Some People We've Met In Laos

Here are some folks we met in Laos.

Jamie and Patrick are two Canadians from Vancouver who claim that some friends left before we came and that was why there were so many empty beer bottles at their table.



This is Enrica, one of the Italians we met at the Vientiane Airport who works in Guangzhou, China. We stayed at the Sayo Guest House in Luang Prabang and learned a lot about the textile industry in China, about Turin and Italy. There's a darker picture of Enrica and Cristina on Phousi Hill at sunset. Cristina is also an Italian working in China - Frank, you should contact her. Her Chinese is very good. She's in Beijing. I don't seem to have another picture of her.




We met Thong Souk on our bike ride in Luang Prabang. When we were about to give up on finding the grave of the French explorer, we stopped at a little shop (See the mother and son in a previous post). Thong spoke pretty good English for a guy in a small village outside of LP. He took me over to see the school and then to see his house.






Phonesvan is the Laotion educator I wrote about in a previous post. We taped some of our conversation with her about her work to help kids in the LP area get better education. She's the U of Hawaii graduate.




Here are two more Vancouver guys. These two are law students at University of British Columbia on a semester exchange at Hong Kong University. We met them at the vegie buffet table in Luang Prabang






Tetsugi and Machiko Tosa are two young Japanese we met at the airport in Vientiane and did things with them until yesterday - including the two days in the slow boat up the Mekong. He's a plumber and she was a cell phone salesperson. They quit their jobs and have finished their first month of traveling. After SE Asia and India and Nepal, they want to go to Peru! We hope they'll find their way to Alaska.







This woman was weaving in shop at the weaving village of Ban Panom when we were on our bike ride in Luang Prabang. There was something about her - we connected and bought several scarves she had woven.







Edwin and Yvonne are biking. They've been thru Cambodia and Laos. We were on the slow boat up the Mekong with them. They work in Rotterdam for a social service agency that builds and maintains housing for the poor.


This monk is training at the Wat across the street from our Guest House in Luang Prabang. The Wat has money from UNESCO and New Zealand to train monks in the various skills - wood carving, sculpting, painting, etc. necessary to maintain the temples in the area. At the work table there was also a farang monk. He had gone to Luang Prabang when he was 16 and studying at the international school in Bangkok - about the same time I was teaching in Kamphaengphet. His kids have all grown up and now he's become a monk here in Luang Prabang. My monk friend was delighted to be able to talk to a foreigner in Thai, but we weren't able to talk too long.