Op Pop Tock weaving and Laos food

Our second day in Laos was one of our favorites so far on this vacation! After getting up early and feeding the monks (as mentioned in the last blog), we returned to the hotel for breakfast and then headed off to the Tad Sae waterfall. We were supposed to go to the Khuang Sii waterfall which is much larger but the road to it was flooded. As a result of all the rain, the Tad Sae waterfall was beautiful. It was more like several stories of white water rapids with several bamboo bridges for climbing over it and above it. We dipped our feet in but were unwilling to swim (unlike the Australian group who jumped right in!) because it was a little chilly ;o) To get to and from the falls we had to take water taxis and we saw the endless beauty of Laos scenery along the way.

After the waterfalls we headed back into town to a silver shop where the owner carves his own wood and uses all silver mined in Laos. The shop was beautiful and the owner very knowledgeable. We had lunch at a delicious local restaurant and walked around a Chinese market for awhile.

Next we headed to the Op Pop Tock weaving center. Here we learned about how silk is made from the silk worm to boiling the cocoon to pulling the silk through a small hole in wood and winding it for silk. This is still done in parts of Laos but now most of their silk is imported from China. Once the silk is prepared it is died. The local Laos people use several local plants and woods for dying the silk; indigo leaves, tamarind, sappon tree bark, teak leaves and many other indigenous species. They also use aluminum to clean the silk and some other useful products like rusty nails, ashes and limestone paste. Our guide then showed us the different types of weaving and the looms, free standing and back looms, that native weavers use. We observed several women weaving in the shop. The designs they were doing were so intricate and it can take several weeks to finish just one scarf, if the design is difficult enough! The Op Pop Tock group (which means East meets West) was started by 2 women who wanted to give local Laos women a safe environment to practice their skill and a world market in which to sell it. After observing the women we met the head weaver and dyer, Mr Kim. He and our guide assisted us in each dying 3 skeins of silk. Shane did purple, blue and yellow while Sarah did blue, red and pink. We were cutting leaves, boiling, pounding with mortars and pestle, then dipping the silk in the dye, ringing it out and letting it dry in the sun. It was hard work and we were glad to only have to do 3 colors each! As our silk was drying our guide presented us with a plate of traditional Laotian foods as well as lemongrass tea, tamarind tea and hibiscus/lemongrass tea. All of it was delicious. The Laos food was very spicy. We had chili sauce, tomato dip resembling salsa, eggplant dip and another obscure green vegetable dip that we used rice cakes and dried riverweed (yes, seaweed from the Mekong river) to eat with. Also, dried buffalo meat, traditional Laos sausage and pickled bamboo. It was all very foreign but delicious!

That evening, continuing in our trend of eating at 1 completely local restaurant where no one speaks a word of English and the waitress stares at you until you order (this seems to be universal) we ate at a Lao bbq restaurant for our 3rd dinner in Luang Prabang. For approx $5 we received a pot of boiling chicken broth, placed over an open wood stove situated on our table with sides of raw chicken and fish, a basket of every vegetable imaginable, 2 eggs, garlic, chili peppers and ginger. Included in the meal was a pack of very sweet but clearly stray canines meandering about our feet for scraps falling through our chopsticks. We clearly looked like fools placing each item in the pot individually and were saved by a kind Laos waiter who came over and placed all of our food in the pot, mixing it, serving us and placing a dollop of peanut sauce on top. We topped if off with some slightly warm Lao beer and by the end of the dinner, Shane was literally soaked from head to toe with sweat from a combination of the ridiculous Asian humidity, the stifling open flame before his face, the 98 degree lao beer, and the massive amount of chile peppers he decided to add to his meal. But he loved every second of it! It was quite an experience, to say the least!