Anzac Day

Unsurprisingly there is no recognition of Anzac Day in Laos.

We decided on a visit to a rice farm. While it is patently obvious to most kiwis that rice comes in a box from Uncle Ben, there on the supermarket shelf alongside the porridge oats......however this isn't totally true. We travelled about 5kms out of town and were given a guided, "hands-on" tour of a working rice farm. It is a small project being run by 5 locals with the help of many others, where visitors can get down and dirty in the real work. We steered "Suzuki" (a 6 year old buffalo) through the puggy waters ploughing the land. We planted, harvested, threshed, ground, ate and drank everything to do with rice. It was a beaut day out and good to see some enterprising locals, very environmentally and socially aware but also including tourists in their venture. Anzac Day was a Friday and today, Saturday is a bit of a rest day in preparation for leaving Laos tomorrow and flying to Chiang Mai. Laos has been an interesting country to visit. In general the people are helpful and friendly, not many speak English but they are keen to learn. Many of the bright students that we have met waitering in the restaurants or hotels, are stuck in the poverty trap and can never see the day that they could earn enough money to be able to even visit their neighbour countries - that is the reality for them and that is very grounding for us who take so much for granted in our part of the world. It is hot, very hot at the moment, and the locals are waiting for rain...the temperature won't change much but the clouds are threatening at the end of each day. Time to move on.

 

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