A measure of success pt 2

But first - The funniest thing I have ever heard.

I am writing this blog in my hotel room in Bangkok, been catching up with friends and family here. I was on the Skytrain on my way back to the hotel and I saw a Fulong wearing a black polo shirt with the logo “UNIPCC – climate change conference Bangkok 2009”. I asked the wearer if he was with the UNIPCC (United Nations International panel on climate change) as I am doing stuff with LIRE (Laos Institute for renewable energy). The answer I got was just gold dust:
“No I am with the UNHCO conference, but we don’t have any shirts, you should get down there, they are really good shirts for only 300 baht and they have plenty left”
At least our planets foremost authority on climate change is recycling its excess polo shirts, I’m sorry I don’t think there is any help for us.

Many thanks for all you responses to the success of the biogas project and for all those sceptics out there, yes you can run a diesel engine on Cow poo (or be precise up to 80% cow poo, you still need the diesel for the ignition and to lubricate the injectors). Before you all go off and buy a diesel engine and hook it up to your septic, it is not as simple as all that. The technology is a more “fit for purpose” than that, that is to have a viable power source using biogas from cow poo (or any other biogas from other bio digester feed stock) be aware you need a lot of it, so ideally a dairy farm or pig farm where, “washing out” is part of the process. Also if the farm is “on grid” there is little financial incentive to either go “off grid” or “parallel to grid” as in terms of labour costs (the man hours required to run the system) and purchase and maintenance of capital equipment, it would probably be more cost effective and simpler to hook up to the grid.
With Copenhagen just a couple of weeks away (and lets be honest nobody is expecting ground breaking revelations from that) the call for carbon taxing and a move to green energy will be high on the agenda, local or national government incentives might push the viability a little further, there is also the marketing side, consumers in the west are becoming more ‘green savvy’ so it could be a good PR exercise.
Anyhoo back to the plot. In my last blog I mentioned my return trip to the organic farm in Vanviene this time I took a ‘Rice Husk Burner’ with me. The plan is as I read on the internets; it is possible to convert rice husks into Rice Husk Ash (RHA) which in turn can be used as a cement extender. It is just a matter of burning the husks long enough and at a low enough temperature (it has to smoulder rather than burn > 800°C) hence the burner. The transportation a number of sheets of stainless steel via Laos’s public transport I can assure you is not fun. I decided to take the VIP bus ( don’t get carried away with the term VIP is a bit quicker than the local bus and has air-conditioning but VIP is being very fast and loose with the phrase). Pick up from my Hotel was at 9:00 AM so breakfast at 8:00 AM, the pick up is via song tao which then goes and picks everyone else up at before taking to the bus. So arrive at bus at 10:00 AM (Has to pay additional 30,000 kip ($AUD3.5) then a 1 hour wait for late comers, set off at 11:00 for the 3 ½ journey. Blow out one of the tires about 1 hour shy of Vanviene, over an hour to fix. VIP bus does not go to bus station, only the local bus goes to the bus station, oddly last time we go dropped no way near the bus station by the local bus they said only VIP bus goes to bus station. We were dropped off at a guest house on the outskirts of Vanviene and the rest of the travellers were picked up and taken to their respective guest houses. I was left with bag and several large sheets of stainless steel. I went to the guest house to ask if the could get me a tuk tuk to take me to the organic farm, they said I should go to the bus station, I said I would have gone to the bus station if the bus had taken me to the bus station, they said only local bus goes to bus station, I should have caught local bus.
One of the great pleasures is one of the great challenges of Laos is getting used to the “Laos Laos” way of doing things, it gives to a chance to practice infinite patience and the entertainment factor in your day never ends up the way you had planned it. However it is a bit like Chinese water torture and just every now and again the “Laos Laos” gets to you and you have a complete sense of humour failure, I had reached that point. It was now 3:30 PM and I and I had not eaten since breakfast, I was hot tired and completely “Laos Laos” out.
Finally managed to get a tuk tuk who charged me extra for taking the rice husk burner finally arriving at the organic farm at 4:15 PM giving me about one hour to assemble the unit and get the first batch underway before it got too dark, fortunately the ladies were just sitting down for their mid afternoon meal and graciously asked me to join them so I could grab some energy input, I was starting to fade at this point. (I cannot understand it that the Laos and Thai’s seem to be eating all the time but there are no lardy biffa’s anywhere).
Sunny’s arrival was timely to help me assemble the unit. OK it is not rocket science but this unit had never been assembled before and as always posed its own headaches. After assembly we chatted to Mr T about a suitable location, be warned if you ever try this, there is a lot of smoke, so it was to be located in the middle of the garden to the house closer to the first bar on the river. On reflection the biggest impact the burner had over the weekend was sending plumes of acrid smoke towards the bars, the daily contest of five or six PA systems is irritating so having even the smallest amount of revenge seemed well worth it.
Without going into too much detail of the tests of the rice husk burner (I have produced a report which is circulated to EWB) the outer race of the burner was filled with rice husks and a small lighted rag dropped into the central chamber (banana tree bark was found to be a good ignition source). We then dropped a portable goat enclosure which had a roof over the top in case of rain. (If it rained during the process the burner would become useless.)I checked it at regular intervals, and it seemed to be happily smouldering away but Sunny checked just prior to retiring and he reported there were flames coming out of the burner, this should not happen. In the morning there was a burner about 1/3 full of Rice husk Ash (RHA). After pounding with a blunt instrument it was reduced in volume again to about 1/5th the original. This was mixed with lime and a small test wall erected. On drying the cement crumbled, test 1 failure.
We attributed the failure to a number of issues. Firstly the rice husks were just dropped into the burner, I noticed during one of the checks that the smouldering was causing cavities in the stack which were producing small flames, which was not a good sign. During the evening and the night the wind had increased, not to storm force but enough to ‘fan the flames’ causing the combustion of the rice husks. Lastly the lime used was dry, according to Mr T it should be soaked first producing what I believe is called ‘quicklime’, I am still a bit vague on this so I am ready to be corrected on this.
So batch #2 would have a bit more control, firstly the rice husks were packed in using an end of small branch, this also had the effect of increasing the capacity, secondly the goat enclosure was wrapped in a tarp to prevent wind getting at the burner. The following morning there was a bit more ash than the previous day and I must admit it looked the same as the previous day’s batch but the general consensus was it was denser. A couple of test walls were erected, the first using RHA and a clay slurry the second using a mixture of RHA and cement and the clay slurry. The first worked very well and the integrity of the mortar and the render held. The second however the mortar made was solid and held its integrity but it did no adhere to the bricks. I was told on a later date by Peter that the following day rain had dissolved the mortar in the first trial, so something else needed to be added to seal the mortar against water. Like all experimentation it is small steps to achieve your goals and be prepared for disappointments and always be assured that nothing is as straightforward as it first seemed.
Another thing I was roped into during my stay at the organic farm was teaching English at a local school. Imke, a Dutch girl staying at the farm was volunteering teaching English and she had persuaded one of the other residents to take a class, but he had not shown the morning of the class. Imke asked if I would take it given about 5 minutes notice. She gave me a number of cards, (today’s weather is Sunny, Cloudy, Raining Windy) which was essentially what I was to teach them for about an hour. I was given a bike to ride and the rough location of the school which was about a 10 minutes ride away. Which gave me a few minutes to reflect on the fact that I had never done anything like this before in my life and secondly if this was in the west how much preparatory work, teacher training, licence, permits and background checks would have to be done (not that this is a bad thing) before I was let anywhere near a school. In Laos it is “Do you want to take an English class, it starts in 15 minutes”.
I must admit it was fun I had a class of about 30 kids between 6 and 7. And I must admit to not being 100% in control of the class, I tried to be too clever by writing an English word on the board and then writing the Laos equivalent beneath it so they could understand the sound. I was later told that only being 6 and 7 they could not read or write Laos yet.
I was very sorry not to make Pedro’s house warming party, I had to fly to Bangkok, but apparently a good time was had by all. No less than four goats were slaughtered ( I’ve never been to a four slaughtered goat party before and somehow I think I am missing something) Peter managed to construct a mirror ball from a broken mirror a soccer ball and tapioca flour, whats a mud house warming party without a mirror ball.




1.Assembly of Rice Husk Burner





2. Burner just after lighting






3. The RHA residue the morning after






4. Shortly after ignition






5. Test 2 with tarp windbreak






6. Mixing of RHA & clay






7. Mortar & render tests 1 & 2











8. Sunny on Girls bike








9. Being overtly politically correct the concept of 'wrestling' was not mentioned once







10. Kiren tries lateast in Laos organic face pack





11. Laura puts finnishing touches to bay window






12. The crew at dinner






13. Pedro's house 4 days before 'goat slaughter fest'





14. Any & Kerin put finnishing touches to moziac in Pete's house





15. Class 1B escape committee in full flight








16. More for Dinner






17. Sunny samples local fair

A measure of success

1. Diesel engine one careful owner
2. Night market on the Dongduk road, home of Madam Montizuma
3. Kids returning to Dongduk near Dougs house, practicing for SEA games opening ceromony
4. Roadworks on the way to the RTC this is deep soft sand, 4 x 4 essential
5. MK, mself & Noi (MK's wife)
6. Cute kids bathe in poluted lake
7. Delia & Chevy Ute
8. The test set up on back of Ute
9 -12. Making the gas filter



As many of you long time blog followers will be well aware, my association with Laos goes back to just over a year ago and the meeting with a fellow EWB ( Engineers Without Borders) member Sunny Forsyth who had just helped install a biogas digester at the (RTC –Rural Treatment Centre)located about 45 Km’s north of Vientaine . My involvement started with the attempt to get there small diesel to run on the biogas which in theory would relieve some of the burden of the cost of diesel fuel. During the numerous visits to the RTC and meeting with the resident Doctor, a simply fascinating man they call Master Kampuu, I have had a modicum off success although it cannot be described as overwhelming. The plan this time around was attempt to improve the quality of the biogas by passing it through a filter first. The filter in question was a pretty crude soaked wood chip affair in a sealed 20 litre plastic bin. Anyhow, first things first, was to re-establish contact with Master Kampuu at the RTC and arrange to do the tests. Sunny made the call, MK hardly speaks any English, and the jist of the conversation evolved around the fact he was reluctant to run any tests on his engine. Fortunately Doug (LTE) stepped up and offered us his Kubota diesel generator set which had used for his Soya bio diesel experiments plus the Chevy Ute to take it on. Now it was just a matter of keying up with MK if we could use some of his biogas for the experiment. We organised a ‘social visit’, Sunny was keen to pass the concept of abundant water filter passed him. MK is a respected healthcare provider and has a good deal of experience of trying to introduce new healthcare concepts into remote rural villages which has more “cultural sensitivity mine fields” than you could possibly imagine.
It is something that the UN have come a cropper with time and time again. A mixture of tribal traditions, suspicion of outsiders, mistrust of all things Fulong and a local of understanding of invisible pathogens (just because water looks clean it does not necessary mean that it is clean). This doesn’t apply just to Laos but all through Asia and developing world, the world littered with good intentioned but failed projects because the appropriate procedures weren’t followed. We were lucky this time we were to be accompanied by Delia (Doug’s daughter) who spends her time travelling between Laos, NZ & Queensland and speaks fluent Laos. We drove to the RTC with Tony, a colleague of Doug’s in a Toyota Landcruiser which I must admit to not being in the best state of repair. On arrival I gave his diesel generator the once over I understood and immediately understood Kampuus’s reluctance for us to use the engine. Astonishingly the engine is in worse condition than it was back in February. Lunch was had, water filters discussed and arrangements made for the return of myself and Delia, with the Ute and the Kubota diesel the following week.
I had a few things to prep prior to my return, the gas mixer needed to be mounted solidly onto the engine and some replacement parts for the fuel inputs needed to be purchased and fitted. Also the parts for the gas filter which would be prepped and then assembled on site. All done and the unit hoiked onto the back of the Chevy Ute. All that remained was to give it a test run to ensure it would start at the RTC. This turned out to be a more exhausting and sweaty affair than we first imagined with myself, Doug and Sam the workshop Forman at LTE taking it in turns to attempt to get the thing up and running. The engine had not run for about 6 months and that was on bio diesel made from Soya and since then had grown a reputation of not liking normal diesel fuel.
The following day myself and Delia set off in the Chevy Ute a quite absurdly large affair but we did get lot of respect on the road.
At the RTC I inched the Ute into position which was a little tricky as the low hanging wires interfered with the CB aerial. I decided to conduct three basic trials firstly running the engine of pure diesel oil and time the consumption and the repeat the test with the introduction of the biogas and time again for the same amount of revs. Lastly the introduction of the gas filter and the test repeated.
What happened next took us by surprise, me more than anyone else. This time when the biogas was introduced the engine took off, similar to the effect with propane. With the RTC engine, it just splutters more and just died if more gas is introduced .I had to notch the throttle back to get it in a similar speed range to that of the 100%, to have some sort of reasonable comparison, but the upshot was we were running on around 80% biogas. The results I was hoping for in the last test. To say I was happy with the result is an understatement. We concluded that the much improved performance could be attributed to a combination of two factors, firstly, the engine is in much better condition with the compression still around the design point of about 17:1 ( the RTC’s is about 13:1 or even lower). Secondly the biogas seemed to be more volatile, there was no condensed water vapour in the feed line.
For full technical details I have posted a report with videos on my other blog www.erawan-biogas.blogspot.com.
The test with the gas filter was not so good, for some reason I have not quite fathomed, the cement used to fix the hose connectors in place melted the hose connector threads ( but not the sockets ?), therefore no way to seal the unit, hence the filter could not be tried.
I am a bit behind with my blogs at the moment, last week has been pretty busy, and I’m off to BKK soon. Next blog will have the results of the Rice husk burner tests from Vanviene, also the discovery that the music I used for the Biogas video presentation I did for EWB is actually funeral music. Sometimes very difficult to get things right.

Catch you on the flip side

How do you know when you are bored with Laos…….?

Simple answer, when you are no longer surprised by what you see being carried on a 125 cc motorcycle. I know this is a well trodden groove and I have posted a number pix on this blog, and there are websites dedicated to this subject, I have seen some good ones, unfortunately they are usually in passing so not having time to get the camera out and take a snap. I have not seen a six yet but I have seen a couple of fives. The four and a dog was a good one, only by the size of the dog, a small yappie dog is a doddle, you just stick it in the basket, this one was the size of a golden retriever happily sitting on the knee of child No. 1 who in turn was sitting on the knee of dad, who was in some sort of semi control of the vehicle ( notably the only one wearing a helmet ). Mother on the pillion and child No. 2 riding shot gun. The fathers view being completely obscured by the dogs head with its tongue lolling out the side of its mouth completely enjoying the ride. The best one yet was when I was on the way to the LIRE office for Friday drinks. Just riding behind a single rider with a rucksack, until I noticed a couple of small legs jutting out the bottom of the rucksack. Sure enough as I pulled alongside there was a small child (about a year old) fast asleep in the rucksack and two holes cut in the bottom to let his legs out.
This is a short blog this time and a few pix, I have been out of the loop for about a week due to a. lot of things going on, b. up in the Jungle ( Vanviene ) not really jungle but internet access is a little vague c. general internet problems.
I hope to knock out a few blogs this week as I have had some good wins in the last week so there’s loads of pictures and video’s once I have pulled them into some sort of order.







1. I simply have no idea









2. Laos national opera house - Sydney eat your heart out







3. Ridiculous things carried on a motorbike
not even in the top 10









4. Baci @ LIRE office 1










5. Baci @ LIRE office 2

Tat Lueng..... putting the 'tat' back into temples

Been out of the loop for a couple of days, I think the hotel interweb connection had been sabotaged (traces of valium found in the donkey).
Firstly answers to a couple of questions from my previous blog, the spider photographed in the previous entry is not poisonous, the only disturbing thing about it is it size, and lets face it coming from Australia we can’t start making judgments about spiders. The locals eat them, as they tend to do with most things that move, they however don’t trust Indian food, as ‘it smells funny’. Which is rich country that gives us those absolutely disgusting half raw yolk half chicken foetus eggs, and also ‘kii kai nam’ literally ‘horse piss eggs’. They also cook with a plant called the ‘king of bitters’ which is a beautiful looking weed but a taste of one small leaf will leave a bitter taste in your mouth that will last longer than the Ozzies loosing the Ashes to England (I know wouldn’t normally do cricket references but just could not resist that one).
The power generation from the river will be by what is called a pico generator (not a nano generator as previously stated I was 10³ out). You can buy the units off the shelf either a Chinese made one or a Vietnamese made one which are much better, they produce about 1KW and I hope to give a bit more information on the installation off one in future blogs.
I was invited to Baci ( pronounced Barsi ) at the new LIRE office, which is a house warming/ office warming ceremony, the Laos flavour of Budisism has elements of paganism mixed in because of the different ethnic mixes so it was a lot more informal than the Thai Buddhist ceremonies, but still hell on the knees. Keeping with tradition of all Baci’s, after the religious part is over then the party starts with enough food and drink to keep the foreign legion running. One of the managers at LIRE who was a bit of guitarists pointed me in the direction of another Chinese market, Talad Chiang Xiang, near the airport, where there were a couple of guitar shops. I had problems in both the shops in town, apparently so does everybody else; they just don’t like people coming into the shop. Next day myself and Flo, a German, business studies graduate on a 6 month interment, scooted out and purchased a couple of fairly decent guitars for a reasonable price, mine is a Chinese made Monica which is not bad.

I have made much in previous blogs about the differences in cultures between east and west and I have found the differences between the Laos culture and the west even more pronounced than the Thai. I have often said that Laos is probably 20 to 30 years behind Thailand in terms of development; this is a vast generalisation as ‘development’ covers a multitude of sins. For instance everybody has a mobile phone, and as with a lot of Asia, the mobile phone takes priority over everything, it doesn’t matter where you are or what you are doing, if the phone rings you answer it. Certainly doing business here is challenging, most of Asia is way ahead of the Laos, good customer service is usually achieved by the fact that Laos are generally warm and welcoming, the idea of good customer service being related to increase sales and repeat custom is completely beyond them, as is the concept of performance related pay. The really odd thing is that a long term customer or repeat customers starts getting taken for granted rather than receiving what you would expect superior service. The hotel said I would have to move out of my room for one night and in to a smaller room, whilst they make room for guests staying one night, they seemed a bit put out when I suggested it would be better to put the other guests in the smaller room.
Sunny’s Abundant water project is still progressing, he and his local potter Newcom have developed the process and are achieving consistent and quantifiable results with a 5 litre filter and now is attempting to make an 8 litre filter. He is getting ready to roll out the process to pilot projects. I am hoping to get more involved in the technology transfer to Thailand, Cambodia & Vietnam. All in good time.
At the moment there is a big festival at Tat Leuang which is a big temple on the North side of the city; I haven’t quite managed to gather what it all about seems to be a part religious, part free concert part, commercial exhibition. I thought I’d take a look see just to check it out, I have seen more temples I need to see in one lifetime, so the temple itself although beautiful and ornate did not hold any special interest. The weird mixture of religion and commercialism was abound, I understand the alms system for the monks but taken to extremes with PA’s & megaphones.
Out in the huge square in front of the temple the exhibition stalls and the market was packed solid and packed with what I can only described as cheap tasteless tat, I’m sorry to offend but it is. Not only that but each of the exhibition stall had a huge PA, so the sound of 20 or 30 multi KW PA systems competing for noise space is unbearable. The highlight of the trip the visit to the fun fair and an examination of the dodgy safety standards. This included kids Ferris wheel with open pulleys and an old style dodgem cars with the electrified mesh in the roof; I love the smell of ion in the morning.

































1.Engrish take 1

2. Engrish take 2 intsructions in my hotel room

3. At the fun fair child safety is paramount

4. Old style dodgem cars with active grid in the roof

5. Prosession entering Tat Lueng; 'I have no idea what is going on' - Blogger Scoop

6. Tat Lueng

7. Responsible advertising by BeerLao

8.Newcom making Abundant water filter

9.Used Coffee grinds donated by Joma a
key ingediant for the water filter mix

10.Bakino faso's next top model demonstrates
alternative use for water filter

11. Duelling PA systems (video)

".......tree hugging hippy crap......"

Eric just takes the brick making far to seriously


I’ve been out of the loop for a few days; myself and Sunny took ourselves off to an organic farm in Vanviene for the weekend. Must admit to not really knowing what to expect I had mental pictures of being in the middle of the jungle in very primitive conditions, ‘sawn-off’ toilets, sharing a handful of communal rice whilst chanting ‘pinko commie fag slogans’ and being eaten alive by the mosquito’s. I was assured by Pete, a German, nay Bavarian, who is one of the semi permanent ‘residents’ there, who was in Vientiane last week (doing a ‘ visa run’ to the Thai border), that the facilities were quite modern and that they had some nice rooms. Anyhoo’s Saturday morning a 7:00 am bus to Vanviene, a 4 ½ hour bus trip to cover the 150 odd km. We went for the luxury bus which I believed rolled out of a Vietnamese factory something like 50 years ago. I would describe the seating arrangements as ‘crowded’. I would confess to not being a great fan of public transport especially in countries where I am not too hot on the local lingo, and tend to break it down into 1 % interesting adventure to 99% hot, sweaty, uncomfortable slog. Fortunately the early start and the gaps in the windows and doors were letting a very pleasant breeze through. The bus had a crew of 2 a driver and a conductor/ passenger wrangler who should really find his happy place. About 2 hours in and after the fares have been collected (an outrageous sum of 30,000 kip, about $AUD4) for a 4 ½ hour trip, a number of passengers dropped off and along the way and there belongings thrown off the roof. The passenger wrangler squeezed himself onto the back seat next to me pegging me between him and a stack of Styrofoam boxes full of vegetables and promptly fell asleep. It was a bit of a squeeze but not uncomfortable (remember in Laotians do not have any concept of personal space). The problems came when we hit the sharp bends in the mountains and every right hand turn passenger wrangler squeezed me against the boxes.
Vanviene reached just after lunch and we were deposited at the ‘international’ bus station. The organic farm is about 3 km out of town, my first pleasant surprise, not exactly deep jungle, you can still phone out for a pizza. Sunny attempted to appropriate a tuk tuk to take us there. However we were given a price of 10,000 kip each for the 3 km trip. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that if a 150 km cost 30,000 kip a 3 km tuk tuk trip should not cost a third of that. We were then approached a by a middle aged lady who spoke pretty good English and asked where we were going, she said we could have a lift in the song tao (a Ute with 2 bench seats) she had acquired for a her family of three young girls, which was going passed the farm. So we hopped aboard, this rattled the tuk tuk drivers as the ‘rule’ is fulang (westerners) travel only by tuk tuk to the organic farm and the fare is 10,000 kip. Some heated debate followed and the lady said that if we got off and walked a couple of hundred meters she would wait in the song tao and take us to the farm. This all seamed a bit odd, but Sunny seamed to have a handle on the situation and sure enough 200 meters down the road the Song Tao was waiting for us. It is handy to know a bit of local information, the middle aged lady (who actually lived in Minneapolis coincidentally where Sunny’s mother was born) and her family were Mong a much maligned and persecuted ethnic minority. The large tarmac expanse at the southern entrance of the town was actually the runway for the US airbase to run bombing raids on the Ho Chi min trail in the north west of Laos, in the war that didn’t exist. There are a lot Mong in the area as the previous generation would have been staff on the base. During the war that didn’t happen the Mong for all sorts of complicated reasons sided with the Americans which has not endeared them to the majority of the other native Laotians (there are other underlying issues but a. do not fully understand them b. would attempt to relay the complex geo politic map of SE Asia in the time I have in this blog). The upshot of this persecution and isolation means that they will do anything to irk the native Laos and give them the big ‘up yours’, so if you are a fulong in the wrong place at the right time you could be a beneficiary of this counter culture.
Safely deposited at the Farm entrance and the whole place was a much more substantial organisation I was expecting and to be quite honest quite an organisation. The farm is spread over 18 Hectares and is owned and run by the owner of the land Mr T (no not the ‘pity the poor foo….’ B A Baracus Mr. T a different one). The location is spectacularly beautiful right next to the river at the north end of the town, unfortunately the construction of the bars along the river bank had got as far as 200 meters away so the PA sparked up just after the monks had finished in the morning but thankfully finished at sunset. The whole place runs on a loosely based all hands together, everybody chipping in commune type thing although a bit more structured. The accommodation ranges from the basic a bunk in a dorm to a luxury room with its own bathroom. I plumped for the later which was costing 130,000 kip a night (about $AUD12) and the room was pretty basic; bed with mosquito net & fan but pretty good. Sunny stayed with his friends in one of the mud brick huts that had been built by the semi permanent residents. I am probably generalising too much but the residents there ( I will call the residents until I can think of a better description ) tended to work back in there native country to build up funds and then return to the farm for 2, 3 or as many months as there cash would allow. They were a interesting cross section of people and included Pedro, a Spanish dentist, who works for an NGO who organises a group of Spanish dentist (www.dentistassinlimites.es - fans of collective nouns go for it ) to take sabbaticals and visit various countries to administer western dental care. He was in the process of building his own mud brick house which is what we were working on for the weekend. Eric (The Goat farther) who was Belgium but lived in France who ran the goat farm apparently the Goat farther works well as a joke in English, Laos and French). Pete, as mentioned before, the Bavarian Anarchist who was already living in his mud brick house which had a superb balcony view of the river the mountains and the mulberry field. Mark, from the Shetland Island who just dropped in on his travels and decided to stay longer and was running English classes. Claudette an Austrian taking a years sabbatical and travelling around Asia. She was also teaching English but moving on to Cambodia in a couple of weeks. And the Dutch guy who I only met briefly as he was flying back to Amsterdam the day after we arrived who was doubling as a Tuk Tuk driver, which is quite bizarre.
The farm had a number of sources of income, the restaurant and guest house business, the organic farm products which were mainly mulberry tea and goat meat & cheese. The locals didn’t like the goat milk but, there lower intestine complete with contents are considered a delicacy. They also run free English classes for the local children. The Sunday we were there, there was a local youth group came to visit a bunch of about 15, 8 to 14 year olds mainly girls, Mong & Camoo ( another persecuted minority) who were spending a day making mud bricks for Pedro’s house and plaster to finish off Pete’s house. I was wondering what the ‘work safe’ and legal ramifications of child labour might be for running a similar scheme in Australia, one thing was for sure, they were all having heaps of fun. In exchange for a days exploitative child labour there was a lunch thrown in, which was absolutely delicious, and a speech by Mr T. I think that they also benefit from free English lessons but I hadn’t figured out how that works into the equation. The mud brick houses are built by and for the semi permanent residents but are used accommodation and charged for when they are out of town, so everybody benefits from the building. There were also a couple of local guys who appeared to have more expertise on the buildings than most that were there and worked extremely hard. Not too sure how they fitted into the whole labour benefit scheme but I am sure they’ll be some form of barter.
Mr T also encouraged them to do something different with the design. The mud bricks were mixed using the clay soil which the farm was situated on, sand, rice husks and straw and water of course. The whole thing is done by hands and feet with the odd shovel, bucket & wheel barrow, and is quite a mess. Once thoroughly mixed, the mud is dug out of the pit and dropped into moulds and left to set in the sun. Unfortunately the rainy season has lasted a lot longer than it should so keeping them dry during monsoon rain has been a bit of a headache but not as much as attempting to keep a half built building dry. About 10 days drying the bricks are ready for construction and are shipped by wheel barrow to the building site for construction using the mud again as mortar.
After enough dicking around in the mud it is a short walk to the river for a clean up. I must admit it was hard yakka but 4:00 pm I was absolutely beat, doing anything in that heat is hard work and physical work drains you completely. But heaps of fun and very rewarding and allegedly good for the skin.
In the evening Mr. T produced a bottle of tequila along with some dodgy looking local spirit, which was consumed by all apart from the token tee totaller. I must admit that I warmed to Mr T, he is on the ball finance wise and seems to be ready to make a deal as long as he come out to the good, however his willingness to help the local community, particularly the more marginalised, is genuine rather than lining his own pockets. He is open to ideas to add to the farm and a biogas powered herbal sauna is in the planning stage. We plan to return in a couple of weeks and I would like to talk to him about the possibility of setting up a couple of projects, the installation of a nano-hydro power system. (A 1Kw water turbine generator that can be placed in fast flowing rivers or creeks) was discussed briefly.
The trip back was fairly uneventful on the express bus which only took 4 hours, apart from the vision of the bus we travelled up in crashed in a ditch, seemed to have happened some time ago, I don’t know if there were any injuries, that sort of thing is generally not covered. The bus dropped us off in the centre of Vientiane and refused to go to the bus station, only VIP buses go to the bus station according to the driver, so the 30 minutes we saved by express was lost in the walk back to the station.
It is a constant source of amusement hearing the Laos reasons why we are being ripped off, A herbal sauna went to on the Friday night ( no where near as grandiose as it sounds ) charged fulong double the price of the Laos, this was because we were ‘fatter and therefore sweated more’.




Vene looking resplendant in her sarong just before she leaves for Hanoi

The USAF runway in Vanvien constructed for the bombing runs to the Ho chi min train in the war that didn't happen

Sunjan one of the kitchen staff at the organic farm

The organic farm restaruant

"... how I learned to love the bomb..." a UXB ( cluster bomb we think ) uncovered last year near the farm

Mark enjoying the Laoation mudpack treatment

The esquitly appointed bathroom in Pete's house

One REALY REALY good reason to use the mosquito nets

Mr T makes speach to the assembled eaters

Yours truley offereing Deus free advertising

The view from the river during 'bathtime'

One of the girls from the youth group helps to make bricks

communal mud making

The bed in the luxury villa - net essential

The ladies making mulberry tea

mining for mortar by hand

Pedro surveys his partial domain

Pedro's house built to first floor

A completed mud brick house

Pete's mud brick house

Erics Cireon Delat one careful owner

My Luxury vila for $AUD12 a night

Sunny Catches some zeds on the bus

The Luxury bus 2 days before the crash

the dinners
Pete gets help with making plaster
The pre lunch bath