Well, it has been a crazy, hot and seriously fun first few days in Pakse, Laos.  Lots of rice patties farmland.

We have loved meeting the wonderful Lao and foreign staff working here at the ARDA language and music school. ARDA teaches English at all levels, our Lao staff also teach foreigners how to speak Lao (Mark and I will be enrolling soon) and there is also have a music school where students learn guitar, drums, piano and singing. The English school is growing and the music school is now starting to take off. 

Here is a photo of the ARDA crew!

We're staying with the head of the school, Biju and his wife Jyoti and daughter Assa (they are originally from India and have been here about four years). Tomorrow we head to the capital of Laos, Vientiane and then we go to Thailand to enjoy our honeymoon! When we return we'll be house sitting for an American couple, who are also lending us their motorbike! 

Pakse is right on the Mekong River- it is enormous! 

One of the biggest benefits... the fresh delicious fish! We've eaten a lot of the local food, my favourite was BBQ. We sat at a table with a big hot coal, open oven in the middle. You sit a grill plate on top and cook your meat and vegetables together. It's very social but Mark wasn't so sure why people pay to cook their own food! ha ha

We took a walk up a big hill just outside Pakse- not a bad view huh!

Below is our local market- we love all the fresh fruit!!! It's cheap and delicious!!!

 So this is Mark's new favourite supermarket- Mini Mark!!!!  It was until they tried to rip him off, so now it is his least favorite place.  

The street we are living on

Cheers!


Liz & Mark