I was able to come to the beautiful and hospitable Laos 14 years ago, when with the delegation of Quang Nam province to attend the 25th SEA Games in 2009. Many years have passed, in my memory I still keep a lot of beautiful memories about the people and country of Laos.
Unforgettable memories
Welcoming our group that day at the Lao Bao border gate (Quang Tri province) was a female volunteer Kham Say. She has just graduated from a university in Vietnam, along with many other students, returned home to work and volunteer to serve at the 25th SEA Games.
When Laos hosted the 25th SEA Games, there were thousands of delegations bringing foreign tourists to visit. The force of tour guides in Laos is small and has to be divided into many positions. Our group is more than 40 people, only 1 guide.
Kham Say is very good at Vietnamese, she introduced us to Lao culture, destinations, and tried to teach us communication sentences in Lao language. I also actively interacted with Kham Say, introduced about Vietnamese culture, about the homeland of Quang; start a musical program to sing to each other in the car. The brothers and sisters in the group responded enthusiastically. Kham Say also participated in the arts, she sang the song "Truong Son Dong, Truong Son Tay" very well. During the long journey to Vientiane, everyone was happy and less tired.
During the days of visiting Laos, wherever we went, we were warmly welcomed by the Lao people. Staff of the competition, sightseeing, police force ... always guide and help us when needed with close and dear feelings.
Kham Say took us to visit famous monuments and landscapes of Laos, such as Pha That Luang, Patuxai, Buddha Park... On the day of our visit to the Mekong River, we enjoyed many dishes of your country's cuisine and were taught the five volley dance by Lao girls.
The friendship grew closer when we watched the football match between Vietnam and Malaysia. The stands at the Lao National Stadium were packed with people. National flags of Vietnam and Laos are everywhere. Fans from both countries cheered for the competition with great enthusiasm and excitement…
Farewell to Laos, I have many memories in my mind. I will forever remember the image of Kham Say through the days of enthusiastically helping the group when taking a quick souvenir photo, still holding a battery-powered speaker to guide our delegation through the border gate procedures back to Vietnam. To me, Kham Say is like a hard-working Vietnamese woman!
The delegation of Sekong province - Laos visited the farm of Mr. Thai Nguyen Khoa's family (4th from left), the owner of the farm in Tien Ky town, Tien Phuoc district, Quang Nam province.
Local philanthropy
The cultural - sports and information - media exchanges have not only cultivated the two countries' friendship but also tightened ties in many sister localities.
Quang Nam province has a border of more than 170 km with Sekong province of Laos. Over the years, it has strengthened economic and cultural exchanges, built strong friendship relations, and firmly defended border sovereignty. Quang Nam province has organized the construction and awarded many works to Se Kong province, such as: Se Kong Center for Disease Control, Dac Chung District Police office...
Members of the Delegation of Se Kong province learn about OCOP products of Quang Nam province at an exhibition of agricultural products
From 2007 to now, Quang Nam province has also received training, fostering and training more than 1.500 officials and students to study; providing scholarships for more than 600 international students in Se Kong province to study Vietnamese and transfer to universities, colleges and intermediate schools. Currently, there are 289 Lao students studying in Quang Nam province, of which 141 are from Sekong province. Most of the young Lao intellectuals after returning home were arranged jobs and actively contributed to the locality.
For my hometown, Tien Phuoc district, the Party Committee, government and people always give their country sincere affection. In October 10, the Delegation of Se Kong province visited the mangosteen plantation of Mr. Thai Nguyen Khoa's family in Tien Ky town. Mr. Khoa's family was very welcoming, took the delegation to visit the farm, shared farming techniques and production experiences that brought high economic efficiency. The family's homegrown products such as mangosteen, fragrant bananas, green-skinned pomelos, sticky rice yogurt ... are graciously invited by the family to enjoy.
The delegation visited OCOP products (one commune, one product) of the district. In an open conversation with the provincial delegation, Mr. Tram Que Huong - Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of Tien Phuoc District, Chairman of the People's Committee of Tien Phuoc District - introduced many OCOP products of the district made from local materials such as: agarwood, booze, products made from areca... I remember in a meeting of friendship, someone read Uncle Ho's verse: "Vietnam - Laos is deeper than our two countries, Hong Ha/Love is deeper".
The author and female tour guide Lao Kham Say at the 25th SEA Games in 2009 Photo: PHUC TRAN
In recent years, many doctors, nurses, and volunteers of the Red Cross Society of Tien Phuoc district have participated and coordinated with the Quang Nam Union of Friendship Organizations, the Pacific Hospital and hospitals in Ho Chi Minh City to examine, perform eye surgery, provide medicine and gifts for thousands of people in Se Kong province.
Great Friendship
During the resistance war to defend the Fatherland, the people of Laos and Vietnam share the same trenches and have been forged through many harsh trials. In the current new situation, the people of the two countries have the same goal of building a border of peace and friendship, bringing bilateral relations to comprehensive and extensive development.
The great achievement is that the common border area has been built by the Party, State and localities, the people's living standard has been increasingly improved, the grassroots political system has been strengthened… Especially, during the border length of 2.067 km, the two countries have completed border marker planting at 1.002 points, completed the mapping of the Laos - Vietnam border, and signed a border trade cooperation agreement. Currently, there are a total of 36 Laos-Vietnam border markets, 8 pairs of international border gates, 7 national border gates, 18 border crossings and 8 special economic zones. This is the result of the great friendship between Vietnam and Laos.
This great friendship always has the contributions of individuals and families; of mass organizations, units and localities under the leadership of the Party and State, have very important significance in socio-economic development, facilitate bilateral trade, ensure security in border areas, and contribute to firmly safeguarding national sovereignty.
Currently, the world and the region are going through complicated upheavals, hostile forces find ways to distort and split the solidarity between the two peoples. Therefore, the responsibility of each of us, especially the younger generation, is even greater. We need to actively respond to and implement the policies of the Party and State to contribute to cultivating friendship and consolidating the close and inseparable relationship between the two countries.
If the previous generation of Vietnam - Laos together "cutted along the Truong Son Mountains to save the country", today's generation always sticks to and shares in economic activities, culture, sports, tourism, etc., in order to further promote the strong Vietnam-Laos relationship that Uncle Ho together with the leaders and people of the two countries worked so hard to cultivate.
