Vegan tour in Laos

Planet

Wildlife:
We are against the exploitation of animals in any form, and do not use animals on our tours for rides or safaris and no visit to zoos or “animal parks”. A founding principle was and is to create 100% cruelty-free travel experiences in which no living beings (human or animal) is exploited in any way.

On each of our adventures, we always include an opportunity to help out at grassroots humanitarian projects, animal rescues, and wildlife protection and conservation organizations. On this Laos Adventure, we visit one of the Free the Bear Center. Free the Bear is an organization that has been in the frontline of educating the community about the plight of the bears and also working with the country's lawmakers to create a law to legally protect the Asiatic Bears.

Travelers are also provided with relevant suggestions to minimize damage to the environment, wildlife, and ecosystems during our Orientation Meeting and also throughout the tour.

Environment:
Being 100% Vegan tours, we minimize our detrimental impact on the environments, and other living beings. Animals agriculture produces more greenhouse gases than all transportation in the world combined. By providing only vegan foods, with every single one of our meals and/or snacks, we reduce our environmental impact by 84% compared to those non-vegan tours.

Water
Water is an important issue on our trips. Due to the humidity and our active styled trip, it is very important that all guests stay hydrated. Whenever possible, we provide a large water container as a safe alternative source of water to buying single-use plastic bottles.

People

Activity, Local Craft and Culture:
All our activities are created with cultural immersions in mind. Guests have plenty of opportunities to connect with local people through our activities and places we stay at. We provided guests with a daily language lesson and actively created dialogues, providing insight into the local custom and culture, which we believe help creates a positive experience for both our guests and the local people.

Besides learning about the social aspect of Laotian, the guest is introduced to the religious aspects, through dialogues, Q & A, visiting local temples, church, and holy sites. Guests are introduced to (and invited to join) a Baci ceremony, which is a traditional ceremony marking special events such as good luck for the trip, marriage, and birthday.

Guests are encouraged to visit the local market when looking for souvenirs, and purchase souvenirs from local artisan and vendors. There are many handmade arts and crafts that can be purchased directly from the artist in Vientiane and Luang Prabang. Guests are advised to avoid pieces made from animals, whether it is shells, furs, and any other parts of animals.

Accommodations and Meals:
We spend 14 nights in locally run hotels where 100% of their staff are local Laotians. By using these accommodations, we support the local community and economy as these establishments provide jobs for the residents.

All the food that we provided is locally sourced. All our meals are prepared and cooked by local chefs, both professional and/or home chefs. Our guests will be enjoying traditional Thai, Lao, and Hmong cuisines, all made vegan especially for us.

Volunteering & Charity:
We are against the exploitation of animals in any forms. So we are very careful in choosing place/organizations to visit and support to make sure they are aligned with our core values and beliefs. On this Laos Adventure, we visit and support the Free the Bear, an organization that is spearheading the effort to educate the community and ban the sale and purchase of wild animals in Laos. We also visit Lao Woman Disabled Center, guests are encouraged to purchase souvenirs from this center as all sale is benefiting directly the woman who made the craft. Another special organization that we support is COPE, an organization that provides free rehabilitation and artificial limbs to those who lost theirs from UXO, accidents and/or illness.

A Fair Deal:
We value local knowledge and we believe that in order for our guests to have the best information, it is important for us to have local guides that are not only knowledgeable in the country we're in but also knowledgeable in the specific site(s) that we visited, with that in mind, we often hire separate local guides for each individual site. Very often on our tours, we have two local guides at the same time to provide better insights for our guest. We also believe doing so, we create more jobs opportunity for the local people.