Northern Laos vacation

Planet

Our local Laos agent has been operating socially and environmentally responsible trips to the country for many years and has a wealth of experience and expertise in the region. They have a strong responsible travel ethos and a realisation that tourism can change local lives for better and for worse. With this in mind our agents have established a responsible travel ethos creating authentic travel experiences which mutually benefit locals and visitors.

The Free the Bears Fund (FTB) is an Australian, not-for-profit organisation established with the sole purpose of helping to protect, preserve and enrich the lives of bears. In Laos, FTB works with the Luang Prabang Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Office and the Provincial Tourism Office to create a safe home for rescued bears that were illegally captured from the wild as young cubs. They are also lobbying against bear bile farms which are still legal in Laos. Visitors to Laos can visit the FTB education center and the bear sanctuary while also visiting the Kuang Si Waterfalls.

Kamu Lodge is located on the banks of the Mekong River, upstream from Luang Prabang and offers low-impact travel with an emphasis on ethnic interaction. Only accessible by boat, the lodge offers 20 safari tents each powered by solar panels providing interior electricity and hot water. The lodge recycles waste where possible and has a traditional filtration system to clean waste water.

Luang Say Lodge, located on the banks of the Mekong River, operates various sustainable practices including glass, aluminium and plastic recycling as well as an organic garden and composting system for garden waste to avoid the use of artificial pesticides. The lodge has installed their own sewerage system to avoid waste being dumped into the Mekong which has historically been the case and it also sources freshwater from mountain streams making it available to villagers aswell. The lodge has also applied for permission to plant indigenous teak trees on a section of riverbank denuded by logging practices and staff have helped build a small school and supplied it with books for the local schoolchildren.

People

On this trip you will stay in the Luangsay Lodge. Food served at the lodge is sourced locally and the lodge is staffed by mostly local villagers paying a significantly higher wage than is normal for the village. Staff are also offered regular training and English lessons. Lungsay Cruise stops at various small, local villages along the Mekong allowing guests to purchase handicrafts made by villagers. Donations are also made to the village temple and Lungsay cruise staff help clear the village of litter.

On this trip you will also stay in the Muang La Resort located in the far north of Laos near the very small village of Muang La. Lodge management approached the villagers and the village chief who consented for the lodge to be built in the area. Before this could be done certain development projects needed to be paid for and completed by the lodge including reinforcement of the riverbank to avoid flooding, maintenance of village roads and the construction of a public bath and bridge. These activities required the purchase of materials from the local village and the employment of villagers which helped inject funds into the community and of course the work itself was of great help to the villagers.
The resort employs over 30 people from the village in a variety of different roles and is committed to working with the village of Muang La on an on-going basis and on a number of different levels. They have developed one of the thermal springs near the resort so that they can use the water to fill the hot-water spas and at the same time give the villagers access to the hot water for bathing and washing their clothes. The resort has developed all of the activities that are offered to guests through consultation with the local village elders and have agreements in place with them: for example, they never take more than 8 people to a village so as to respect the integrity of the village and will not take guests if ceremonies or celebrations are taking place. The resort also works with the villages to provide support where they can, for example, they are working with two local villages to help build a school for the local children.

The Kamu Lodge is staffed almost entirely by local villagers who are fully trained in the field of customer services which will help them in future roles. The lodge covers healthcare for all staff and local villagers and their current project, in conjunction with local authorities, is to create a fully-equipped dispensary: Kamu lodge will build it and the authorities will provide a full-time nurse to treat patients and manage it.
For every guest who stays at the Kamu Lodge US$1 is contributed to the Village Development Fund, used as a rotating micro-credit service for the village. From these contributions, the school was recently renovated, US$2,000 coming from Kamu Lodge guest stays. In 2011, over US$52,000 was contributed to the village fund, 70% of which came from Kamu Lodge donations.

Fair salaries are paid to all employees and regular training is provided to support future career development. Only local guides who are aware of local customs and cultures are employed which not only keeps the funds paid to staff within the local community but also helps avoid any potential cultural clashes between visitors and locals. All guides are also required to sign an agreement with our ground agents agreeing not to take visitors in their charge to unplanned sites such as schools, orphanages etc or to ask for donations or tips. Guides are required to turn off vehicles when idling to minimise unnecessary emissions and where possible, eco-friendly modes of transport are opted for such as their collection of electric bikes used for Luang Prabang city tours.

Our ground agents support many local charities in Laos including the Traditional Arts and Ethnology Centre (TAEC) in Luang Prabang which is visited on this trip. The center is dedicated to the collection, preservation and interpretation of the traditional arts and lifestyles of the country’s many and diverse ethnic groups to help safeguard the regions heritage for future generations. The center has a permanent collection of ethnic artifacts from 30 ethnic groups and offers a fair-trade scheme for local artisans: on average 50% of the fair-trade shop income goes directly to the artists and provides over 500 families from ethnic groups in 12 separate provinces with an extra income.
Other charities financially supported in Laos by our local agents include MAG, the Mines Advisory Group. Laos has the unenviable record of being the most bombed country in the world per capita with at least 30% of bombs dropped remaining unexploded and thus still a huge threat to the lives of local people. MAG works hard to clear land of unexploded ordnance making it safe for use and opening it up to residents as farming land.
Alongside MAG, our local agents also support COPE, the Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise located in Vientiane. This is a locally run, not-for-profit organisation founded to help victims of unexploded ordnance with rehabilitation and the provision of orthotic and prosthetic devices.