Luang Prabang 1/25

In the morning I decided to visit the Ock Pop Tok weaving cooperative. They have a tuk tuk that takes you from their store in town to the village. There were three of us going – Trudi, a retired teacher from Lucerne, a young lawyer from New Zealand and me. It was interesting to see all the weaving and dyeing techniques and the setting of the place is quite beautiful – right on the Mekong. They also have a beautiful café and store and a small gallery. In the afternoon, Laurie, Florence and I went to see Rik’s botanical garden in progress. We first took a long tuk tuk ride to some village on the Mekong and then a boat ride to the other side of the river. There we met Rik, who gave us a tour of the garden. It has a lovely location on slope of a mountain overlooking the river. The garden has already been mapped out and some of the individual gardens started. There will be separate areas for an arboretum, a palm garden, a bamboo garden, gardens for medicinal plants, tintorial plants, herbs and spices, plants for elephants, etc. There will also be a children’s garden and demonstration gardens for farmers. It’s all in progress, but he needs more money for the next phase – putting in the irrigation system. What he has done so far and his vision for this place is really impressive. After the garden, a quick but highly successful trip to the night market where I bought a Hmong batik wall hanging, and a couple of silk pieces. And from there to dinner with Leslie from Pencils of Promise. It was not only delicious, but also very, very informative.