Luang Prabang, Laos

It has been so long since I publish anything in my blog! I am so grateful that 2019 has so far been so amazing, and Laos is a new country finally added to my travel list. It is always exciting to see someplace unknown and lucky me, I was able to visit Luang Prabang (LP) on a fully-funded trip by YSEALI.

A little background information, YSEALI is a Young Southeast Asian Leaders Initiative which is a project launched in 2013 as the United State government’s signature program to strengthen leadership development and networking in Southeast Asia. You can find out more about YSEALI at their website: https://asean.usmission.gov/yseali/.

YSEALI has 4 main programmes and one of it the YSEALI Regional Workshop - in which it was my first time attending in LP. Long story short, I have applied to at least 2 other regional workshops previously (if I am not mistaken were in Indonesia and Myanmar) but unfortunately my applications were rejected. I was upset about not being able to get to Myanmar (the last 2 remaining ASEAN nations that I have not been to! The other one is Timor-Leste) but hey, LP is so freaking incredible and I could not have asked for a better opportunity! Sometimes you got rejected, just so that you can get the bigger slice of the bread ;)

My experience with YSEALI is one of the reasons why I started this blog in the first place. I spent 6 weeks in the US under the YSEALI Academic Fellowship Program in April 2018. And now, I am going to share about another YSEALI experience attending the regional workshop on Eco and Sustainable Tourism in Luang Prabang, Laos.

It is always in my passion and interest to keep learning and growing so I constantly look for opportunities like YSEALI programs. I had to prepare an application video 3-4 minutes addressing questions as quoted, “Discuss your opinion about the ecotourism industry - what good and bad practices have you seen in your country? Then please describe your potential to implement a socially responsible eco-tourism initiative in your community and how it could generate a sustained income for local residents. Please present your own critical perspectives on the subject.” I guess if you need an example, you can see my video application down below (I was shy but I wanted to get in so bad!):

On top of this, we are required to answer several written questions too. In the end, only 2 Bruneians were selected and the other 48 participants come from the rest of the ASEAN countries and Timor-Leste. It was myself and Dr Shirley from the University of Brunei Darussalam.

In a nutshell, the project brief as quoted from The Asia Foundation website summarises my experience attending the workshop: “The Workshop will showcase innovative approaches to sustainable tourism and socially responsible business practices through field visits to successful small and medium ecotourism enterprises, and allow young innovators and entrepreneurs from across ASEAN and Timor-Leste to connect with each other and with participating experts. Throughout the Workshop, participants will showcase projects, receive mentorship, explore opportunities to expand their work, exchange ideas on how to foster sustainable and socially responsible tourism initiatives in their communities, and find avenues for building sustained economic development in their communities. The Workshop is supported by the U.S. Department of State and implemented by The Asia Foundation.”

Now the formalities are covered, let’s get personal!

Time to reflect on my trip to this beautiful boutique tourism destination - Luang Prabang, Laos.

I actually almost did not make this trip.

At that time, I was working in Thailand and I did not have enough 6 months validity on my passport to enter another country. I had to apply for a new passport at the Brunei Embassy in Bangkok. It was rather easy, I pretty much got it done online (downloaded the form and instructions) posted the documents by mail, and bank transfer for the fees. I did not have to send my passport to Bangkok either and was told to keep it with me. I waited for at least 6 weeks and the workshop date in LP was approaching, fast. The Brunei Embassy in Bangkok is so amazing because they tried their best to get my new passport from Brunei to Bangkok on the day of my flight to Laos. The Embassy literally drove my new passport to the Suvarnabhumi Airport on the morning as I was transiting for my flight to LP (I was flying Phuket to Bangkok to LP). I made sure the transit time is long enough so I could get my new passport on time. Suvarnabhumi Airport was so helpful as well - they transferred my Thai work visa onto my new passport and I made the re-entry permit (1,000 thb) so I could enter Thailand from Laos using the same work visa.

I only had to miss the first day of the workshop because of this. So it was sweet!

Anyway, I was so glad when I made it to Laos with my new, shiny passport. I was greeted by a designated driver from Le Bel Air Resort and it was just me, of course arriving late in style. LP is not big, so it took just 10 minutes to reach the resort. I felt like a VIP really (boujee af....), and especially the resort looked damn expensive. I checked in, and I heard some noises at the main hall downstairs so I assumed those are my other 49 friends from ASEAN. I registered with The Asia Foundation, got my workshop goodies and a shirt for a quick group photo with everyone else for a welcoming “Baci” ceremony.

Already from the start, I am experiencing the Laotian culture through music, dance, language, traditional ritual by wearing their scarf on my shoulder and tied white thread (blessed) by the elders and friends from the workshop. Wow. I thought, this is in-your-face a full tourism experience! I have not even got into my room and unpacked my things yet!

So I met some friends, particularly my group - Tony (Indonesia), Lanoy (Laos), Raf (Philippines) and Rhon (Malaysia) - assigned to spend the rest of the workshop being stuck to each other, yay! No, just kidding. I absolutely enjoyed every moment spent with them! There are also plenty of times where participants at the workshop is grouped with other individuals of similar interests, or just to mingle around. I find it amazing how broad the stories and background of each participant are, as the age range is 18 to 35 years old. There are tourism professionals, teachers, entrepreneurs, tour guides, government officials, students, bloggers, etc amongst the participants. Everyone is so friendly! People in the tourism sector has to. You are to talk to people, to share your experiences and to learn more about their countries. Heck, my first paid job was a tour guide! So I felt that it was very easy to communicate with everyone from the workshop. Also, this is YSEALI: You will meet individuals who are very inspiring, bright and promising leaders within their communities.

I always value the experience I had with the people more than the places I visited.

And this is true for my trip to Luang Prabang.

Speaking of places, the first one I had to put forward is the experience of staying at the 4-star colonial style resort set on the riverbank of the Nam Khan River, Le Bel Air Resort. I do not think that I have ever stayed in a resort this stunning (other than that sponsored 9-night stay at Pimalai Resort, Koh Lanta). It is not a big resort but it is so, so beautiful and is strategically located by the river. You can take a dip in the swimming pool and enjoy the stunning sunset. They provided us with free use of the city bikes and it took us just 15-20 minutes to get to the center of LP.

Another awesome thing about this resort is how green and responsible they are! This is hard not to notice that the rooms are avoided from plastic single-use items. They are using reusable glass bottles for your water and paper packaging for the toiletries. Moreover, whenever they are serving us packed lunches they made sure it is all in a compostable container + compostable cutlery placed in recycled paper bags. This is amazing. Also, they tried to support local, responsible, organic farming (one of the speakers to the workshop, his name is Ken Pitsapheng) and bought their supplies of vegetables through Ken. Everyone is given a reusable bottle of Trash Hero Laos for refilling + bamboo straws as one of the goodies.

One of the activities planned for the workshop is called “Tiger Tracks” that ran for 3 mornings. We were to explore LP independently with our groups, with options such as by bike or van, cash given at hand and instructions such as questions of the site visited and suggested time. It felt almost like an Amazing Race, but not really. It was not a race, but we do need to keep up with the time given and to learn as much as we can from the sites visited.

Man, did we covered a lot!

Day 1: Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre, Ma Te Sai, Ock Pop Tock: Living Crafts Centre, Mount Phousi and Vat Xieng Thong.

Day 2: Pottery House Laos Food, Xieng Men Village, Green Jungle Park, Mekong River.

Day 3: Laos Buffalo Dairy, Kuang Si Butterfly Park, Kuang Si Waterfall and Free the Bears.

(Our team started with the Day 3 tracks, followed by Day 1 and 2).

I will highlight some of the key places that I found to be unique and memorable.

First up: Kuang Si Waterfall!

"Tat Kuang Si" is the amalgamation of the words "Waterfall", "Deer" and "Dig". Legend has it that a wise old man dig ("Si") deep into the earth to reveal the waters of Nam Si. A beautiful golden deer ("Kuang") hangs around the area afterwards. Hence the waterfall ("Tat") got its name. This waterfall is so dreamlike and almost magical. No, I am not even sugarcoating this. What makes it unique, is the BLUE colour! Its incredible blue water is because of the high calcium carbonate content of the bed, making it looked white and reflected the water to look so blue. If you have the chance in your life to visit Laos, you need to witness this beauty. I thought that there will be hundreds of tourists but no: there are plenty of spaces for you to enjoy the stream and even jump in! We did not have time to get wet as we had to visit other places nearby such as Free the Bears, and butterfly park.

I love how the park manages their wastes through separation and provision of recycling bins. They also have some info boards to tell the story of Kuang Si waterfall and their unique flora and fauna. The pathway is well maintained and labelled well.

Just after Kuang Si Waterfall we walked into Free the Bears.

This is a honey/sun bear sanctuary where rescued honey bears are kept. If you have not known already, honey bear is considered an exotic pet as well as its bile juice which is considered as chinese medicine to treat liver and gallbladder conditions. This sanctuary is run by a not-for-profit organisation called ‘Free the Bears’ and if you would like to help or find out more about it you can check out their website at https://freethebears.org/

Then, we took a short ride nearby to visit the Kuang Si Butterfly Park. 

This is a park built by a Dutch couple in 2014 aiming to teach school children and visitors about the awareness and to appreciate the beauty of nature, and butterflies. To me, a visit to this place is a small group, close-up and personal experience with Olaf - our guide and founder of the park. He tried to develop the park using the natural features on the gentle hill slope. There was a flowing stream in the middle of the park where he could always get a constant, clean water supply for his fish pond and to create enough coolness for the enclosed butterfly cage. He is able to keep the operation cost minimal by having international volunteers staying at his park to work, while providing free accommodation and food.

A visit to the Laos Buffalo Dairy Farm is a fun one! We got to play with bunnies, tasted a buffalo milk ice cream and mozarella cheese! The concept of this establishment is to act as a social enterprise for the local community. They rent buffaloes from the local farmers (when buffaloes are not used to farm), and obtain the milk. They also provide vet services such as vaccination and birth procedures.

The following day was refreshing because we got to ride the city bike to explore the city center! 

Luang Prabang really felt like a town frozen in time. They preserved as much as they can and even made regulation such as not allowing big tourist buses within the city center to avoid congestion. I felt safe cycling on the road, as the road users were very tolerant and safe. The city doesn’t have a designated lane for cyclists but it was alright.

Other social enterprises that we visited emphasised greatly on having tourists to experience their culture through weaving, homestay experience while interacting with the local community. So we actually learned a lot about what a ‘real’ eco and sustainable tourism is. The city is very green (if you go to a bar, they will serve you drinks with bamboo straws!), clean, unique, peaceful and safe. Yes, there were big groups of Chinese tourists at the temple but it was not too much compared to the many other famous cities in ASEAN. And this to me, is such a perfect escape destination.

On a side note, I did not know that Laos is one of the world’s few remaining communist states. I was surprised to see the Communist flags when I first arrived. I tried to understand how the country is like, and what living in Laos is like, by having some conversation with Laotian participants. France was a protectorate to Laos for a long time so many of the preserved heritage building is french-colonial architecture style.

Also, I notice that Laotian can understand Thai, to an extend. Such as the numbers. So this comes handy as I was buying some things on the street market!

So to summarise, my number one takeaway from visiting Laos and participated in the YSEALI regional workshop on Eco and Sustainable Tourism is that:

Luang Prabang is a very good place to have an experiential learning as there are a lot of sustainability and nature incorporated into the tourism of the city. For example, the resort where we were staying for the workshop (Le Bel Air Resort) is fully environmentally-aware and is careful such as providing water in reusable glass bottles in the rooms, degradable packaging for toothbrushes and packed lunches. We were also provided a map of Trash Hero Laos, in which we can locate water filling stations all around town. A visit to the night market showed plenty of products made from natural material - such as bamboo straws, bamboo shirts and bamboo handbags. Having 50 participants coming from all across ASEAN is very inspiring to learn more from each other. Some of us were already social entrepreneur focusing on sustainable tourism in their own region. I feel that this workshop helped to improve networking between ASEAN young leaders and nurture future partnership.

Thank you YSEALI and Luang Prabang, Laos for this incredible time! There is so much to write but I will stop here. It is hard to capture everything in one blog post but I truly did had an awesome experience in LP.