31 mar to 3 apr 2008, Vang Vieng Organic Farm in Phoudindaeng

join the locals for a ride...

zzzz

"organic" piglets in the farm. wahaha...

organic vegetables

Namsong river - many people do tubing here whereby you sit on a rubber tyre and the river current will bring you to the town which is 3 km away

we eat this twice a day cos it's the main course on the menu.
organic fried rice - 12,000kip (= sgd 2)

frequent bus schedule onward to Vientiane. take a bus instead of a pick up cos it drops you 10km outside the town area.

so far, this is the place that i liked most in Laos. i really adore Mr Thi, the owner of this farm. he and his wife were very humble people. they work all day and if you dont ask, you will not know that they are the owners. they are very hands-on and looked like any of the workers hired there.

Mr Thi has the spirit that most people might not have. he does his best to fund the schools there so that children can learn english. they have a school bus contributed by the koreans to improve the school attendance.

while staying with them, one can easily get started with volunteering. you can help in building mud brick houses, teach english, feed the pigs and goats, farm and field work for the crops or help out in their fruit juice bar. there was one night we went to the english youth centre to assist the youths in learning english for one hour. they were so keen in learning that i have to say that i got confused with the use of some of the words myself until the main teacher corrected us. hehe...

on another afternoon, i dragged sk with me to do some weeding for the vegetables at the farm. although he had always prefered feeding and playing with the animals, i think he did enjoy the results after we finished weeding for the asparagus crop.

when asked about organic farming, Mr Thi said that it is not difficult to start organic farming and that it would be good if more people can practise that. to keep pests away, lizards, birds and toads will do the job. Mr Thi also grew some plants in between the crops which keep pests away.
he says that pests can never be eliminated totally. there will always be some damage done but so long as the harvest is enough for consumption, there is no need to worry too much about the damage.

i would highly recommend anyone who is interested in organic farming to come stay with them. it cost around 30,000 kip per night (SGD4) to stay in a dorm. they have single or double rooms too and it's just 3hours bus ride away from Vientiane.