Last day in Louang Prabang, where can we go ?

Let’s rent bikes and ride to the other side of the river, let’s take some distance from the Louang Prabang we know.

Nice streets, nice Wats, less concrete… oh but oh ! there’s an advertisement for a jewellery shop offering free lessons of handcrafting! That sounds almost as interesting as a cooking lesson! (what? I shouldn’t say so? Yeah, maybe I’m not 100% French, good food can be equalled by other things in my life).

So, where is it? It says on the other side of the bamboo bridge but the map shows the street where we are…ah, ok, they printed the same advertisement for both sides of the river. So it’s here, it’s open : let’s go !

The concept is easy : you look in the store and you show them a jewel you would like to buy. If you want to, they show you how to handcraft it, they give you all the elements you need, you can even chose to change the colors (and in the end you only pay the price of the jewel).

Mainly, you will learn (or re-learn) how to do macramé: one string up, one string down, pull, one to the left, one to the right… (It’s almost like a mambo). You need to be precise and then it will go smoothly. Or you can also ask the help of the young guys (yes, this time it’s more a guys story) who came by for their lunch break from school and who do it like the pros they are!

If you want, they’ll show you other useful things you usually buy already done. For instance, have you ever handcrafted a dream-catcher? It’s one of the easiest things to do in the world, once you’ve learned how to do it.

So, quite a nice way of enjoying this last day! Even nicer when they bring you some Lao snacks so we can taste them 🙂