Archive for the ‘travel’ Category

Yo. It’s been a long time. There have been plenty of pictures but not a lot of time. Plus, the internet connection here in Laos is slow and sketchy. Anyway, here are a few pictures I took today of Eli. The background looks white, but it’s actually the yellow west-facing wall of our house.


For my birthday, we decided to take a day off from work and explore the festivities going on downtown. I’m still not sure what the big festival was about but it was definitely worth seeing. The best part for the kids were the rides. I loved all the colors.

Beautiful Bangkok Family

November 14, 2010

When Orawin and Karsten invited me to their home in Bangkok, I didn’t know what to expect. But it was clear after a few moments what a loving, beautiful family they are. He is from Denmark and his parents were in Bangkok visiting, so I had the chance to photograph some extended family. Their little girl was so sweet and fast! She had just learned to walk the day before and I could barely keep up with her. Here are a couple of my favorite shots.


Village kids in Laos
Water buffaloes and chickens in Lao village
Boy in Laos
Unafraid Lao boy
Boys in a Lao village

Proponents of Attachment Parenting would be pretty happy in Laos. I saw a lot of babies and they were always riding on their moms, dads or older siblings in a sling/wrap.
Lao woman and her baby
Lao woman and her 3-month old boy
Lao woman with her neighbor's son

At a village not far from the Vietnam border in Bolikhamsai, I met this woman. We were near her house, talking with on of the PRAM students about her newly-built chicken coop. This older lady was squatting a few yards away, chattering and making friendly jokes. I approached her with my camera and she didn’t seem scared, so I took a few initial pictures like this:
Lao Medicine Woman
After a bit, she said, “What are you taking those pictures for? If it’s for something important, let me go get some pretty clothes on.” So she climbed up the ladder to her one-room 10×10 house-on-stilts and came back down two minutes later dressed like this:
Lao Medicine Woman
Apparently she is the medicine woman in her village and this is her “doctor uniform” as she called it. She was so playful and funny. After I got a few serious shots, she started doing a little dance.
Lao Medicine Woman DancingLao Woman Dancing
Then she invited me into her house to see her instruments, one of which was an AK-47. Our group was leaving and I only had time to snap this shot (though I had some burning questions about her “instruments”):
Lao medicine woman with her gun

Sunday Drive: Udon Thani

October 31, 2010

We went on a little Sunday drive a couple miles past our house, heading out of the city. It’s almost time to harvest the rice and the fields are turning from bright green to yellow. It was a beautiful drive (I guess “ride” would be more accurate since we were on a motorcycle).