Laos 2013

As they've done for the past three years, my parents came for October break this year and we were off the Laos.  We didn't really know what to expect of Laos, but only knew that it was sandwiched between Vietnam, Cambodia, and Thailand.  It also borders China and Myanmar (Burma), but in my head I always lump it in with the first three kind of like I think of the Scandinavian countries of Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark.  Laos ended up exceeding all expectation (or lack thereof) and we had a great time.  I highly, highly recommend visiting this beautiful country.

We started by flying into the capital of Vientiane and doing a half day tour of the city.  The boys weren't thrilled that we had to visit temples (Cambodia scarred them for life on visiting temples), but there were only three and they were all quick.  We also visited the COPE museum/rehab center which is just that a rehab facility for the victims of land mines, but they also have a small museum and gift shop where 100% of the proceeds go to supporting COPE's projects in Laos.

From Vientiane we flew up to Luang Prabang which was Laos's former royal capital.  It's now a Unesco World Heritage city and just beautiful!  We shopped like mad at their night market, bathed elephants, swam in waterfalls, visited local villages, got up early to watch the local people gives alms to the monks, learned about Asiatic Black Bear poaching, boated up the Mekong and stayed in a tent in the forest, rode in a ton of tuk-tuks, learned about the religions of Laos (Animism and Buddhism).  The boys learned how to shoot crossbows, plant rice, and net fish.  It was an amazing, amazing trip and now I want to go back and explore the south part of Laos.

Warning - lots of pictures and I had a hard time whittling them down:

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Just a few notes I wanted to jot down for my own memory and that of my boys and parents.  I'll probably update this as I remember things, so if you get a notice of the blog being updated, that's all it is.

- Laos is home to people of three ethnicities...Lao, Hmong, and Khmer.  They speak different languages and worship differently.

- Laos is communist...did not know that!

- There are two main religions: Buddhism and Animism

- It was ruled by the French from 1893-1954 and it's clear in the architecture

- Although polygamy is illegal, it's still very common

- Per Wikipedia: As of 2008, Laos is the most heavily bombed country, per capita, in the world. An average of one B-52 bomb-load was dropped on Laos every eight minutes, 24-hours-a-day, between 1964 and 1973.