Last Full Day in Laos

What a day we had today!  We started our day visiting a community-based, living rice farm where we learned the process to grow rice and were experienced each stage of the growing process.  We found this fascinating and fun. To do this day in and day out would be back breaking!

1 - Our guide began with a demonstration to show how they selected the best rice to plant for the next year. They place multiple handfulls of salt in a container of water, mix it up and place an uncracked chicken egg in the water.  When the egg floats the water is readiy for the next step.  They remove the egg and place rice in the bowl.  The rice that sinks to the bottom is the heaviest and best rice and is now ready for planting.

2 - The best rice is planted by mounding the mud in the cleaned and flooded field and throwing the rice on top of the mud. Two to three times a day the rice is sprinkled with water to keep it wet.

3- When the rice has sprouted and about 10 inches high, the seedlings were transplanted to a cleaned, plowed (Myra actually assisted in the plowing) and flooded field by planting 4-5 seedlings in the water/mud.

4 - Harvesting the rice requires grabbing and cutting 4-5 clumps of rice using a very sharp and dangerous looking sickle.  The clumps are tied together with a few of the longest shoots from the clump and dried.  

5 - Thrashing the rice to release the rice from the stems,

6- Pounding the rice to release the rice from the husk,

7- Finally, using a sieve to separate the clean rice kernels from and small pieces of husk.

8 -  Back to step 1, 5 percent of the yield is kept for replanting the next crop.

Whew!   Very labor intensive process.   Unlike Vietnam and Cambodia who have three rice crops every year, Laos has only two crops per year (due to its colder weather). The rice they grow is called sticky rice  - they have five types:  white, red, purple, brown and black - all sticky rice.  To cook the sticky rice, it must be soaked in water for at least 4 hours or overnight and then steamed for 30 minutes.  It is eaten every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  The water used to soak the rice is then used to condition women’s hair.  

We also got a chance to crush sugar cane, squeeze a wedge of lime juice and have a very refreshing drink.

We ended our day with another great experience visiting an elephant sanctuary. They protect the elephants, there is no working the elephants or riding the elephants. They use the sanctuary to rehabilitate elephants before being released and educate people about elephants in an effort to stop the abuse and raise the population of these majestic animals.  We could have stayed all day!

Tonight we had our farewell dinner at our hotel where we received a blessing for our safe trip home, our food and a thanks for coming to visit this beautiful country.