Dragons on the Nam Tha River, Laos

Learning to Listen in Laos

Anna Mack, a Mekong Semester student, has published a terrific reflective essay on Matador Abroad.

Here's my favorite line:

“It must be hard in America,” he said. “There is so much noise.”

Check out Learning to Listen in Laos.

Dragons Mekong Semester: Fall 2009

Three months ago I was on a night-bus to Tibet with 13 young men and women I barely knew. Now, I'm alone in Phnom Penh, soaking up the memories, wondering how those same 13 students are doing as they transition home to America.

Cue the Celine Dion, 'cause my middle name is Corny, but - gosh - I miss the Mekong Manatees with all my heart.



A full semester of rugged travel down one of the most powerful and remote rivers in Asia is an epic life experience any way you cut it, but in the company of intellectually and spiritually engaged gap-year students, the journey became even deeper, even more profound.

We did SO much. We learned SO much. We grew SO much.

And we made connections.

Connections between friends on the program, for sure. Connections between cultures and communities, definitely. Connections between students and home-stay families, yes.

But we also made connections between mollusks and the moon, between American consumerism and Chinese dams, between Afghanistan and Laos, between stillness and peace.


Our students now emerge into the world as young adults who are empowered and aware.

We need them. I'm proud of them. And I can't wait to see what they do.

....

Here's a link to more information on the Dragons Mekong Semester.

Trekking in Luang Namtha

On the advice of Steven Schipani, a former Dragons instructor who lives in Laos, we went trekking in the Nam Ha National Protected Area with the Jungle Tour company.

Many students point to this trek as the high-point of the Mekong Semester.

Here's contact info. for Jungle Tour - send an e-mail in English.

Mr. Chittaphong Chanthakoune
Tel/Fax: +856-86-212025
Mobile: +856-20-2990355
PO Box: 046, Luang Namtha 03000, Laos

Email: chttphng@yahoo.com.au

Photo by Jake Teton-Landis.

On the Mekong...

We're approaching the midpoint of the Mekong Semester and the students are settled into home-stays in Ban Xieng Mene village, across the Mekong from Luang Prabang.

Here's a shot of students studying on the veranda of the Dragons program house...



We leave Luang Prabang around the end of October, head south through Laos to Cambodia and fly back to the States from Phnom Penh in mid December. I'll be home in Vermont for Christmas and then out to Colorado to start a full-time job in the Dragons Boulder office.

You can read student perspectives on the trip on the Yak Board....

With Becky In Laos

I haven't been writing much, but Becky is blogging up a storm.

This Sunday - 9/23

If you`re in California, pick up a copy of the San Francisco Chronicle and check out the travel section.

If you`re not in California, go to www.sfgate.com/travel...

....

I`m on Isle Aux Coudres now, about 100 km NE of Quebec City. Beautiful blue sky days, fall colors on the mountainsides.

Luang Prabang, Laos

What a calm, beautiful city. No power last night, so candles were everywhere, flickering light on the monastery roofs.

Getting here was rough, crammed like cattle with 100 other tourists on a slow boat from the Thai border. DO NOT take this boat if traveling from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang, and if you do, come armed with sharp elbows and a good book and try to score a few feet of space near a window.

I had to write a letter of apology to Thai immigration before crossing the river to Laos. The border official at the crossing North of Anlong Veng, Cambodia took my Departure Card and kept my Arrival Card. I wrote the letter of apology in the form of a one page mystery story, paid 50 baht for postage, and was good to go.

Off to Laos...

I've only got a couple of weeks in Laos so will probably stick to the tourist trail this time around, crossing the border at Huay Xai, boating down to Luang Prabang and eventually continuing on to Vientiane. It's always a rush to enter a new country for the first time. Laos is a place I've been wanting to visit for years and I'm a bit baffled at why it's taken me so long. Stay tuned for notes from the road!