LUANGSAY ECOTOURISM POLICY AND PRACTICES

1. LuangSay Lodge hired a dance teacher to teach Khamu and Hmong people tribal dancing, which is now performed regularly. The Lodge also supports the financing of local musical instruments. Dancers and musicians are now able to earn their living without sacrificing their culture and traditions, as LuangSay was able to revive these old traditions for them which had been lost from the Pakbeng area.

2. Our LuangSay Cruises stop in local Mekong riverside villages every day that we cruise. In these villages we help the local community by supporting the locals by buying their handicrafts. We also help the village school and temple with donations and aid the villagers to clear litter and other debris from their paths.

3. Pakbeng has no proper water supply system or sewerage system in place, everything from the guesthouses tends to get put straight into the Mekong River. At LuangSay Lodge we have installed our own sewerage system to prevent this happening. We have also built our own water supply from mountain streams, while adding pipes so that local villages in the area can use the same water system.

4. All bottles, cans and plastics that are used at the Lodge are recycled.

5. Many of the vegetables at the LuangSay Lodge are organically grown in our own garden, using fertiliser from our compost bin instead of pesticides.

6. The opening of the Lodge gave employment to 37 villagers and tribal people and wages earned at the Lodge are three to four hundred percent higher than the local standard. Villagers around the Lodge are encouraged to grow fruits and vegetables and raise livestock and all their products are purchased by the Lodge.

7. In Ban Houay Xeng Kham village, a very poor Khamu village close to the Lodge, we have helped build a small school and supply the school with books to help the children with their education.

8. The riverbank across from the LuangSay Lodge has been denuded by logging. We are in the process of getting permission from the Sayabouli province (not the same province as our Lodge which is why it is taking a long time to organise), to replant teak trees on this land.

For more information on ecotourism in Laos please check
www.ecotourismlaos.com and www.stay-another-day.org.