Laos Adventure [p.2]

Sunday, 2/26.
My only full day in Vang Vien so I decide to “see it all” which is not difficult as the town is only about 1 x 1.5 kilometers. Setting out with map in hand I walk the streets and encounter vendors taking their wares to market, some guys jacking up a mini-truck partially off a bridge, several wats, lots of road construction, an old airstrip left over from the war years, kids playing in the river, and a man getting his haircut in an open-air barber shop.

After lunch I hire a country tuk-tuk to take me across the river to the Hmong village. This turns out to be a big disappointment as these Hmong do not wear any distinctive costumes and appear to be at the bottom of Lao society. They’re very poor and live in thatched huts with dirt floors and have no electricity or running water. I get a few shots of the children then head into the countryside to visit Tham Phu Kham, one of the many caves. After paying the US$1 entry fee I make a brutal, near-vertical 200-meter climb over rocks to the cave mouth. But it’s well worth the trek: there is a Thai bronze reclining Buddha in the main cavern illuminated by sunlight coming through a hole in the cave roof. After descending it’s back to town as night falls. Out for dinner and guess what...more Beer Lao!

Monday, 2/27.
The bus back to Vientiane doesn’t leave until 1 p.m. so I spend the morning shooting along the river before having a leisurely lunch at Thavansouk’s restaurant. I’ve had a pleasant time here; it’s very peaceful and relaxing. The bus trip is uneventful. There are a lot of potential photo-ops but we’re not stopping! When I get back to the Mali Namphu I have another stroke of luck. The Lao man who checks me in and helps me up to my room is very friendly. Phan speaks excellent English and offers to take me around tomorrow (his day off) on his motorbike. I’ve had the good fortune to encounter people like Phan in Vieät Nam and Cambodia and was hoping it would happen here. Now it has and I’m ecstatic! We make plans to meet the next morning.

Tuesday, 2/28.
I meet Phan at 9 a.m. and we take off on his moto. First stop is a huge open-air market where all kinds of foodstuffs, baskets, hardware, utensils, and everything else under the sun is for sale. I have a field day shooting all the exotic food items and practically have to be dragged away. Back on the moto we head out of town. We visit some women weaving baskets and trays out of bamboo and palm leaves and stop to pay a visit to some of Phan’s friends. En route we see people chopping up cloth remnants for mattress stuffing and a man handcrafting rice-cultivating tools. We take lunch at a roadside restaurant. I’m a little nervous about eating here but the noodle soup is boiling hot and tasty. I wash it down with a Beer Lao.

After lunch we visit a rural school. I chat briefly with the principal and get permission to shoot in the classrooms. We leave the school and travel on dirt roads where we encounter more weavers, a guy cultivating mushrooms, women and children walking, and a large herd of water buffalo.

For dinner we stop at Phan’s favorite goat barbecue place at a roadside where we indulge ourselves in plate after plate of delicious barbecue washed down with...Beer Lao! The last stop of the day is a night market.

This has been, by far, the best photography day. I got shots that I never would have found on my own. Back at the hotel Phan tells me that he’s also off until 3 p.m. tomorrow and asks if I would like to go out again in the morning. Of course, I take him up on the offer.

Wednesday, 3/01.
My last full day in Laos. Phan and I set out in a different direction along the north bank of the Mekong. At the first stop, a kind of cargo transfer point where people are loading goods onto small boats, I am denied permission to shoot by a uniformed officer. It’s too bad, as the place was quite interesting. As we go farther into the countryside I don’t see much of interest. Unlike the previous day, which was bright and sunny, today is overcast and the light is flat and gray. It’s also the dry season so there’s not much green. We stop at a riverside picnic area which Phan tells me is quite popular and lively during the wet season; today it’s deserted. We moto around for a few more hours looking for something interesting to shoot and pay a visit to one of Phan‘s friends before heading back to Vientiane. I spend the afternoon resting and turn in early after dinner.