crafty goodness
Saturday, December 6th, 2008By the Family’s Knitter
Luang Prabang, Laos
From December 1-6 Luang Prabang is hosting the first ever Handicraft Festival, which has been organised by the lady we stayed with the first night. She has been instrumental in bringing together a group of crafters to share thoughts, designs and business ideas to preserve and promote local handwork for future generations. They opened their festivities with a Fashion Show, including the current Miss Lao, the province’s governor (he both gave the opening speech and paraded up the catwalk), cute children, a local dance troupe and a stunning array of locally-designed and made costumes. Just between you and me, the evening would have been a greater success if they hadn’t started an hour late (although maybe the lady we went with had her details wrong) and if the ratio of speeches to catwalk action was reversed from 10:3. Not that the thousand-strong crowd seemed to notice the speeches – they chatted right through them all!
We had been intending to not buy any souvenirs, but one aunty gifted the children some money and so we have ended up with some gorgeous handmade gear from both Thailand and Laos. If we were at the end of our trip, about to head home, we would definitely be buying more! Time to show aunty what her Christmas money has gone towards……..no made in China plastic junk!
The clothing is multi-size and should last a few years!!
These are second-hand Hmong materials refashioned into something the tourists will buy – there was a very funky rooster that would definitely bring back memories for us, but the little girls loved their elephant ride so much…and the toys were supposed to be for them 😉 The Hmong ball will provide a tangible link between our reading about the New Year dances with seeing them in real life – besides, it’s fun to play with now.
(Jgirl14 bought herself a cross-stitched backpack instead of clothes).
Balls were being sorely missed, and when another backpacker turned up with a rattan one from Thailand, our boys set out on a mission to find their own in Laos. Our guest house owner had told them they would probably need to pay between 15,000 and 20,000 kip. They didn’t even think to bargain when the first price offer was 10,000!! And the lady generously gave everyone a miniature one too. Only photo is an action shot tkaen on the banks of the Mekong with some local kids – try to spot da ball:
Jgirl14 has always wanted bagpipes, and the guy on the side of the road was selling, among other things, something very bagpipe-ish, so we were surprised when J14 started negotiating for the simple pan flute. Luckily it doesn’t wail like a cat bagpipes!
insert photo here – oops haven’t taken one!
Crossbow. Need I say more? A month later the boys still can hardly believe they were allowed to bargain for this one!
Had our very first plans for this trip come off, we would have been in China by now. Along with most every other tourist in the world.
But I suspect we've seen more of the Olympic ... 
rayres