Saturday, January 26th, 2013 Laos, Luang Prabang

Saturday, January 26th, 2013

The next morning (today) we had a lovey breakfast in our G.H. courtyard and then proceeded to a travel agency that was recommended to us by a woman from Morocco who has been staying in Luang Prabang.  We arranged the activities of the next few days.  We then went to explore our area, going to the food market and then going for a street lunch before meeting up with a tour to go to an amazing waterfall outside of the city -- truly the most amazing waterfall site.

On our way back from the waterfall we visited a village before returning to Luang Prabang.  Returning to the 'city', we had dinner and will be visiting the amazing night market which goes on for streets and streets, filled with many beautiful things -- from textiles to antiques to woodworking, etc.

Yesterday at the Saffron Cafe we had an amazing cup of coffee -- look out Starbucks.  The story of S.C. begins with a group of tribes living high in the mountains of northern Laos.  Unable to plant and harvest rice in the lowland paddies like the majority of Lao, these tribet cultivated opium poppy on the mountain slopes and plateaus.

When opium cultivation was outlawed by the Lao government and measures were taken to curb its productions, tribes like the Hmong, Yao (Mien) nd Khmu had little choice but to engage in slash and burn agriculture in order to survive.  In this practice, entire mountinsides are cleared of natural growth and burned off.  Thse upland fields re planted for one season and then abandoned the following year as a new mountainside is cleared, cut and burned.  A new field is cut each year for up to 15 years before the oriinal filed is replanted.  Planting uplnd rice and corn, the harvest is often barely enough to sustain the life of a mountin fmaily.  Without a replacement cash crop for opium, these mountain tribes have succumbed to extreme poverty.

In 2004, David Dale, an American living in Laos, researched the possibility of planting Arabica coffee in northern Oaos.  His research led him to one Hmong village that had already planted coffee as part of an EU project, but had discontinued harvesting the beans for lack of a viable market.  David also explored other highland areas around the World Heritage city Luang Prabang for the possibility of coffee proceduction and found the land to be promising and interest high among the hilltribes.  As a result, Saffron Coffee was born www.SaffronCoffee.com.

Coffee is becoming the first sustainable cash crop for mountain hill tribes since opium.  By purchasing their harvest S.C. now gives the hill tribes choices, i.e., the sick can go to hospital for care and they can buy needed medicines.  They can now also send their children to school without needing to keep them out in the fields because of high maintenance slash and burn agriculture.