A water buffalo named Susie Q

I got lazy with the blog posts there, what with all the biking, hiking, caving, swimming and such. We've finally got some nice weather. Super sunny and hot at mid day but chilly by 4:30 pm and still cold at night.  But sun enough to do some swimming and tubing and get some color which is really awesome.

We spent a week in Luang Prabang,  Laos eating and exploring. A favorite for me was The Living Land Farm where we found ourselves knee deep in mud in a rice paddy. Got a full on hands on experience including plowing behind a water buffalo named Susie Q, which is a lot harder then it looks. It's a working organic farm that produces enough sticky rice to feed eight families. An amazing set up and experience led by the owner, Laut Lee (a local which was refreshing to see). We learned how to choose the right grains, grow and transplant seedlings, harvest and threshing, sepating the rice from the husk and finally cooking. Along the way he also taught us blacksmithing to make the mini scythe for harvesting, how to squeeze out sugar cane juice and take a tour through his vegetable garden. All is all very fun and informative with delicious rice treats at the end. There are lots of things to make with rice!

Another highlight in Luang Prabang was finding Big Brother Mouse. They are local organization producing books both in Lao and English for kids and adults to increase literacy in their country. We grabbed two packs of books to leave as tips in restaurants and hotels and to hand out to kids in the villages. Often they run up asking for money and it was with great satisfaction that we saw the delight on their faces when we give them a book. One boy in particular was our favorite. He ran up with some sort of toy in his hands to show us. As he got nearer we saw it was a dead mouse in a house which he animated and danced for us. Quite a show really. We handed him and his buddy, who was a bit older, a book and his friend was immediately intrigued. Its pretty cool when it is understood that they can keep the book and you either get a big smile or they quickly run off. bigbrothermouse.com check it out.

Speaking of running off... so my dearly beloved wife and I set out for a hike up to one of the caves here in Vang Vieng the other morning. It's a beautiful morning and I'm quite excited about seeing another cave as they are quite stunning with all their stalagmites and stalactites and big caverns. Then I see a snake cross our out path in the bush and take off away from us. Beautiful with greens and oranges. I stop dead in my tracks and say calmly 'Stop,  back up.' I turn to tell Kimberly that there is a snake ahead of us and realize she is 200 ft down the path already!  Pure flight instinct and she says 'I'm out!' Looks back maybe once to see where I am but definitely abandoned the love of her life alone with whatever it was I had found (she doesn't know yet). I find her at the end of the path by the river, heart racing and completely done with hiking for the day. Needless to say I am laughing at her response and am still laughing as I tell you this story. We went tubing instead, it was lovely.