Dear Travel Partners,There is so much more to Laos than you would first expect... In this newsletter, Focus Asia are delighted to bring to your attention a selection of tours, festivals and celebrations that this beautiful country has to offer!
Festival of Lights or "Lai Heua Fai"
Focus Asia is pleased to announce that the next Festival of Lights in the UNESCO World Heritage town of Luang Prabang will take place on the 17th October 2016.
The Festival is celebrated on the last night of Lent and is celebrated all over Laos, but the one in Luang Prabang is the most spectacular as each village and each temple send an illuminated boat to join the procession. All the family will bring a small boat of light made of banana trunk and decorated with flowers, incense sticks and candles. This rite has several aims, as homage to the river divinities and also as a way to end away all negativity, sickness and bad luck.
Focus Asia offer you an opportunity to be part of it by joining our special activities: 1) Pre-night (16 Oct 2016)
Our guide will bring you for an evening walk in the former royal capital of Laos, along the main street where you will visit the illuminated temples.
2) Workshop "Krathong" (17 Oct 2016)
Starting from your hotel at 08:30, we will drive to the Morning Market. Unlike the large grocery stores you might be familiar with back home; the food here is still produced by small farming families and villages. Your guide will explain the common vegetables and fruits that are in season. From here you will select all the materials that you need to create your own "boat of light." You will spend the rest of the day with a local expert that will show you the different techniques required to create your own piece of art using a banana leaf.
3) Parade of Lights (evening 17 Oct 2016)
Around 18:30, join the parade of lights along the main street with a huge variety of decorated and illuminated floats leading to Wat Xieng Thong, where the boats will float down the Mekong River.
At the end of the parade you will launch your very own "Krathong" boat onto the river, following the ancient ritual of paying respects to the water spirits and letting go of past negative thoughts.
From the tree to the Cup - Coffee tour to the Bolaven Plateau
Available from October to March
Ever wondered how coffee is produced? This tour starts in Pakse where you will be introduced to the CPC (Coffee Producers Cooperative), and learn about how small farmers from the Bolaven Plateau work together to produce high quality coffee. Next, you will head to the highlands of the Bolaven Plateau to the village of Ban Lak 11 to visit an organic coffee plantation and try to pick coffee cherries with the farmers.
With the full basket of cherries, you will then go to the wet processing center of the village where coffee is pulped, fermented, washed and dried before being delivered to the CPC Factory.
A traditional lunch will be served in a stilt house of one of the member of the cooperative; here you will have the opportunity to share experiences with a local family. After lunch enjoy a visit to Tad Ngeuang waterfall, where you can relax or take a refreshing swim in one of the most beautiful waterfalls in the area.
A short visit will be made to the "Lak 40 coffee shop" where you can try some local tea and other specialty of the Bolaven Plateau.
Your last stop will be made at the CPC factory, where the guide will explain how the coffee is prepared for export. The master roaster will then make a demonstration on how to roast coffee and the visit will end with a Cup-Testing in the Laboratory before heading back to Pakse.
Boat Racing Festival in Luang Prabang
The Boat Racing festival will take place in Luang Prabang this year on Thursday 1st September 2016. This event is one of the most important social sporting events in Laos. Traditional racing boats are carved using a single tree and are considered to be sacred items. They can hold approximately fifty paddlers who compete two at a time over a distance of 2km.
The Boat Festival is ancestral tradition to give homage to water divinities, Nagas, protectors of the country.
"Pi Mai" Lao New Year from 13th - 15th April 2016
The Boun Pi Mai Festival celebrates New Year and is a public holiday that typically lasts for three days. The festival serves to invite the rains. Statues of the Buddha in the "calling for rain" posture are ceremonially doused in water, which is poured along an intricately decorated trench. People create stupas of sand, decorated with streamers that are symbolic requests for health and happiness over the next year. Pi Mai is celebrated by blessing relatives, friends and even strangers by pouring water over their head, symbolizing the washing away of sins committed in the past year.
During Laos' hottest season, you are most welcome to get soaking wet! But if you know that is not something you would enjoy, we recommend not planning a visit during the middle of April.f April. Otherwise, we'll see you there!
If you have any questions at all regarding any of the articles in this newsletter, please contact your Sales Manager in charge.
Sincerely,Your Focus Asia Team
