VISITING LUANG PRABANG HANDICRAFTS FESTIVAL [DAY 2]

[LUANG PRABANG HANDICRATS FESTIVAL DAY ONE]

5th December 2016 ~ We went again to the same venue where Luang Prabang Handicrafts Festival was held. This time, people were already in their best traditional costumes or formal attires as there should be some sort of opening ceremony.

There were live demonstrations of traditional handicrafts making activities and more stalls selling local fabrics were already operating.

There was this traditional Lao house but I did not enter as I was too lazy to take off my shoes and I would have to pay to see the exhibits inside.

I was expecting for a (free) traditional cultural show during the opening ceremony but that never happened. 

The guy was from Ock Pop Tock Handicraft Centre which we visited yesterday and he was busy weaving a basket most probably.

The ladies selling food looked prettier that day and they were all wearing their national dresses, and most of them were clad in similar red shawls. We did not know the halal status of the food which looked delicious so we dared not try any.

As there was no sign of any cultural show to start, we left the place. At the same time, the ladies did not do any shopping as the original and beautiful Lao fabrics could be very costly, hence the short time spent there.

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VISITING LUANG PRABANG HANDICRAFT FESTIVAL [DAY 1]

4th DECEMBER 2016 ~ We saw this Handicraft Festival by accident while walking at the town centre. The real title of this festival as printed on the banner was quite a mouthful: "Invitation to the Luang Prabang Handicrafts Exhibition for the Celebration of 41 Laos National Day and 21st Anniversary of Luang Prabang's World Heritage".

We decided to have a look to see if there would be anything interesting going on.

We saw three beautiful elderly ladies walking to the same event and we excitedly asked them to take photographs with us.

I was hoping to see a free cultural show as there was a stage in the compound.

There were not many visitors yet and people at the festival were still in the preparation stage. Other than handicrafts, there were stalls selling (or giving away for free) traditional Lao food.

We met the same guy we first saw at the Tourists Information Centre and promised him to come back later to this place.

to be continued...

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OCK POP TOCK - THE HANDICRAFT CENTRE OF LUANG PRABANG [PART TWO]

[CONTINUATION OF PART ONE]

a tribal skirt

4th DECEMBER 2016 ~ OCK POP TOCK means "east meets west" in Lao language. It provides a platform for the locals to market their locally made products to foreigners visiting Laos.  

batik, Laos style

In Laos, weaving and sewing are only meant for women. Girls have been taught how to sew at early age. On the other hand, men only weave bamboo strips to produce items like mats and baskets.

You could also learn weaving at this place but you have to spend more time here.

Herbs plants can be found all around the place. These herbs are used in manufacturing the silk cloths.

We then went into the shop and it had a spectrum of bright and cheerful colours. If you are thinking of decorating your house with ethnic or tribal theme, this is the place where you could get all that you need. Just make sure you bring more money and get bigger luggage space for your flight. You could get similar items at the night market but they will be not of the same quality.

We finally went into this wooden traditional Lao house which exhibited a small collection of textiles.

We were happy to learn one part of the Lao culture. We could observe that the women especially are still dressed in their traditional short sarongs every day - at the market, in town and the girls wear them to school as their uniforms. I am not sure whether people in big city still practice the same thing, but in Luang Prabang, tradition is alive and not staged.

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