Janet Shares Her Laos Vacation Adventure

Janet and Steve Elkins just returned from a wonderful, adventuresome trip to Asia. The main destination: Bhutan. But since Janet was sort of "in the area" she was very happy to reconnect with her longtime friend and protegee Sompheng in Luang Prabang, Laos.
Sompheng and his family honored Janet and Steve with a traditional honor: a baci ceremony.

Janet and Steve Elkins just returned from a wonderful, adventuresome trip to Asia. The main destination: Bhutan. But since Janet was sort of "in the area" she was very happy to reconnect with her longtime friend and protegee Sompheng in Luang Prabang, Laos.
Sompheng and his family honored Janet and Steve with a traditional honor: a baci ceremony.

Sompheng learned English and entered the hotel industry.
"We are so happy to see him succeed. He is currently working as a Front Desk Manager at a luxury hotel in Luang Prabang."

Sompheng and Janet reconnect in Luang Prabang.    

"During this visit, Sompheng surprised us with a invitation to his family's home. We crossed a river by barge, then drove and walked a little further to join his family. Once we arrived we noticed that event preparations were in full swing."
       

"We were really overwhelmed to learn that they were honoring us with a traditional baci ceremony! This ritual is performed to celebrate happy occasions in life and in our case, we were being feted as important guests. The women were creating absolutely stunning floral centerpieces for the ceremony. Everyone was busy cooking a feast. Once everyone was ready, Sompheng gathered with the elders in his family."

"His father, an elder, started the ceremony with a prayer chant. Men and women all came together for the 32 strings ritual. The 32 strings symbolize an ancient belief in Laos that the human being is a union of 32 organs and that the kwan watch over and protect each one of them. It is of the utmost consequence that as many kwan as possible are kept together in the body at any one time. Since all kwan is often the attributed cause of an illness, the baci ceremony calls the kwan or souls from wherever they may be roaming, back to the body, secures them in place, and thus re-establishes equilibrium.
And yes, we have to admit, we googled this to learn more about it.
As we were at the center of the ceremony we were very moved by it."

"As instructed we kept our strings for 3 days! The ceremony concluded with the feast. We will never forget this wonderful, traditional Laotian honor and the pleasure of meeting Sompheng's family."





"Our visit with Sompheng was the start to our vacation and the strings protected us for our entire trip. We had a wonderful time in Luang Prabang and later in Bhutan where thanks to Facebook's "friends nearby" we bumped into friends from Pasadena! What a small world it is!"