few times around a small park facing my hotel. But the walk is not very pleasant with the exhaust fumes from the evening traffic.So, it is very nice to be back for my walk this morning at the TTDI Park. So very refreshing!! Something I missed and long for when I am away.

Nice pavement for walking exercises along the Mekong River

Small Park in front of my hotel room in the evening

Beautiful TTDI Park back home

Farewell Dinner, Leaving Vientiane

Times seems to fly by so fast and it is time to leave Vientiane again.

My 3rd consultancy mission to Lao PDR this year ends today and tomorrow morning I leave for home.

It has been an enjoyable and productive mission, working with very pleasant and professional officers here.

We have come to known each other very well and able to work very cohesively and professionally since 2009 to achieve our project goals. We still have a year to ago to complete the the project.

I am always happy to come here and also happy to leave for home.

We enjoyed a farewell dinner at a French restaurant, The Europe Steak House in Vientiane.

My Lao colleagues came with their families to bid farewell to me.

This is my second time dinning in this restaurant.

They serve delicious western cuisine like beef steak, lamb steak, pork steak, pizza and others.

The house bake buns are just fantastic, and there is always a request for more.

Wine is good here and so is the bill!

Will be back here soon early next year.

Will miss the familiar "Sa Bai Dee" greetings (welcome and how are you in Lao).

Kop Cai (Thank you in Lao) to all my Laotian friends for the lovely meal.

Me and my Lao friends and their families

Resort Concept Restaurant, Vientiane

I had an interesting experience eating lunch in a "Resort Concept Restaurant" in Vientiane yesterday afternoon on the way back from our visit to the organic vegetable farm. The restaurant is built around a lake, with individual "huts" for the privacy of the guests. This speciality "Resort Concept Restaurant" is fast catching up in Vientiane, with fishes swimming in the lake. The guests can buy fish food and feed the fishes while eating their lunch or dinner. The restaurant we went to is the Ngong Ngum Restaurant, near to Vientiane city. 

We had grilled talapia fish, spicy steamed talapia, fish soup, papaya salad (som thom), steamed sticky rice, fresh salads, wet noodles and grilled chicken eggs which was innovatively prepared. A small hole is made at the end of the egg. The egg white and yolk are than poured out. The egg is then beaten with pepper and salt and poured back into the egg shell. The eggs are then strung with a bamboo stick and grilled. Taste good and nice.

I am the guest, but I believe it is quite pricy eating at this place.

Individual "huts" built around the lake

Individual hut for privacy

Lunch spread

Grilled Talapia fish

Yummy

Spicy steamed talapia

Fresh salad

Papaya Salad (som thom)

Fish soup

Wet noodles, baby egg plant, sliced lemon grass, red onions, long beans, garlic

Grilled chicken eggs.

Grilled egg, no yolk?