When two entrepreneurial couples moved to Laos for a year out of their busy lives, little did they expect they would start up together in a completely new venture.

Cheese-loving Rachel O’Shea and Susie Martin asked for buffalo curd one day (a favourite from time spent in Sri Lanka) but were met with blank looks, there being no concept of milk-based products in Laos (It is too hot for dairy cows). Buffalo were kept to work, to fertilise the land and for meat, but had never been milked. In fact, when Rachel and Susie spoke of yogurt, people thought it came from fruit (a sensible misconception when you think where coconut milk comes from).

Realising that here was a business opportunity, the two women, together with their partners, Matt and Steve, watched YouTube videos on milking buffalo, borrowed some animals and milked them (watched by a large crowd of incredulous locals). Rachel, a chef, then set about turning the milk into yogurt, mozzarella, ice-cream and cheesecake. On being sent samples of the products, hotels in Luang Prabang asked when they could place their orders.

The business was viable, but the four were keen to not merely provide a living for themselves, but also to help the local community. The local farmers receive rent for the land the dairy uses and a steady income for the use of their buffalo. Pregnant buffalo are looked after by the dairy and milked once a day when the calves are born (to allow the mothers enough milk to feed the calves too). All pregnant buffalo and their calves are vaccinated and returned to the farmers in better condition than previously.

The staff are taught English (the dairy brings in tourists too) which has led to the local children having English lessons as well.

A recent initiative has been to encourage local mothers to add buffalo milk to their children’s rice. Forty per cent of children under the age of two are under-nourished in Laos and buffalo milk is the perfect supplement being higher in protein, lower in lactose and higher in fat than cows’ milk.

After an extensive tour of the farm we were ready for some lunch in the restaurant and what could be better than tomatoes and mozzarella followed by buffalo ice-cream. The whole meal was delicious, although not quite the same as what we’ve had in Italy.

A 45-minute ride from Luang Prabang in a 4-wheeled tuk-tuk took us to Kuang Si Waterfall and Bear Sanctuary. Following a path through the forest, we spent most of our time watching and photographing the bears (Rescued by an Australian charity, Free the Bears, and the government of Laos) in their enclosures.

On the way back to Luang Prabang, we stopped off at a buffalo farm, but more of that in the next post.

We woke up to low level clouds and cool temperatures on Sunday. Boarding the boat early (7.45am) we were glad to make use of the blankets on board.

We had a long morning on the boat snoozing, reading and watching the world drift by.

After another delicious lunch on board, we made a stop to visit the Pak Ou Buddha Caves. Two caves are filled with small statues of the Buddha that have been removed from temples around Luang Prabang owing to damage, or due to some ‘thinning out’ being required owing to the large number of images.

For most of the year the caves are only visited by tourists and sellers of ‘tourist tat’, but at Lao New Year the faithful turn up in great numbers to ritually wash the images, and in so doing, gain merit.

Soon after another stop was made at a local village, this one an opportunity to purchase some beautiful Lao silk, bags and Lao ‘whiskey’, which we avoided.

Our cruise was too soon at an end. Watching the world go by from a comfortable and well-fed spot – what a superb way to travel!

After a lengthy process to pass from Thailand into Laos, we boarded the boat somewhat later than anticipated. Our guide blamed this on a bus-load of Chinese tourists who had turned up at the Laos immigration post shortly before us. (The Chinese aren’t much liked in Laos – more on why this is so in the next post).

Watching out for the occasional water buffalo, and the few people going about their activities was very pleasant, and after a freshly-prepared lunch showcasing the best of Lao cuisine, we made a stop to visit a village that is supported by the boat company.

We made an overnight stop in Pakbeng at the end of our first day and found ourselves at a very quiet, but plush, hotel on high ground overlooking the river.

The only other guests were two Scottish ladies, Heather and Shirley, cycling from Chang Rai in Thailand, through Laos and into Vietnam in aid of two charities, the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and The Motor Disease Association.

(You can read about their travels here https://heathersasiacyclechallenge.com).

Heather had come off her bike earlier in the day and she had stuck her face back together with steri strips. On hearing of the accident, Shirley’s husband decided they needed somewhere more luxurious than their usual overnight stops, and booked them into the hotel where we were also staying.

Before our trip to Laos, we paid a trip to the Artists’ House in Bangkok, an old traditionally-built house, now used as a gallery for local artists, and as a puppet theatre, situated on one of the klongs away from the hustle and bustle of central Bangkok.

One reason for visiting the house was to watch a puppet show, but owing to its cancellation, we returned today.

PS

We had a fantastic time in Laos, but I have got very behind with the blog as broadband speed was so slow it took all my free time to upload my photos. I’m hoping to catch up over the coming week.

We travelled up from Bangkok today to Chiang Khong, ready to cross over to Laos tomorrow. A slow boat will then take us on a two-day cruise downstream to Luang Prabang where we have booked in for four nights. From there we’ll fly back to Bangkok where we’ll have 10 more days before moving back to the UK and into our new home.

We’d love to see more of Laos, but sadly we will have to move on after Luang Prabang. I think it’s good to have an excuse to come back again!

Mom Rajawongsee Kukrit Pramoj, or M. R. Kukrit for short, (1911-1995) was a writer, scholar, teacher of Thai dancing and prime minister of Thailand from 1975-76.* As a great-grandson of Rama II, he spent time in the Grand Palace in Bangkok during the last years of the absolute monarchy (ended in 1932 by an almost bloodless revolution).

Yesterday afternoon we foolishly walked for over thirty minutes through the Bangkok heat and humidity to reach his home,* comprised of five old teak buildings brought from other parts of Thailand. The buildings, standing on poles and designed to lean in, look very similar to those at Jim Thompson’s, however, Kukrit’s house has not made it onto the popular tourist trail and we were the only visitors in sight.

* Visiting the house was not foolish, but walking for half an hour in the heat was. Mad dogs and Englishmen/women …

Halfway through our visit an elderly white-haired gentleman, reclining on a wooden dais, called out to us in impeccable English. Did we have any questions? Obviously anxious for conversation, he invited us to sit down while he told us his life story.

He was, we realised M. R. Kukrit’s son, named Mom Luang Rongit Pramoj, or M. L. Rongit for short. Born in the 1930’s, at a time when the house we were standing in was surrounded, not by high-rise blocks as it is now, but by paddy fields, he grew up playing with the children of the workers in the rice fields, rather than those of the upper echelons of society. His father had been keen for him to go to public school in England, as he himself had done and was fitting for those in aristocratic circles. However, M. L. Rongit said he didn’t want to go to England as he wouldn’t fit in with the other children.

His father accepted this, but instead, M. L. Rongit was taken to America by his Russian grandmother (where an uncle of his was Thai ambassador). There he did go to school and learned American (he still spoke with a slight American drawl).

M. L. Rongit wanted to study art and was accepted by St Martin’s School of Art in London, a time he especially loved. On his return to Thailand the diploma he gained was looked down upon as a degree was seen as the only acceptable qualification. M. L. Rongit continued to paint and we saw a couple of examples of his work on the walls.

When we came to take our leave, M. L. Rongit insisted we took a couple of books written by his father. As The English editions are out of print, he gave us copies in Thai, telling us to ask a friend to translate them. Any takers?

Quite an extraordinary encounter! I feel we’ve been touched by royalty.

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On another note, we have just exchanged and will be moving to our new house at the end of November, in just over four weeks.

We only belatedly realised that it is Chulalongkorn Day today, a public holiday in Thailand to remember King Chulalongkorn, who ruled 1853-1910, and who is otherwise known as Rama V. That explained why so many people were wearing yellow t-shirts (to show their respect to the Royal Family) and there wasn’t the usual crush in the metro at rush hour. It might also explain why our apartment block has a banner saying, ‘Happy New Year.’ Either that, or it’s left over from the western New Year in January, Chinese New Year in February or Songkan (Thai New Year) in April.

For those who are familiar with the film, ‘The King and I’, Chulalongkorn was the King’s son, the one who Anna Leonowens was engaged to tutor.

Chulalongkorn travelled extensively and worked hard to move Thailand into the modern age by, for example, abolishing slavery and introducing a railway system into the country. The reason that the Thais use a spoon and fork to eat their food, in preference to chopsticks, is apparently a custom that Chalalongkorn brought back after a trip to Europe.

Silom Village is a restaurant in Bangkok where a small band of musicians play and heavily made-up and coiffed young women, wearing exquisite matching costumes, put on a wonderful display of traditional Thai dance while you eat your meal.

The dances are based on annual activities in the farming calendar, or on traditional stories like the Ramayana. The movements are stylised, with arms and legs bent, and hands, fingers, feet and toes flexed to make a series of right angles. Looking at the way the girls are able to hold their hands back, and the way I can (or can’t) mine, I imagine most dancers start learning when they are very young.

Our host threw up her hands in horror when we said we were planning to visit Jim Thompson’s house on our first day. It was too commercialised, she thought, and recommended the home of M. R. Kukrit, a former prime minister of Thailand, instead. We have actually been to both houses before, but are keen to make return visits. I have the added incentive of writing about them in my blog.

Jim Thompson, an American born in 1906, initially practised as an architect and only found himself in Thailand when sent as part of the liberating force just before the Japanese surrender at the end of the Second World War.

He returned to Thailand after the war as part of a consortium to purchase and restore the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok. After a falling out with the other investors, he switched his attention to the ailing Thai silk industry and bought a plot of land in the centre of Bangkok, specifically to make use of the Muslim weavers living across the klong (canal).

Thompson encouraged the weavers (mostly women) to work from home and allegedly raised thousands of the poorest out of poverty. All the silk used in the film of ‘The King and I’ came from Jim Thompson’s business, and this helped save the silk industry in Thailand from extinction.

Jim was also keen to have a place to live and, after clearing the land, brought six traditional buildings from other locations in Thailand, some from the old capital, Ayudhya, and erected them to make a house for himself. Each building was raised one storey above ground, a traditional and practical measure to avoid flood water entering the house during the rainy season. The walls were designed to slope inwards, a feature used to increase the strength of the building. Thompson broke with tradition in two respects though, one by building a staircase inside the house, as opposed to on the exterior, and also lighting the traditionally furnished and decorated interiors with chandeliers. While looking incongruous, they are Thai, and were brought from 18th and 19th century Bangkok palaces.

Thompson further followed local custom by moving into the house on a day deemed to be auspicious in the spring of 1959. To house the spirits that had been disturbed by the demolition of the old buildings, a spirit house was erected in the garden. Offerings of food and flowers are placed at the entrance to the spirit house.

Jim Thompson then set about arranging his large collection of furniture and ceramics inside the house. So much interest was shown in the dwelling and its contents that Thompson opened up to the public, donating proceeds to Thai charities and the preservation of Thai culture.

While out for a walk in the Cameron Highlands, Malaysia, in 1967, Jim Thompson disappeared. One of the largest land searches in S. E. Asia followed, but no trace of Thompson has ever been found and to this day his disappearance remains a mystery. (When our guide related this story, one of our tour group suggested the disappearance might be due to ‘a tiger’. Our guide understood him to say, ‘a Thai girl’, a mistake which she, in particular, found very amusing).

After Thompson’s disappearance, the silk manufacturing business was moved to purpose-built factories in Korat, 250 miles north-east of Bangkok.

Surrounding the house, or houses, is a wonderfully luxuriant jungly garden. A shop sells the beautiful, but highly priced, items from his factory. The house can be visited only with a guided tour and no inside photos are allowed.