Part of our timing for this trip was so that we could witness the Van Ork Phansa and the Thod Kathin festivals, which you can read about by clicking here.   

While not related to that timing, we’ve noticed that sometimes our trips take on a theme. On some occasions these themes are planned like the time we took a trip to China when we knew we were going to be eating dinner in Guiyang, capital city of Guizhou Province at Restaurant Guixi, where Kung Pao Chicken is claimed to have originated.

For the entire 3-weeks of that visit to China, both before and after Guixi, whenever we saw Kung Pao Chicken on a menu we ordered it in a search to find the essential manifestation of that dish. For those interested; it was at the restaurant in Guixi.

Other times, without planning it we realize that we have fallen into a pattern of behavior and that’s what happened during our 2-week stay in Luang Prabang in October 2016. This one turned into the trip of the crafts classes.

As frequently mentioned on this website, my wife is an avid weaver of textiles and we often visit weaving villages.  She loves to attend workshops in faraway places to learn new techniques.

On previous visits to Luang Prabang she had taken several 1 and 2-day dye and weaving workshops at the Ock Pop Tok Living Crafts Centre and before we traveled on this trip, she had pre-booked a 3-day master weaving workshop.

The main focus of this workshop was a class in Ikat style of weaving known in Lao as Matmee.

She was taken step by step through the process beginning with  tying the warp that would create the dye pattern, creating the dyes from natural products, dyeing the thread and then weaving the piece from the dyed thread revealing the desired pattern.

While she was busy doing that I took advantage of our discovery of the Luang Prabang branch of Backstreet Academy. For those not familiar with the company they offer the opportunity to receive intimate, hands-on instruction from a master of their craft at very affordable rates.

For my first craft class, I chose to learn how to make a cross-bow suitable for hunting small game like squirrels and rabbits. I was driven to a small Hmong village on the outskirts of town where I sat beside a wood fire with an interpreter provided by Backstreet, 70 year old master craftsman Chai Song, his adult son and two other older men who smoked cigarettes and offered advice and encouragement.

Step by step we created a weapon that was so effective that (to my great chagrin but not surprise) airport security took it away from me. I did make it home with the beautiful hand crafted arrows that the master gave me as a gift.

That experience was so rewarding that I signed up for another Backstreet Academy workshop in making a hand carved wooden bowl with Mr. Lon, another master craftsman who creates reproductions of classic wood designs for the Lao Royal Museum as well as other businesses and individuals in Luang Prabang.

Mr. Lon’s workshop is located just across the Nam Khan River from the Luang Prabang historical center in the Ban Phan Louang village. He was very encouraging and with the help of the interpreter from Backstreet he explained and then demonstrated each step of the process and then allow me to attempt to follow his lead and then take over when needed to further the process. In the end I walked away with a nice shallow wooden bowl that I am very proud of.

After completing her matmee workshop at Ock Pop Tok; the same day that I was taking the wood carving class my wife also got into the Backstreet Academy catalog taking a Hmong Embroidery Workshop With Local Villager Chua Xiong.

With the help of an interpreter, she learned and executed with a simple needle and thread some traditional Northern Lao embroidery patterns on a piece of cloth. An assistant to Chua Xiong then converted the fabric into a small pouch that became a treasured souvenir.

There are Backstreet Academy branches in virtually every country and many cities of Southeast Asia and we plan to make it a part of all our future trips to the region. Prices will vary from city to city and by the class taken but all of our classes with Backstreet Academy in Luang Prabang ranged from $20-$28 per person.

After the different workshops described above, we both returned to the Ock Pop Tok Living Crafts Centre to take a half day Hmong wax resist style batik class. This style of batik is a dying art form in Lao and we felt great appreciation for being able to learn it from the OPT resident batik master Mae Thao (Grandmother) Zuzong.

The basic concept is to paint a pattern in wax onto a hand loomed piece of fabric woven from hemp thread and to then dye the fabric.

After the dye is set, the piece is wash in hot water removing the wax and revealing the pattern in the natural color of the fabric.

Despite our neophyte status, Mae Thao is such a fine instructor that we managed to produce a couple very nice examples of a tradional Hmong pattern.

In addition to the classes, we also took a Lao cooking class held at Bamboo VatSene Restaurant on Sakkaline Road. A short video from that class is shown below. Additionally, you cans see some additional pictures and read a description of the class at our Luang Prabang Restaurants 2016 page