While the elephants were definitely the highlight of our trip to Laos we did manage a few other trips and tours. One was to the Living Land Rice Farm. This is about 15 minutes out of Luang Prabang and the farm offers tours explaining the process of producing rice from selecting the seeds for planting to producing the ubiquitous sticky rice. It's a hands on tour and involves lots of wading around in rice paddies. The farm also works with the local community providing jobs for some of the locals and offering agricultural scholarships for kids whose families can't afford further education. Our guide on the day was one of these students who works on the farm when he's not studying. Here are a few pictures from the tour.
Rudolph the water buffalo, who pretended to listen to us trying to guide him through the paddy.
Planting the rice shoots in the mud.
Some of the local men who are not working but spend their days helping out around the farm.
The guys get to operate this machine that breaks up the rice grains while the women have to put their hands in and mix things up while hoping the guys don't miss a beat and crush their hands. This lady was brave enough to do so even when the amateurs were giving it a go.
Steaming the rice to make sticky rice. After the tour we had a lunch of rice with more rice, washed down with rice wine, but there were multiple different kinds of rice product and it was delicious.
Fire, hot metal, sharp blades, hammers and bare feet. A braver man than me.
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Rudolph the water buffalo, who pretended to listen to us trying to guide him through the paddy.
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Planting the rice shoots in the mud.
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Some of the local men who are not working but spend their days helping out around the farm.
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The guys get to operate this machine that breaks up the rice grains while the women have to put their hands in and mix things up while hoping the guys don't miss a beat and crush their hands. This lady was brave enough to do so even when the amateurs were giving it a go.
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Steaming the rice to make sticky rice. After the tour we had a lunch of rice with more rice, washed down with rice wine, but there were multiple different kinds of rice product and it was delicious.
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Fire, hot metal, sharp blades, hammers and bare feet. A braver man than me.
Join to see EXIF info for this image (if available)