Luang Namtha – Andrej and Karen Brummer

Thailand and Lao and Thailand again

The past few weeks we’ve been running back and forth between Lao and Thailand a lot.

Firstly we met our new staff Wilke and Sandor in Chiang Rai, for a welcome drink and catch up since we last spoke to them on Skype. They then continued on to Luang Namtha and were welcomed at Forest Retreat by Lindsey and Keala, while we spent a few more days in Thailand.

We then returned to Luang Namtha to meet up with Keith and Aleisha, a welcome surprise for us! We had no idea they were even in south east Asia, and got a cryptic text from Lindsey saying “Your brother in law’s brother has arrived to see you!” and by a process of elimination we figured it must be Sam’s brother Keith.

It was really, really nice to catch up with both Keith and Aleisha, we spent an evening catching up over dinner and then as it was their last night in town (after having spent a few days seeing all of the nature around here) we treated them to a Chinese disco experience…. and we all had a ball for a while and then decided that since they were catching a 7.30am tuk tuk to the bus station we better call it a night.

We spent some time yet again finding cool animals and watching many sunsets out in the rice paddies. Then it was time to farewell the amazing Keala, who has given us so much help over the past few months. We eagerly await her return next year!

We also spent time training new staff in the shop and working on Project Laos 2, and with so much happening here it turned out that we actually needed to go to Chiang Mai to source more stuff for the building.

So back to Thailand we headed, this time to visit some temples, trawl furniture and fittings stores, and eat at some of Chiang Mai’s awesome restaurants that we hadn’t tried yet.

After all of this we thought it was time for another break, so stopped at this amazing forest lodge half way in between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. We spent a few days surrounded by so many birds and trees, and managed to see 8 different species of bird just by sitting on our balcony. We also took bicycles out for a small amount of time, we didn’t get far before Karen’s ankle didn’t want to go further, so we returned and swam in the ginormous pool.

So another fairly action packed month again, and with the tourist season beginning and the eco-suites on the river progressing, it looks set to continue until our next proper holiday in November.

Cooking at our apartment Chiang Rai — Hanging in Chiang Rai

Cafe Hub Chiang Rai — Meeting Wilke and Sandor in Chiang Rai – can you see us?

Forest Retreat Laos — Thong at Keala’s leaving party

Nature in Luang Namtha — Dre always trying to catch new animals in the rice paddies

Luang Namtha's beautiful rice fields — Another day catching more insects in Luang Namtha

Rice fields Luang Namtha — So many spider webs

Temple Chiang Mai — Karen and one of our favourite temples

Trying new foods in Chiang Mai — Dre at a new restaurant in Chiang Mai

Suan Thip Vana Resort — Birdspotting on our balcony

Swimming at resort — Can you see Dre in the pool?

Nature loving in Chiang Mai — Chilling Out

An Eventful Few Weeks

We started off our time back in Luang Namtha exploring all of the new insects around the stupa, and taking our new friend Jonny around the place to show him some of our upcoming projects.

We have spent an increasing amount of time out in nature, appreciating the most stunning time of year. All sorts of animals can now be discovered out in the rice fields and jungle, amazing us yet again with the huge eco-system that develops when it rains, and when the rice grows.

The rice fields are especially interesting this year, as we have been able to literally see the rice grow from day to day. After our first week or so back in Luang Namtha, when it rained every day, we started to have nice sunny days again and so started to venture out back into the rice fields. Karen discovered that it is exceedingly hard ground for her to walk on, with it being very uneven, so we decided to make visiting the rice fields a daily activity to strengthen Karen’s leg, and with the added bonus of getting to see all the animals and sunset every day.

There are thousands of spiders each day faithfully extending and remaking their webs, and when the sun is almost about to set the entire fields light up with their webs stretching as far as the eye can see.

It was also time to re-surface the inside of the pizza oven with some new fire bricks that we bought back from Thailand. Dre also thought that it was time to render the bricks on the bottom of the pizza oven, and painted them also. The new bricks are working really well and the pizza is tasting even more awesome.

We took Korly out for dinner and Thong at a Chinese restaurant, which Korly was particularly excited about since she has only eaten food other than Lao food (and food in the shop) a couple of times in her life.

There are so many dragonflies and beetles around now. The other night we were driving to a restaurant and a giant beetle flew into Dre and then wouldn’t let his t-shirt go for about half an hour. The guy at the restaurant told Dre it would be better if he put the beetle back in nature but despite everyone there trying to prise the beetle off Dre’s shirt or hand it wouldn’t let go so we just let it chill out on his hand and then our table for the following hour while we ate.

We also welcomed Josh and Jillian to our team, joining us and Lindsey and Keala. They are the perfect fit for us to get to the next level and help more people in Luang Namtha. Now we’re heading to Thailand to buy supplies for Project Laos 2, and meet Wilke and Sandor, who are also joining our team in a few days time. Hooray for more people helping us help Luang Namtha!

Luang Namtha Culture — Lady coming back from fishing in the rice fields

Wildlife in Luang Namtha — Black Dragonfly

Nature at its best Luang Namtha — Bamboo and Rice

Luang Namtha river — River Ban Nam Ngaem

Ban Nam Ngeam Village, Luang Namtha — Kids hanging at the river

Forest Retreat Laos Luang Namtha — Karen and Korly

#1 Restaurant on TripAdvisor Luang Namtha — The new firebricks

The Start of Lent

We travelled back to Luang Namtha a bit short on time – we had to get back to meet Ryan, who wanted to check out Luang Namtha and Forest Retreat Laos because he is interested in coming to work with us.

We also wanted to be here for the start of Buddhist Lent, a lovely day where all Buddhists visit their temple and give food and money to support the temple and give to the monks entering Lent.

This also coincided with our 3 month anniversary since the accident, so we celebrated by taking Ryan, Lindsey and Keala to the Chinese disco and dancing until the music got so bad we had to leave.

We only managed 3 days back in Luang Namtha before heading back to Chiang Rai, to finish the stuff we didn’t get time for last time, and have a chance for some chill out time too.

Getting out and about again in Luang Namtha

Our return from Chiang Rai has seen Karen being able to walk around a bit and starting to increase her fitness walking around the town.

The rice fields are filled with huge birds that eat all the snails living in the water. With a wingspan of almost 2 metres, it’s awesome to watch them swirl on the air currents each time before it rains.

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One of the days we were driving around we saw this snake with a brightly coloured head on the road. It was light blue, white, yellow, red, green and grey around it’s head – beautiful. Also we saw this big moth, almost the size of Karen’s hand.

We headed out to one of the local villages we support, Ban Nam Ngaem, to buy some hand woven cloths made from cotton grown in the village and woven by women in the village. This is the same village that Forest Retreat and Stray will be building a handicraft centre in and sending tourists to for the women to sell their beautiful products.

On our last night we took Keala and Lindsey out for dinner at one of the local Lao BBQ hotpot restaurants. We had awesome fun and it was a cool way to round off this couple of weeks before heading back to Thailand.

Beautiful Luang Namtha

The past few weeks back in Luang Namtha have mainly been spent with Dre beginning to increase his fitness again and Karen learning how to walk again. Dre has been able to start running again in the past week and for the most part his leg is coping with it pretty well.

Karen is now walking reasonably well without her crutches, which are still needed to get up and down the stairs to our top floor apartment, and also in the evenings when her leg is tired and sore. In the past few weeks Karen’s exercises have increased a lot and her left leg is now almost back to its normal size and strength, with the exception of the ankle and heel which were most immobilised in the healing process.

It is now beginning to be the most beautiful time of year in Luang Namtha once again, with clear days and the rice fields all being planted and beginning to grow into their green expanse. It has also begun to rain – usually about half an hour a day, so it’s a much more pleasant temperature than super-hot April and May.

We are lucky we can see the sunrise and sunset from our house, and so have been lucky to see some incredibly beauty in Luang Namtha even without being able to leave the house very often.

There are huge numbers of birds now in the rice fields, and before it rains the circle on the currents over the town. There are also the cool and different insects coming to visit us again, this time of year really is the best here!

We have this week been able to go on our first 2 outings outside the shop and house – this has been harder than in Chiang Rai where there are smooth roads and smooth footpaths. Here the bumps in the road have meant that Karen has been limited to her 100-odd metre walking ability because going on the motorbike is too bumpy.

Even though we have been a bit limited in what we’ve been able to do, we’ve still had a really enjoyable time over the past few weeks and are both excited for the coming weeks when Karen will become crutches-free!

For Karen’s birthday we even managed to get out to the rice fields, prior to this it was too bumpy and there was no way we could walk out there with Karen’s mobility issues. We were really lucky though that for a few days before this there was no rain and Karen’s walking ability increased a fair bit, so we were able to slowly drive and then walk out to the middle of the fields and spent a bit of time admiring the views.

The girls in the shop made a gluten free cake and pizza and we had a pretty chilled evening too. Next stop is back to Thailand, to the northern mountains for some nature appreciation!

Muang Sing with James and Sam

James and Sam have been helping out at the shop for about 3 months now and over the busy high season we hadn’t had a chance to really hang out with them properly, so we decided some time away in Muang Sing was called for.

James and Sam hadn’t been there before, so it was the perfect way for us to all relax and for us to show them around some of the sights of Luang Namtha.

The week preceeding this Dre taught them both how to ride a scooter, and the 4 of us each took scooters individually around some places in Luang Namtha closer to home to get used to riding.

The journey was as beautiful as ever, and we decided that the order of the day once we arrived was getting crazy food from the Chinese supermarket, and pretty much just hanging out.

The following day we went to visit one of our favourite villages, an Ahka village high in the mountains that surround Muang Sing.

We arrived to find the kids trying to make paper darts (sadly out of their school textbooks, they had no pens or pencils to write in them so decided there was a better use for the paper – we made a note to take pencils next time we go). They were all running around trying to chase their darts and make new and improved versions, so using the pages already being used for darts, Dre showed them some alternative dart designs and they all giggled and ran around with delight testing out their new model darts.

It also seems to be coming into butterfly season again, as we saw many around the place and clusters of them once again drinking the nutrients from the ground.

It was really cool to have some proper time out with James and Sam who have been so much help over the past few months. We really hope that after they leave Luang Namtha to continue their travels we can meet up with them again somewhere.

Life in ethnic minority village northern Laos

Luang Namtha with Tim

Tim’s second visit to Luang Namtha was pretty low key since we’d all just had the Mae Hong Son Loop adventure. So for the most part we hung out eating pizza and drinking Gin and Tonics!

We decided to do an overnight trip to Boten, on the Chinese border (a different location than the Muang Sing border). We had been up there with Karen’s parents and decided it would be a cool place to stay the night at some point.

We found a pretty nice hotel to stay in that had nice views of the jungle and explored the town. It’s amazing that such a place exists, with huge brand new apartment buildings that have never been lived in. We managed to find a good noodle soup place for an afternoon snack, and a Chinese restaurant for dinner so we were sorted.

Spending time admiring the views from the temple was fun too, and Tim’s time here passed so fast that we were soon saying goodbye as Tim headed back to Thailand to fly back to NZ.

Pizza at Forest Retreat Laos Luang Namtha

Katie and Nicole’s visit

A few days before Katie and Nicole arrived, we unexpectedly received an email from our NZ friend Katie saying she was in south east Asia and would love to come and visit us! We were really excited to see Katie, who we probably haven’t seen for about 8-9 years. We worked out that we probably saw each other last time in London, when Katie was living there and we were travelling in Europe.

Katie and Nicole fitted into our Lao lifestyle really well, going out kayaking and trekking in the jungle, riding around with us on motorbikes and having loads of fun.

It was great that Nicole owned a motorbike back in Australia, because it meant that driving on some of the crazy Lao roads wasn’t an issue for her and so we could go some really cool places.

Nicole decided she wanted to go to the Kao Rao caves on her birthday, so we took Katie, Nicole, Lizzie and Alex out to see the caves, and had a very enjoyable day out followed by many cocktails afterwards.

It was awesome to catch up with Katie after all these years and to meet Nicole, so much so that we’re hoping to convince them to come back and help us in Luang Namtha for a while…. we’ll see what happens!

Snakes & Sunsets

It’s been the month for seeing snakes. First we saw a baby snake just a few metres from the shop, it had a cool pink belly and Dre and Alex played with it for a while. Only a day or two later, we walked down to the river and saw a big black and white snake, about a metre long and fairly fat. It was hissing at us and Karen was trying to encourage Dre to stop trying to touch it, when it arched up and we thought it was going for us; it had other ideas though and bailed into the river.

Not long after that, we also saw another black snake on the road when we were riding past.

We’ve been having a lot more sunset time and chill out time as we now have 4 westerners running the shop for us! This has been so awesome because we’ve been able to finally concentrate on some other projects here and have some down time too. Alex, Lizzie, James and Sam are doing an awesome job for us in the shop and it’s nice to go in as a customer sometimes now!

The rice fields are as always stunningly beautiful, and we are starting to look forward to the new plantings and everything being green again. We’re off for a bit of R&R in Thailand now; this time for a holiday now that the supply run is taken care of by everyone else. :-)

Happy New Year

2013 has gotten off to an awesome start! We saw in the new year with a fun party at Forest Retreat Laos where we danced the night away. Our first westerner Alex started helping us in the shop and we have our second person Lizzie coming this week so we are stoked to have more hands on deck.

We have opened upstairs and customers are loving the comfy lounge suites and balcony up there. It’s so awesome to have so many long standing projects being finished and being able to enjoy them!

Luang Namtha is so beautiful in the afternoons and evenings at this time of year and we’ve taken advantage of this by spending time out watching sunsets and exploring.

We have been working with Thong to set up many new initiatives for some small ethnic minority villages here and yesterday spent the whole day out at Ban Sin Oudom, a Tai Lue tribe who live on the Nam Tha riverbank across from the jungle in the Nam Ha NPA.

We have helped them to start a village homestay, as well as make 3 new trekking trails with a jungle hut and river hut also. It was so cool to see the villagers super excited to be a part of the eco-tourism project in Luang Namtha and see them begin to reap the rewards. Yesterday marked the official opening of the trail and huts so the villagers held a lunch of freshly caught river fish, river weed, vegetables grown in their garden and sticky rice. We saw a 13 year old girl walk into the village after collecting plants to make brooms from the jungle and Karen tried to pick it up and couldn’t even lift it to her head (the carrying method) despite using all her strength. These girls are so tough!

We also had a party at the Chinese disco to welcome Alex to the shop. Over the coming weeks we have plenty of things planned so will update again soon.