Laos volunteer adventure tour

country:	Laos
trip type:	A small group adventure
departures:	2008: 20 Oct 2009: 17 Jan, 18 Apr, 18 Jul, 17 Oct
price:	From US $950 (8 days) excluding flights. Price includes Royal Palace Museum, Wat Mai, Mount Phousi, Kuang Sii Waterfall, Pak Ou caves, local guide, all transportation, all meals, twin share accommodation with private bathroom

Volunteer adventure travel here

Laos holidays here

the amazing things you'll be doing

day-by-day itinerary

Day 1:	Arrival. Arrive in Luang Prabang at your leisure. We will gather in the evening to meet the rest of the group and discuss the week ahead.
Day 2:	English Teaching and Sightseeing. In the morning, we help local children with their English, followed by an afternoon tour of a few of the spectacular Luang Prabang sights.
Day 3:	Kuang Sii Waterfall and village visit. In the morning we visit the beautiful Kuang Si waterfalls, after which we will visit a local village to assess our project work for the following day.
Day 4:	Working in the village. Whole day spent working on various projects in the village. This is a great chance to both help a poor community and also to learn more about the daily lives of the villagers.
Day 5:	Alms giving and cooking for the monks. We join the traditional morning alms-giving to the monks followed by providing lunch for local monks and novices. We spend the afternoon practicing conversational English with novice monks, or local Lao children.
Day 6:	Pak Ou Caves and orphanage. Today we visit the ancient Pak Ou Caves where thousands of Buddhu images have been placed over the centuries. The afternoon is spent at the Luang Prabang Government Orphanage School speaking English with the children, helping prepare the evening meal and working on projects.
Day 7:	Red Cross and UXO Lao. In the morning we visit the Luang Prabang offices of the International Red Cross, followed by a visit to UXO Lao, the Luang Prabang office of the Lao National Unexploded Ordinance (UXO) Program.
Day 8:	Depart Luang Prabang. You are free to leave at any time today.

a taste of volunteering trip - what's it all about?

This type of trip is ideal for people who are unable to take very long periods off work but who are interested in volunteering to work with communities in need, or in wildlife conservation. These shorter trips combine volunteering with an opportunity to see the main sights in destinations. Find out more about 'taste of volunteering'

how this holiday makes a difference

This tour offers you a unique opportunity to visit some of the main tourist sights of Luang Prabang, while giving something special to the Lao people - a little of your time and money to help them with English conversation skills, provide some basic nutrition and improve their general living standards. In Luang Prabang we will meet and work with some of the poorest villages in the local area. We also support the Big Brother Mouse project who create children’s books in the Lao, H’Mong and English languages to be distributed in the villages, the Luang Prabang Government orphanage by providing a high protein meal, the Children’s Cultural Centre by helping teach English and the My Library project by having our clients bring books from their country for donation.

On this tour we visit Kuang Sii Waterfall - a reserve where a tiger and bears which have been confiscated from poachers, are kept safe from the animal trade. Our entrance fee (which we are sure to pay even though it is easy in groups to get a 'discount') goes to helping preserve the conservation efforts here. We also have a wildlife expert give a talk about wildlife conservation in Laos.

We visit the Luang Prabang Red Cross where you can give blood, donate medicines and clothing or have a massage (the cost of which helps the Red Cross in its projects). We also visit the Laos UXO (Unexploded Ordinance) centre to watch a video about the massive problems with UXO scattered through Laos from the Vietnam War. The accommodation we use in Luang Prabang is all locally owned and operated, employing local staff and services. We also eat at local restaurants as much as possible to provide extra income to many different people in the community.

Our group size is kept to a maximum of 12 clients. We do not wish to disrupt a community by having too many people in one place. We only run this tour a few times a year and have no desire to be bringing weekly groups through these regions. Our small office is, apart from accounting requirements, paperless. We deal with customers electronically and do not print brochures to distribute. By remaining only as an online presence we reduce the wastage associated with producing annual brochures. This tour is the perfect opportunity for to you to contribute to improving the lives of the people of Laos as well as visiting this wonderful town.

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