Half Day Shopping Tour Of Vientiane From Hotel Inside Vientiane City Only

General information

Destination
Vientiane, Lao People's Democratic Republic

Program details

Visit to Carol Cassidy’s workshop and the central market. Meet someone unique and with an unforgettable story to tell. Her name is Carol Cassidy. She has single-handedly revived the fine art of Laotian silk weaving. Cassidy, a native of Connecticut, saw a dying art on a trip she took to Vientiane as a UN worker in 1989. Old techniques were fading fast, Laotian mothers no longer passed their skills on to their daughters. Today, Cassidy runs a successful business that employs 32 weavers, and 3,000 farmers supply them with silk from their mulberry trees. Each museum-quality piece of hand-loomed silk is a work of art, each one unique. The finished products are sold to New York designers, to London art collectors, to Danish royalty and to Hollywood’s A-list. Proceed to the central market where all kinds of local handicrafts can be found, such as silver and gold ware, wood carvings, cotton and silk products.