The Banks of the Chao Praya River

Back to the crowds, traffic, hip culture, and rampant capitalism of Bangkok. We're "slumming it" on the top floor of the Oriental Hotel on the banks of the Chao Praya River - Bangkok's water highway for transportation and commerce. Downstream of us is the Shangri-La Hotel (where we stayed in 2004 and 2005), upstream is the Royal Orchid Sheraton (where we stayed in 1988), and right across the river are the Peninsula Hotel and the Millenium Hilton.

YES, we now have Caren's famous missing luggage in our possession.

This AM in Luang Prabang we visited a small firm that is writing, printing, and distributing children's books to Lao school children. Its name is Big Brother Mouse. What you may think would be easy, is not. The concept of reading for enjoyment is totally absent in modern Laos. No books exist for children to read other than a few textbooks they share in school. Merely translating Western children's books doesn't work because of the cultural differences. Books need to be written and illustrated for the Lao children to relate to. This firm now has about 30 books in print and has been distributing them since last December. It is an incredibly complex task to get books in the hands of children living in villages scattered throughout Laos. This group is trying to change that, but it is fledgling right now.

We also visited a village weaving workshop where they make beautiful scarves, table runners, place mats, shirts, skirts, and other decorative textiles. It takes a woman 2+ weeks to make one long scarf and they sell it for USD$7-$16 depending on the size.

Luang Prabang has a lot of tourists, but it is far from being overrun like many resort areas in Thailand. There are no large hotels here yet - mostly guest houses, hostels, and small boutique hotels. If and when a big hotel chain moves in, this place will dramatically change, probably for the worse.

Tomorrow (Friday) we can chill out in Bangkok and then we fly out to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. More to follow (maybe some pictures?) when we have some downtime or reach Cambodia.