Ethically yours: Silver Naga, Vang Vieng, Laos


Silver Naga Vang Vieng Laos staff at the pool with a view
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Rachel Dechaineux uses ‘eth­ic­al’ a lot, both in word and in deed, because she feels that tour­ism is all about people.

This is the fourth Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Laos Show­case by Bernie Rosen­bloom of “Good Tour­ism” Des­tin­a­tion Part­ner WeAre­Lao.

Ms Dechaineux is the own­er of the river­side Sil­ver Naga hotel in Vang Vieng, Laos. “We aim to give our guests a truly mem­or­able stay that incor­por­ates my pas­sions for Lao design, cul­ture, and food.”

“I always reflect on what and how we engage as people, wheth­er tour­ists or the hotel,” she added, and as a social anthro­po­lo­gist, “Socio-envir­on­ment­al con­cepts and issues are deeply ingrained in my heart.”

She stressed the 84-room hotel fol­lows estab­lished sus­tain­able guidelines, but, “We aim to cre­ate a bal­ance of eth­ic­al and sus­tain­able prac­tices, by enga­ging the loc­al community.”

She poin­ted to Sil­ver Naga’s Sus­tain­ing Com­munit­ies — School Pro­ject that ren­ov­ated one loc­al school wing with an Aus­trali­an school dona­tion. The pro­ject also sup­ports reg­u­lar sports and in-class envir­on­ment­al aware­ness activities.

Loc­al school kids col­lect rub­bish for pony rides offered by Sil­ver Naga. The hotel’s eight-horse stable star­ted in 2008, with three ponies acquired from Laun­dry Chief Ms Nai’s grand­fath­er. They had been ear­marked for Viet­namese butchers.

Ms Nai also helped com­mis­sion a loc­al women’s weav­ing group to “cre­ate our own design using nat­ur­al dyes and organ­ic cot­ton, for show pil­low cases,” Rachel said.

She added Sil­ver Naga’s con­tri­bu­tion to the community’s eco­nomy reaches into all areas of the hotel, from fur­nish­ings to food. “Almost all our fur­niture was made by Vang Vieng car­penters onsite,” Rachel noted, and loc­ally woven cot­ton uphol­stery cov­ers them.

Silver Naga Vang Vieng Laos room with cushions
Sil­ver Naga hotel in Vang Vieng, Laos com­mis­sions a loc­al weav­ing group to pro­duce bespoke cush­ion cov­ers, uphol­stery, and show pil­low cases using organ­ic cot­ton and nat­ur­al dyes.

The hotel uses loc­ally pro­cured bam­boo shingles, rat­tan fur­niture and bas­ketry, and décor, includ­ing wall paint­ings by loc­al artists and arte­facts such as pot­tery and gongs. L’Artisans sup­plies liquid soap refills.

Dishes served in Sil­ver Naga’s res­taur­ant are mostly groun­ded in Vang Vieng and Laos. “I developed our ini­tial menu with Lao sea­son­al cuisine, Rachel said. “This ‘slow food’ char­coal cook­ing brings out fab­ulous fla­vours using ingredi­ents like bam­boo shoots, crick­ets, fern shoots, and ant eggs.”

She added, “I have noticed over the years most West­ern trav­el­lers are will­ing to try the loc­al food. They get addicted to Lao food for its fresh­ness, spice, fla­vours and col­our.” Less adven­tur­ous pal­ates will find Asi­an and West­ern dishes along­side an Itali­an-inspired vegan menu.

The hotel’s fields across the Song River grow plenty that appears on their plates, while present­ing an unob­struc­ted view of steep lime­stone mountains. 

“We home grow nat­ur­al, chem­ic­al-free sticky rice in our field,” Rachel said. “The garden pro­duces chilli and basil, mul­berry leaves for tem­pura, and rosella flowers and pandan leaves for wel­come drinks.” 

She noted that chefs order sea­son­al veget­ables and fruits avail­able in the region before select­ing products from Vien­tiane or imports. “We also sep­ar­ate our wet waste, and scraps head to the farm’s chick­ens, ducks, geese, and ponies.” 

Silver Naga hotel's food gardens are set in the karst landscape of Vang Vieng, Laos
Sil­ver Naga hotel’s food gar­dens are set in the karst land­scape of Vang Vieng, Laos.

Rachel then began point­ing to the more tra­di­tion­al side of the sus­tain­able scale. “We prac­tice pop­u­lar hotel policies on con­serving elec­tri­city, tow­el reuse, sun­dried laun­dry, and water refill sta­tions.” She added that Sil­ver Naga has axed plastic water bottles. “We now have our own water fil­tra­tion and glass bottle san­it­iz­ing system.”

Sol­ar pan­els heat the water. Con­tain­ers, wax paper, and banana leaves replace plastic bags for refri­ger­at­or stor­age. Staff make bam­boo straws, and the clean­ing teams col­lect cash in on recyc­ling card­board, glass, and plastic bottles…except those used to make stand up paddle boards.

But for Rachel, Sil­ver Naga’s eth­ic­al bot­tom line relies on “the friendly ser­vice delivered by our loc­al staff.”

Long-term investment in local staff 

“Edu­ca­tion for a career in tour­ism and hos­pit­al­ity is rel­at­ively new in Laos,” Rachel said. “Employ­ment used to be based on Eng­lish, com­puter skills, job exper­i­ence, or recommendations. 

“Our staff were mostly trained on the job and at in-house train­ing courses. How­ever, that star­ted to change when LANITH and voca­tion­al schools estab­lished core cur­riculum for tour­ism and hos­pit­al­ity, which raised the industry’s pro­file as a career path.”

How­ever, careers at Sil­ver Naga began at its first prop­erty Ele­phant Cross­ing that opened 15 years ago. “Sev­er­al of our staff have worked with us for more than 10 years,” and they arrived on dif­fer­ent roads. 

“At one stage, there was a trend of employ­ees com­ing from a loc­al Eng­lish teach­er train­ing program…This crew star­ted as waiters to improve their spoken Eng­lish and learn ser­vice skills.” They then star­ted climb­ing a choice of ladders.

Silver Naga people (L-R) Rachel Dechaineux, Pong Phommaxay, and Somchin Souvannaseng
(L‑R) Rachel Dechaineux, Pong Phom­maxay, and Somchin Souvannaseng

“This was the path our cur­rent Communications/Reservations Man­ager Pong Phom­maxay took. He is con­tinu­ally chal­lenged with improved tech­no­logy,” Rachel said.

“Anoth­er example is Sil­ver Naga’s Res­id­ent Man­ager Somchin Sou­v­an­naseng. We employed her as a 16-year-old to take care of our chil­dren. She star­ted learn­ing Eng­lish by watch­ing Dis­ney and listen­ing to con­ver­sa­tions in the hotel.”

Ms Somchin went on to busi­ness man­age­ment school, and took LANITH courses. “She has an amaz­ing skill­set, and is an excel­lent team lead­er,” Rachel said.

“The hotel’s core team now trans­fers their skills and know-how to stu­dent interns.” It appears Sil­ver Naga’s invest­ment in their employ­ees’ future is now pay­ing off.

COVID clean and safe

“We adap­ted our prac­tices when COVID arrived,” Rachel said. “We mon­it­or the tem­per­at­ures of staff and guests at check in, and provide hand san­it­izers. All staff wear masks, with many requir­ing gloves. We prac­tice social dis­tan­cing on elev­at­ors, and only make-up rooms upon request.

“Sil­ver Naga con­ducts all pro­to­cols neces­sary to be a clean, safe place for our guests. We also alloc­ate rooms with dis­tances for indi­vidu­als and groups.”

Silver Naga

Web­site: Sil­ver Naga
reservations@silvernaga.com
+856 23 511 822

Down­load: “Eth­ic­ally Yours, Sil­ver Naga Vang Vieng” (PDF; hos­ted offsite) 

Vis­it Sus­tain­able Tour­ism Laos on Facebook

Fea­tured image (top of post): Sil­ver Naga hotel staff at the pool with a view of Vang Vieng’s lime­stone karst landscape.

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