5. Pang Term and the Organic farm – 25.02 – 17.03.2008

After leaving the Elephant Natural Park, we spent a few more days in Thailand – not in one of the sunny sandy beaches of the south but in a small remote village of Chiang Mai area: Pang Term.

We spent 3 days there, in the temple of Chinnaworm. Chinaworm is a monk that opens its temple to any traveler willing to spend time together and eventually to find the way to the freedom of mind through meditation. We didn’t achieve it but we had a nice time cooking, helping in the building of a new house (in mud bricks of course; we started to be expert now…) and walking in the peaceful valley.

On 29th of Feb we left the temple at 11 am for 30 hours trip till the Organic farm in Laos, our next stop in Asia. First by foot for the first hour, then by hitch-hick at the back of a pick-up, overnight by bus, by train to the boarder, by tuk-tuk, by sangthaew, by bus again and finally by foot down the road till the farm.

We had pleasant 2 weeks at the farm. Vesi and Des were with us, Nina was expecting her sister since she left Bulgaria. We spent our days working on the farm, biking in the surroundings, swimming in the river, feeding the animals of the farm.

The Organic farm is run by Mr. T, a unique character. He moved from his office in the capital Ventiane 12 years ago and decided to give a new direction to his life. Since then he slowly built up the mulberry organic farm. There, introducing organic methods, he is growing vegetables and essentially mulberry tree – the magic tree from which the leaves are collected to produce mulberry green tea, to feed the goats, to feed the silk worms that produce silk. From the fruits of the tree they are also making wonderful mulberry shakes. Volunteers join the farm to help looking after the animals, building new houses and other tasks in the farm. We were one of them for 2 weeks.

Before 7am, while the kids were still sleeping, we were already at work with Mr Pai (responsible for the goats). He speaks as much English as we speak Lao but we always managed to understand each other and it was a pleasure to work with him – always skipping from one place to the other with a smile on his face. We had to clean the goat sheds, feed the adults goats, milk the females (Nina even tried to milk the man), feed the babies goats (there were 5 baby goats when we arrived and 6 new babies were just born during our stay). Just after that it was time to feed the little baby pigs... and after you have to feed the baby goats at 1pm and then the pigs and then the goats again... In fact we were spending half of the day with animals. Maybe we change into farmers back in Bulgaria… Anyway the kids already planned to have 15 different animal each so .... The rest of the day, each of us was busy in his way: Damien was building a new mud house, Nina and Vessy were working hard in the garden, cleaning the weeds (the first day in fact…; the following were mostly spent at the terrace of the farm drinking mulberry shake), the kids were working hard on travel books and homework and Des was preparing his evening English lessons. All of us tried to teach English to the poor Lao kids...

In the farm we met volunteer coming from all over the world but we had also nice time with Lao people: the kids of the village, the students of the English lessons, the local people working in the farm. Lao people reminds us Cambodian people – very nice, very peaceful and smiling all the time.

We didn’t spent so much time in Vang Vieng, the miserable nearby city, but we enjoyed biking in the beautiful countryside on the dusty stony roads – between the karts formation, the blue-green river…

We are now in Luang Phrabang, the former capital of Laos. Our clothes are still smelling the delicate perfume of the goats and it reminds us the nice time in the farm.

Bye for now... and keep reading!!! 

Comments

[cecile+yann]

salut les petits loups
you seems to have a good time, even if it s bit "spartiat" schedule!!
here, in france, spring is coming , under the snow at easter!
i m in burgundy for a week, very beautiful region ....
dont forget eating, it s seems to me that the whole family is getting thiner ...
enjoy
cecile

[Etienne]

I hope that the Lao's style did encounter the Stockos' style on the football field.

Nice to see that everyone is doing fine and enjoying themselves!!

All the best