Scenes From Around Vientiane

These are some of the scenes that we see as we explore Vientiane and the surrounding area.

These children are planting and caring for a garden at a local neighborhood school.

One of our favorite restaurants in on a river where you order your food to eat as you go upstream and then float down stream on a 1 hour trip. 

Typical fruit vendor that can be seeen around town.

Local transportation that is called a Tuk-Tuk.  It's a motorcycle with seats build in the back.

We see more bicycle shops.  However, the rage is the "fixed gear" bike.  These sell for $250  to $300.  They are made in China and are bright colors and one size!

Pick out your cable connection.

The World Peace Gong was a gift from Indonesia.

This is a coffee shop owner who we met several years ago and likes to practice her English.  She invited us to sit down for typical Lao coffee.  It is made with strong coffee, sweetened condensed milk and coffeemate.  We pass her shop when walking or going to the fitness room at a local hotel.

A Trip to Nam Ngum Lake

The church that Kris attends took a Saturday trip to Nam Ngum Lake which generates electricity.  It was created by flooding an area that included 24 villages.  The persons were farmers, but now needed to learn fishing as a livelihood. It was a 2 hour bus trip to the dam and went to an island for a picnic for another 2 hours.  What appears as islands are the tops of mountains after the area was flooded.

Andy's 12th Birthday Party

For Andy's birthday, Mao started cooking outside at noon.  A friend came and began making spring rolls some of them were fried and some fresh.  The caterers brought a large tent which filled most of the front yard.  About 5:30 pm they came with the food.  We baked 2 cakes and decorated them on a basketball theme.  There were at least 60 people attending including family friends and school classmates.  The cliildren had pizza inside and adults ate outside.   Kris organized games for the kids with prizes.