AdVenture into Laos Nov. 22
- Dec. 28, 1999
I've been back from Laos now for one month and am ready to
add some of the photos I took to the site. The plan had been to
upload photos from Laos, providing a virtual tour experience,
but because my Internet connections were either down or extremely
slow due to major changes being implemented by the provider I
was using in Laos, it was a challenge just to send back reports.
PlaNet was my provider in Laos and I would highly recommend their
CyberCafes in Vientiane and Luang Prabang (I think they have one
in Vang Vieng too, that I haven't used). The staff is extremely
helpful and friendly, and I look forward to returning this summer
and having access to faster connections! They really are working
hard to provide reliable Internet access, and I describe in more
detail in my reports section on the current state of the Internet
in Laos.
There will be two access points to the photos. I'm first going
to place them in galleries grouped by subject. There will be a
description for each thumbnail photo and each thumbnail will be
linked to a larger seven inch wide version. The second access
point will be hypertext links provided in the original reports
I filed. This will take longer to do, maybe in a month, maybe
longer.... The reports are lengthy, and while I not only give
detailed accounts of my experiences, I also include passages from
reference sources such as the Vientiane Times and Lonely Planet's
guide to Laos that provide added insight to the topic at hand.
If you want a quick feel for Laos and what I saw and experienced,
browsing through the galleries will probably be your best bet.
If you want to learn more about a particular part of my trip you
might want to read the report covering that particular time period.
On this trip I brought my Canon EOS 3 and various lenses,
a Nikon Coolpix 950 digital camera with assorted lenses and a
Sony TRV 900 digital video camera. The Sony 900 not only takes
digital video but digital photos that are 640 x 480 and only compressed
4 to 1 in the super fine mode. It accepts Compact Flash cards
like I use in the Nikon and a 48 mb card will hold about 270!
It's easy to switch between taking video and shooting photos and
as I was primarily concerned with having photos I could use on
this web site the limited resolution was not a problem. I'm used
to using my Canon, but on this trip most of my photos were taken
with the Nikon. Digital photography is just starting to come into
its own and has a lot going for it. You can see right away if
you got the picture you wanted and since I brought my PowerBook
G3 I could download them at night and erase the card and really
had an unlimited supply of photos I could take. There were times
when I visited Hmong villages, or when I went up to Muang Sing
and didn't take my PowerBook and was limited to one 96mb card
and two 48 mb cards. What I found myself doing was erasing images
on the card in the camera to provide more shots. Luckily I have
six four-packs of NiMh batteries and several times ended up on
my sixth four pack! The downside of digital cameras is the time
lag of pressing the shutter and shutter actually going off and
then the wait of 4-5 seconds until the camera's ready for the
next shot. This is in fine mode though and the new generation
of cameras are getting quicker and have burst modes that will
cover most situations. I am also going to be editing my digital
video to make short QuickTime movies to add to my site. I'm waiting
on a 37 GB firewire harddrive and will be using Final Cut Pro
to edit the digital video footage we shot. This will present a
whole new learning curve for me, but I'm excited with the potential
of adding QuickTime movies to my site. For example, in the Luang
Prabang Photo Gallery I have a photo of girls being taught a dance
while singing the song they were dancing to. Their singing I thought
was mesmerizing, and of course the photo doesn't capture that.
But I do have some excellent video of their dancing that I would
like to add. If it works out well I intend to take more video
on my return trips to Laos.
Brief Overview of Trip
We (I traveled for two weeks with a Hmong aide from our school,
Chou Hang) arrived in Vientiane Nov. 20 during the That Luang
Festival which lasted until the 23rd. After the That Luang Festival
I traveled up to the Muang Fuang District where we visited Chou's
uncle's family in Ban Nong Hai. After several days there we took
the bus back to Vientiane and flew up to Luang Prabang. In Luang
Prabang we arranged to visit the village of Ban Phu Leuy where
the grandmother of one of my former students lived. It was quite
remote and we first had to visit a Liu village to talk to my friend
Mr. Khamphan's (tuk tuk driver) uncle who worked for the government
district office and was leading a meeting there. We talked to
him and since the next day was a holiday (National Day) he was
able to go with us as our guide. It was
an amazing experience. In Luang Prabang I also explored many
of the wats and attended a ceremony at Wat Pha Nom with my friend
Noi and her family. One day we drove toward Sayabouli trying to
locate a Mienh village. It took all day, but it ended up the village
we were looking for was primarily Lao as the Mienh had either
moved back into mountain villages or into the town of Luang Prabang.
We were also in Luang Prabang at the beginning of Hmong New Year
(Dec. 8) and attended many ceremonies and the beginning of festivities
on the 9th. On the 10th I flew back to Vientiane and Chou went
on his own to Phonsovanh. In Vientiane I was planning to meet
with friends to travel south to Savannakhet, but plans fell through,
and I ended up visiting Hmong New Year ceremonies in Ban Tha Ding
Daeng Tai and Km 52. At Ban Tha Ding Daeng Tai I met the village
leader, Youa Bee Lor and a teacher at the school, Lee Xeng. It's
a long story which I reported on in the reports
section, but I ended up donating educational supplies to the
school and helping them submit a grant to the Japanese Embassy
to help the village build a new primary school. It took a lot
of my time over the next week and a half as I met with different
organizations, NGO's, the US Embassy and the Japanese Embassy
seeing how this grant could be submitted. I missed not being able
to travel and finally arranged to fly to Luang Namtha on December
23, take a bus to Muang Sing on the 24th, visit Akha and Mienh
villages on the 25th and fly back on the 26th. During this period
northern Laos and Southern China were experiencing a major cold
spell and all I brought with me was a flannel shirt! I was so
cold in Luang Namtha, and along with staying in a run down hotel,
I was as lonely as I've every been. After a very cold and very
long night I was ready to return to Vientiane where I had passed
up several invitations to Christmas parties. I went to the Lao
Aviation Office at 8:00 and found that the flight on the 25th
was full and though I might be able to catch a flight to Luang
Prabang that morning, there would be no assurances of getting
back to Vientiane until the 27th. I ended up deciding to follow
through on my plans and caught a "bus" to Muang Sing.
Buses here are trucks with benches in the back with a metal roof
and open sides. It was aproximately 40 degreees and foggy, and
you can imagine how cold it was on the drive up. Luckily though,
three older Japanese ladies and their Japanese guide felt sorry
for me and one lady lent me a wool cap (she had a spare) and the
guide lent me a light weight jacket he wasn't using. By the time
we got to Muang Sing the sun came out and after exploring the
small town I found a delightful guesthouse with a extremely hospitible
owner and a guide to take me to Mienh and Akha villages the following
day. What was really special the next day was that after exploring
and 'trekking' through villages up to around 3:00 pm, we then
went to the wedding party of my guide's uncle. It was pure Lao,
in a small village with a band, lots of guests and tasty food.
I sat up on the balcony with the wedding party and drank plenty
of lao lao and became best buddies with some of his men relatives.
I also got in some dancing and was sad when we left to make way
for the next wedding party. What a way to spend Christmas! The
next morning I caught a bus back to Luang Namtha, flew back to
Vientiane and on the 27th I attended a ceremony at Ban Tha Ding
Daeng Tai where I handed over the donated educational supplies
and later that afternoon turned in the completed grant application
to the Japanese Embassy. The next day I had reservations for a
van that took me to Udon Thani in Thailand to catch the flight
to Bangkok, where the next day I flew back home.
This AdVenture into Laos Study Trip could not have happened
without the support of Tim McClure, Assistant Superintendent of
Educational Support Services at the Butte County Office of Education.
Site designed by Peter Whittlesey, currently Grant High Librarian (Sacramento) as of 11/1/03
All photographs copyright by Peter Whittlesey
