Laos
Green Lion
Overview
Through IVHQ we signed up for a three-week volunteer program coordinated by The Green Lion, a local volunteer organization in Laos. Amy signed up to teach English. Larry signed up to do construction work (built a wall around a school). Lodging and meals (except Saturday dinner) included in our program fees. We volunteered for 2 weeks and on our third week did the “adventure program” with Green Lion, to learn more about the Lao culture and see sites outside of Luang Prabang. Total time in Luang Prabang - 3 weeks (February 1 - 21, 2026)
If you are here for multiple weeks, you definitely can do some weekend trips, as everything except teaching is done by Friday lunch, and as long as you give them a heads up, they are fine with teachers skipping the afternoon session on Friday. Several of the girls went to Vang Ving one weekend and a couple of others went to Nam Kohng for hiking on another weekend. We went to the annual elephant festival with one of the other volunteers on one of our free weekends.
Learn more about:
General Program
Pick up
We were picked up from the train station and brought directly to our guest house. We had dinner with some of the other participants. Two of the girls had already been there for a couple of weeks, so we got the lowdown from them.
Day 1: Orientation
We spent the morning with Micky (Green Lion Laos founder). Learned about him, signed a bunch of papers, then headed into downtown Luang Prabang. Had coffee, went to the ATM and the supermarket.
After lunch we spent time with Ticky (Micky’s brother) and learned about Lao culture particularly about Monks, Novices and nuns, as Ticky was a monk for 14 years. Micky had also been a monk for several years. Learned about rules for monks, and that they could leave and return to the monastery at will, so appeared it was a bit of a fallback and retirement plan. Also learned about traditions in the village versus the city. We learned some basic Lao words. Amy started teaching that day at 4:30pm while Larry was taken to the construction sites to get familiar, but actual work began the next day.
Breaks during the day
We went occasionally (separately) to a gym about a 20-25 minute walk. They had WiFi and plenty of dumb bells so did YouTube classes for 30,000 KIP per visit. Not the nicest but worked.
We would also just relax, read, shower, go to a nearby temple or go on the internet.
Friday after lunch through Sunday night we were free to explore Luang Prabang or the surrounding area.
The team gave us suggestions on what to do on the weekends and were happy to make bookings for us, whether a train to another city or a day trip within or outside of Luang Prabang.
Every Monday night they took us to / from the night market. Great place to buy souvenirs and try local food.
Every Wednesday night they took us to and from bowling.
Volunteers
Total: 11 (very nice group)
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Age : 17 - 65. Half of us 50+. Others under 30.
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We were the only couple
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3 men, 8 women
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Americans: 3, Australia: 2, Japan:1, Canada: 1, Norway: 1, Belgium: 1, UK: 2
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One person left lodging and stayed in town. She chose a hotel walking distance from teaching. She showed up to teach in the afternoon and occasionally had dinner with us. Mostly did her own thing, which I guess is a perk of volunteering.
Also staying and eating with us was a group of circus performers from Australia that were performing at 2 schools per day for 2 weeks.
Larry was lucky enough to see a performance and the kids loved it. Photos of kids not allowed, but Larry snuck one from a distance.
Staff
Micky runs it with the help of his brother Ticky who is on site. Onsie helps with the meals and construction. There are a couple of cooks and tuk tuk drivers who you don't really interface with but the program couldn't run without them. All are very nice, prideful of what they do, focused on making it a great experience for all. Micky, Ticky and Onsie speak excellent English
Food / Accomadations
Food
3 meals a day on weekdays with plenty of food. Fairly varied, but lots of chicken/pork, green beans, other veggies. Fruit at all meals. Overall very good.
Breakfast: 7:30am. (teachers) 8am everyone else. Eggs, bread, fruit
Lunch: 12pm
Dinner: 7:30pm
Meals were self serve buffet
We ate at a large table - in a protected outdoor dining area.
After each meal, we washed our own dishes.
Best coffee shop PhaKhoun Coffee a 7 minute walk from the guesthouse. Tasty coffee options and a lovely owner. We tend to go when we get back from our morning classes before lunch.
Accommodations
Stayed in a budget Guest House a 10 minute tuk tuk ride from downtown. Room was clean and very very simple. Bed hard as a rock (although others seemed to have better beds as we were the only ones that complained about this). Only thing that saved us was we were able to get extra pillows to put under our hips. Some folks were in bunk beds with private bathroom, while others like us had a double bed. We paid more $ to “upgrade” to a private room, but guess we didn’t need to.
No shower curtain - entire bathroom was the shower stall. Drain on the opposite side, so whole floor got wet when you showered. 😱
One outlet high on the open wall for the entire room had us creatively balancing our stuff to charge.
Other
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We were in room 019. Least convenient room location. WiFi incredibly weak. Download in advance any shows you may want to watch.
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AC worked -sounded like better than some other rooms.
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Need to bring your own shampoo, shower soap, hand soap
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Sheets and towels are dingy and you are just given one bath towel (no hand towel)
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Basically, lived out of your suitcase as minimal hooks and hangers, and no drawers
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Consider bringing your own coffee if you don’t like instant Nescafé or go to the nearby coffee shop as we did daily.
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Laundry available for 35,000 KIP for 1kg. Returned in 24 hours
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They cleaned our room on Wednesday and Saturday
All in all
We loved Luang Prabang. Very charming and chill city, the former capital of Laos, with 2 rivers running through and intersecting surrounded by mountains. Lots of French architecture and traditional Lao wooden homes. Beautiful temples with large grounds every few blocks.
It was wonderful being in one location for 3 weeks. Packing and unpacking gets old.
Volunteering was great!! This was a well-managed program ran by a group of people that truly want you to have an enjoyable experience. Loved our group of volunteers (from multiple countries, 17 - 70 years old). Having structure each week day was nice (worked in am for 2-3 hours and again in the afternoon following a lengthy lunch break (they definitely wanted to avoid overworking us). Felt like a local with daily coffee runs, working out at a gym, going with our new friends to hear live music and play cards twice a week, and finding our favorite happy hours.
Got a bar to open for us at 6am so we could watch our Seattle Seahawks win the Superbowl -other US folks, mostly Seahawk fans, made it fun. Opted for cappuccinos instead of beer at 7am.
Volunteering provided a wonderful feeling of accomplishment in progress on the wall and seeing the light bulb go on when one of the students “got it”.
Most memorable was seeing monks everywhere (Amy even having some in her class) and the gorgeous sunsets over the Mekong river.
The experiences we had were unique e.g., annual elephant festival with 50+ elephants in attendance (tons of people dressed in their traditional outfits), being blessed at a Baci ceremony, rice farming (boy that mud is sticky and deep), spending the night with a local family (yes we should be thankful for everything we have -life in Laos villages is very very simple), hiking to beautiful waterfalls, and alms giving (Amy absolutely obsessed with the monks).
We will not miss the layer of haze / dust due to the dry season, hardest beds ever, unending mosquito wars, entire bathroom serving as a shower stall, and no TP in the toilet. But all in all the good far outweighed the challenges and we will definitely find another country to volunteer in. Three weeks was a good amount of time for us to thoroughly enjoy the experience.
Absolutely looking forward to volunteering somewhere else.