It's a land of great beauty

17 February 2020
The mountains are beautiful, the people are beautiful, the sunsets are beautiful, even the brooms are beautiful!

The last couple of weeks have been peaceful but now we're gearing up for the return to the UK at the end of the month. We're slightly anxious about the risk of bringing Coronovirus with us. Laos hasn't had any cases yet but given the proximity to China and the large numbers of Chinese visitors it's inconceivable that the infection hasn't got here. And the journey through Bangkok is risky as well. We're considering whether we should self-isolate for a couple of weeks somewhere rather than go home to Ben and Ellie. Probably overly cautious. We will decide nearer the time.
In the mean time, we've done a few things - visited LEOT (Lao Educational Opportunities Trust) school to celebrate donations given by our friends in the UK, I've been to a mushroom-growing workshop, and we've been on a holiday-within-a-holiday up north to Nong Khiaw (next post).

Trevann organised some acoustic music events at a pub in Poole last year and raised over £600 to pay for two hand-washing stations for rural Lao schools. The project is being organised by LEOT, where our friend David works, and these are some of the older students.

I love the way the patterns on this snake are reflected in the temple artwork.

Temple offerings on sale in our local shop. They love their glitsy decorations. The single-use plastic message is slow to be taken up - but is getting there.

A lovely yellow frangipani.

Work on the flood defences over the river continue. They seem to scoop the stone out of the river and pour it into gabion cages. It looks a bit industrial at the moment but will quickly green over.

I had a tour of the Green Mango permaculture farm. Here's Patrick showing us the bunny-powered manure-production unit. They've found it to be much more efficient than just composting.

Squash and local corn growing well - although the land is terribly dry following 5 months of no rain.

This is the village mushroom hut, containing 1000 sawdust-filled bags from which the white oyster mushrooms emerge.

It's just a hut on the back of this lad's house. Wath speaks excellent English and showed us round the process. The villagers are Khmu hilltribe and - curiously - Christian.

Starting to crop.

Lindsay and Sufi from the US and I had a go at filling the bags and starting the culture.

Then lunch of course!

In the morning we walk 20 minutes to buy our breakfast baguettes from the woman on this street. On this day she was joined by a row of "dorkmai" sellers. Every temple celebration is accompanied by these conical marigold and banana leaf decorations

It was visa extension time so we trekked out to the new police and immigration headquarters in their smart new building on the edge of town.