July 25,

We were up and about by 0700. It was raining of course. We had our Javas and went down for our breakfast. We both had fruit plates, in addition, I had Fried Eggs with a baguette; Jeff had an Omelette of onion, tomato, and chicken with a baguette. The breakfast area was hopping this morning – there were a lot of people!

Around 1000 we went out, we took our package to the post office. They checked it out and sealed it with the tape we had bought. They charged us less to mail it than the cost of the tape used to seal it! Anyway, we hope we have a package Monday at our next place. We donated the tape to them.

Now we went to Heuan Chan Heritage House and Museum. We paid the admission fee of 30,000 Kip each, and entered the grounds. The place was set up for all kinds of Workshops but with this being off season nothing was happening. There were a few other people in traditional Laos costume dress, that you can rent, taking their Social media pictures. There were also garden grounds that we walked about.

We found our way to the Heritage House which is a traditional Lao House of 100 plus years old according to a placard. Around the house is a terrace that was a greeting point for this owner’s family and their neighbors. Once inside a placard said that the Lao house was built by Thong Sayasith, head of the Royal Council and Justice Department on land that he received from the King as a wedding present in the 1900’s. Thong and his wife had 18 children. It’s estimated around 30 people lived in this house including other family members, distant relatives and servants. The house itself had a reception area, ritual room, bedrooms, and a kitchen/work area. The house, like mini traditional domiciles, had little furniture. Mats, mattresses, and cushions provided comfort for sitting and sleeping on the floor until furniture was introduced in the 1940s. Thong’s family donated the house in 2008.

It seems crazy that this many people could live in this place. Jeff and I just could not imagine. It would have been so hot, especially at night. Later we saw another placard that limited the visitors to only 10 in the place(due to weight load?)… how scary that was to see. Another placard did show that the house had been restored in 2011, making me feel a little safer walking about.There were displays of elaborate dress that the family wore, Lao musical instruments, a headdress worn by female performers doing classical dances and lacquerware & textiles that they had. It was a fascinating home and nice to see Laotian heritage.

When we finished we left and went to a couple of Wats, but we called our explorations short due to drizzle. Arrived back at our place, to wait out the weather a bit. We finally seemed to have a break, and went back out. We started on the river, seeing it was mostly back to the level we know to be normal. But it started spitting again, so we went straight for lunch at Nang Tao. I had Kao Soi and Jeff had the Crispy Noodles with Chicken. We finished and went back to our place.

We had a laid back evening, snacking on nuts and cheese for supper, and watched a movie.