Today in AiL short: a blog post about an useful but rather underrated thing – at least when you come from western countries to Laos.

“2016” found on Google Street View from January 2016

Bottle crates

If you take a ride through Luang Prabang, you may notice yellow crates. They can be found nearly everywhere: in front of restaurants, in stores, on trucks, at homes, …

Well, what’s so special? That’s easy: they are not just laying around, there quite some interesting usages for them! Let me tell you about some of the funniest we’ve seen:

Umbrella stand

Yes, that’s correct! Filled up with some concrete and after drilling a hole in the center, you can use the bottle crates to prevent umbrellas from falling over.

Mark parking spots

No one needs road cones. The yellow crates have the perfect size and color to get your attention. They tell you: this parking space is reserved!

Flower pot

Why not? Put some smaller flower pots with cactuses and other smaller plants inside and voilà, you have a decorative ‘crate pot’ like we saw it on the ferry crossing the Mekong river.

Chair & Table

Well, that was kinda obvious, wasn’t it? But still, to make a complete list, we need to mention it here. Honestly, we haven’t tried how comfortable or stable they are…

Walls

Of course, not for buildings, but as a separator, why not?

Art

Yes, kinda. At least for a nice remembrance of 2016, as you can see in the picture above (click here for Source).

Carrying bottles…and other stuff

Who in the world came up with this idea?

One last question: can anyone tell us why we always only see empty Beerlao crates?! On trucks, next to stores,…what’s going wrong? Matthias is getting sad because of this… 🙂