There are now links to all of my pictures from Laos in the ‘Photographs’ section.
Posts tagged Laos
I have just returned to Bangkok from a fifteen day visit to Myanmar during the closing chapter of my travels in South East Asia. The two weeks I spent travelling in Yangon, Mandalay, Bagan and the Shan State were perhaps the most enlightening and profound of the past five months.
Tomorrow I shall return to Europe and begin work on documenting some of the findings that came about as a consequence of my travels. Indeed, I plan on updating the ‘Photographs’ and ‘Films’ sections of this page in the coming weeks in order to provide a detailed outline with regards to what I witnessed.
In accordance with my latest series of posts, please see below a collection of photos taken during my time in Vientiane, the capital of Laos.
The Plain of Jars is one of the most talked about prehistoric sites in all of South East Asia. Tourists come from far and wide to explore, predominantly the main three sites, of this mysterious and rather beautiful ancient burial ground. Phonsavan, the nearest town to the sites that offers reasonable accommodation, is a bare and dusty place that is testament to the sheer strife of the NGOs who face the unimaginable feet of clearing the surrounding area of unexploded ordinance.
As well as visiting Sites One, Two and Three of the P.O.J, I spent one evening at the Mines Awareness Group headquarters in Phonsavan. Check out their website for more information concerning the project: http://www.maginternational.org/
Some pictures from Luang Prabang, Laos.
I took these back in October as we began making our way further towards the Southern end of the country. I have made my admiration for Laos abundant in previous posts and as I find myself once again only a few kilometres from Vientiane on the Thai side of the border, I recall just how incredible my time there was.
The journey from Mong Khua to Nong Kiau by boat was one of the most remarkable experiences in Asia so far. Our vessel travelled down the Nam Ou river towards Luang Prabang from Phongsali, allowing for incredible views of the banks on either side. The trip also allowed for a one night stop over in Mong Khua and a two day break in Nong Kiau, which was an absolute delight.
Laos is a dazzling country of contrasts. The experience I had there throughout October this year was truly remarkable and I have just finished putting together a series of photograph albums that document he different stages of my journey there. I hope to be able to post these frequently on Tsaiho, but an occasional lack of Internet connection combined with a host of various other distractions as I continue on my adventure across Asia has led to a massive backlog of thoughts and images I wish to share.
The first album is from Luang Nam Tha, a peaceful settlement nestled among a gorgeousness of lush green mountains in the North West of the country.
I am currently writing from Vietnam, which is by no means as tranquil as Laos, but is certainly equally as fascinating.
I found it to be a rather odd sensation, swinging back and forth gently in a thick, mesh hammock as the sun rose over the Four Thousand Islands, or Si Phan Don, while reading Orwell’s classic. It was the first time I had read Burmese Days, and the ringing of colonial humdrum split right through my level of concentration, lighting up not too distant memories of the rest of my time Laos and the colonial remnants I had experienced there. From Luang Nom Tha in the brilliant North West, to Don Det in the deepest South, the colonial history of the country was apparent in every corner under shades of UXO and other bloody reminders of the US bombings during the Vietnam War.
Though Orwell’s novel is a gauging testament to the negative consequences of colonialism, it focuses predominantly on the impacts a colonial power, in this case the British Empire, had on the individual level as well as the bureaucratic one. Flory, an Englishman who has spent most of his life living in and around a very small village in Burma, is tormented by loneliness and self-pity despite indulging in native curiosities and trying to befriend a select few of the local people. Flory’s actions consequently ruin the lives of those Burmese people he draws close to him due mostly in part to his cowardice, a negative attribute that grows with the conversations and contact he has with his British associates and representatives of the Colonial power. Orwell also brings life to a whole host of other British characters who seem to detest the ‘natives’ with their every breath - condemning the Burmese to prostitution, corruption and scandal. Needless to say the book is a most gripping read and one that I would sorely recommend, but reading it in Laos provided additional dimensions to the story (it is only a story after all, despite characters being based on people Orwell met when he himself served in Burma).
I am now in Cambodia, a country with a past bloodier than is possible to fathom. The sickening atrocities that occurred in every town and city here were simply appalling. Indeed, the fact that genocide took place here is no secret the Cambodian people seem to be intent on trying to keep; almost every street vendor in Siem Reap sells copies of books about Year Zero (one of which I have just started), the Pol Pot regime, the Killing Fields etc., and there are some excellent films available on the subject. What I find particularly astounding though are the historical webs that link colonial history to the brutality that followed; with the United States, Russia and China of course spinning a great deal of this great misfortune, despite their not being present as official colonial powers. Today I will visit the Killing Caves of Battambang.
Three albums from Thailand.
BANGKOK
CHIANG MAI
CHIANG RAI
Travel update:
Tonight we take the bus from the capital Vientiane to Pakse, Southern Laos.
A short entry I put together concerning my first visit to the Thar Heritage Museum in Jaisalmer, India, on 12th September 2011. I have a short video series to go with this document that I hope to be able to post as soon as I find myself with a good Internet connection and a spare day to catch up with things. Tomorrow morning I will leave Luang Prabang for Phonsavan, Laos.
The Thar Heritage Museum is located down a backstreet of Jaisalmer’s main bazaar, which is a fair trek from the city fort, at least in the blistering heat that is customary for the region. The cows do a good job of blocking the main drag as they gurn on plastic bags and other rubbish they find piled up on the corner of every side street, while auto-rickshaws and motorbikes blast their horns at every available opportunity as the shop keepers call and beckon every white person that walks past. It is a busy place to say the least; full of bright colours and peculiar odours, busy people and unexpected wildlife. That only makes finding the Thar Heritage Museum more interesting, in that the location of the bulding adds yet another quirky dimension to this already out-of-the-way and less frequented attraction.
I first read about the museum in the Roughguide to Rajasthan, Delhi and Agra. The book, which I happened to be borrowing from my Sister, had so far been a trustworthy and reliable source of information on the trip so far and it had promised a rather interesting experience at this museum in particular. The Roughguide mentions that despite the exhibition being interesting enough on as it stands, it is brought to life by the sole collector of items, Mr Laxmi Khatri, who is able to accompany on your tour of the museum ‘if he is on hand’. Upon arriving at the museum, it appeared as though he was not. A young boy sat twiddling his thumbs at a table by the entrance and bolted up the stairs to unlock the museum for us as soon as we popped our heads curiously around the door. ‘Please. Go.’, he said before pelting out off the entrance through which we had came as we made our way slowly up the steps towards what we understood to be an exhibition. The room was dark and random assortments of items belonging to different areas of interest lay cluttered around the floor below shelves of nik naks associated with camels, pottery and religion. Before no time at all, Mr Kharti appeared. “Welcome to the museum!” he said as he made mad dashes about the place, turning on light switches and fans. “You are the first visitors here in over a week!”… this was almost akin to what I had been hearing from rick-shaw drivers across Rajasthan for the past two weeks – “you are my first customer of the day” they would say, as if that would make a difference to the amount of money they would receive in addition to their fee. Mr Khatri however, had an element of honesty in his voice that clung to chipped and flaking walls around the museum. He then introduced himself formally, “My name is Laxmi N. Khatri”, he said, “and you are?”. We briefly introduced ourselves and he launched straight into an academic flow about the items that surrounded us. It was a fascinating journey; not only was Mr Kharti responsible for collecting each of these items and displaying them, he also paid for the rent of the building and the maintenance of the place out of his own pocket. “It is not cheap to keep this place going” he said in a sad tone, “but I feel like I have to. People come here and they want to learn about the Thar heritage and culture, and this is the only place where they can really do that”. I pressed him on this issue as there were several museums in town that offered information and exhibitions on desert culture. “Yes, that is very true” he said, “but they are all funded by the government and therefore only exhibit things about the social elite. They do not show anything about the real lives of the working people of Jaisalmer and the Thar desert people”. He proceed to explain in great detail a whole host of items used for cooking and calculating measurements. As if this were not interesting enough, he then led the way back down the stairs we had come up and into a smaller room where he had two small exhibits; the first was called ‘Opium Party’, which comprised of a series of items arranged in such a way that shed light on how the desert men spent their evenings chasing the dragon, and, ‘The Office’, which was one of the most intriguing displays I have ever seen at any museum, ever. It consisted of a seating area and a desk, surrounded by hand written volumes documenting transactions between local business people and passing travellers from all over Asia. The exhibition also hosted scales, weights and gadgets all from the same period, which would most certainly be a fascinating for any economic historian interested in the region.
The sad thing about ‘The Office’ and every other part of the museum, was the state in which these items were in. Nothing seemed to be well kept or preserved, despite their cultural value and significance, instead they lay in piles around the floor. This was the best that Mr Kharti could do when taking his finances into account, even though he had received honours from Indian state officials and academics in the past, his museum severely lacks the funding and attention it needs. The majority of the tourists that come through Jaisalmer are part of large organised groups, that do not go to the Thar Heritage museum because of its run down state and lac of prestige. The objects and items there are only really brought to life my Mr Khatri himself and he can not cater for more than small groups of about ten tourists at a time – though he is rarely graced with such numbers. We shot a few clips of Mr Kharti in action and I am trying to work with Mr Khatri in putting together a new website for the museum, though at the present time he is seemingly difficult to contact. If you find yourself anywhere near the Thar Desert in the future, I more than recommend paying the museum a visit – it is definitely a must.
Mr Khati curating items in ‘The Office’
