Women Net Fishing Lake, Near Ban Thalat, Laos
About 50 miles and a couple hours motorbike ride north of Vientiane, women fish for dinner in the peaceful lake setting where big mountains start to rise behind the photographer. Cone hats indicate these may be Vietnamese immigrants, or just that they are being practical in spite of general Lao distaste for Vietnamese hegemony. In and around Laos, the country is pronounced as "Lao", and the ethnic majority constituting about 70% of the population are called "Lao" rather than Laotian. Ethnic minorities like the Hmong dot rural and mountain areas outside the city, some maintaining a tenuous and challenging existence amidst past and continuing government repression. Outsiders attempt to group all inhabitants of this country as "Laotian" based upon the country's political boundary, but the strong and unique heritage of the ethnic minorities like the Hmong, Dao, Yao, Tai dumm, Shan, and 88 other peoples occupying Laos defies any attempt to address them as Laotian in Laos, especially given recent internal political history. But for all the warnings of potential dangers to visitors regarding possible hostilities relative to these ethnic and political struggles, I encountered nothing but friendly interaction among the wonderfully mellow and friendly Lao, Hmong, Dao, and all the others I met, and even with the military soldiers. Certain roads traveled on motorbike and bus were cautioned as being unsafe for tourist travel by the US State Department and equivalent agencies of Australia and others. Yet when I passed mountain peoples with rifles I guessed it was for hunting, and the only thing they gave me was smiles and assistance when my motorbike broke down. Perhaps I wasn't particularly concerned because you get used to automatic weapons traveling the world these days, or maybe because I live in Alaska where guns are commonplace. Shit can happen anywhere, like at Columbine High School in Colorado, where the State Department would have issued travel warnings for Americans visiting Colorado if it were a foreign country in the way the State Department maintains warnings for lesser events when they occurred years ago in Laos or Thailand or Bali or Cambodia. Local information is always your best guide as long as in getting local you don't drop yourself in the middle of something already happening. These fishing ladies did not shoot me.
About 50 miles and a couple hours motorbike ride north of Vientiane, women fish for dinner in the peaceful lake setting where big mountains start to rise behind the photographer. Cone hats indicate these may be Vietnamese immigrants, or just that they are being practical in spite of general Lao distaste for Vietnamese hegemony. In and around Laos, the country is pronounced as "Lao", and the ethnic majority constituting about 70% of the population are called "Lao" rather than Laotian. Ethnic minorities like the Hmong dot rural and mountain areas outside the city, some maintaining a tenuous and challenging existence amidst past and continuing government repression. Outsiders attempt to group all inhabitants of this country as "Laotian" based upon the country's political boundary, but the strong and unique heritage of the ethnic minorities like the Hmong, Dao, Yao, Tai dumm, Shan, and 88 other peoples occupying Laos defies any attempt to address them as Laotian in Laos, especially given recent internal political history. But for all the warnings of potential dangers to visitors regarding possible hostilities relative to these ethnic and political struggles, I encountered nothing but friendly interaction among the wonderfully mellow and friendly Lao, Hmong, Dao, and all the others I met, and even with the military soldiers. Certain roads traveled on motorbike and bus were cautioned as being unsafe for tourist travel by the US State Department and equivalent agencies of Australia and others. Yet when I passed mountain peoples with rifles I guessed it was for hunting, and the only thing they gave me was smiles and assistance when my motorbike broke down. Perhaps I wasn't particularly concerned because you get used to automatic weapons traveling the world these days, or maybe because I live in Alaska where guns are commonplace. Shit can happen anywhere, like at Columbine High School in Colorado, where the State Department would have issued travel warnings for Americans visiting Colorado if it were a foreign country in the way the State Department maintains warnings for lesser events when they occurred years ago in Laos or Thailand or Bali or Cambodia. Local information is always your best guide as long as in getting local you don't drop yourself in the middle of something already happening. These fishing ladies did not shoot me.
Women Net Fishing Lake, Near Ban Thalat, Laos
About 50 miles and a couple hours motorbike ride north of Vientiane, women fish for dinner in the peaceful lake setting where big mountains start to rise behind the photographer. Cone hats indicate these may be Vietnamese immigrants, or just that they are being practical in spite of general Lao distaste for Vietnamese hegemony. In and around Laos, the country is pronounced as "Lao", and the ethnic majority constituting about 70% of the population are called "Lao" rather than Laotian. Ethnic minorities like the Hmong dot rural and mountain areas outside the city, some maintaining a tenuous and challenging existence amidst past and continuing government repression. Outsiders attempt to group all inhabitants of this country as "Laotian" based upon the country's political boundary, but the strong and unique heritage of the ethnic minorities like the Hmong, Dao, Yao, Tai dumm, Shan, and 88 other peoples occupying Laos defies any attempt to address them as Laotian in Laos, especially given recent internal political history. But for all the warnings of potential dangers to visitors regarding possible hostilities relative to these ethnic and political struggles, I encountered nothing but friendly interaction among the wonderfully mellow and friendly Lao, Hmong, Dao, and all the others I met, and even with the military soldiers. Certain roads traveled on motorbike and bus were cautioned as being unsafe for tourist travel by the US State Department and equivalent agencies of Australia and others. Yet when I passed mountain peoples with rifles I guessed it was for hunting, and the only thing they gave me was smiles and assistance when my motorbike broke down. Perhaps I wasn't particularly concerned because you get used to automatic weapons traveling the world these days, or maybe because I live in Alaska where guns are commonplace. Shit can happen anywhere, like at Columbine High School in Colorado, where the State Department would have issued travel warnings for Americans visiting Colorado if it were a foreign country in the way the State Department maintains warnings for lesser events when they occurred years ago in Laos or Thailand or Bali or Cambodia. Local information is always your best guide as long as in getting local you don't drop yourself in the middle of something already happening. These fishing ladies did not shoot me.
About 50 miles and a couple hours motorbike ride north of Vientiane, women fish for dinner in the peaceful lake setting where big mountains start to rise behind the photographer. Cone hats indicate these may be Vietnamese immigrants, or just that they are being practical in spite of general Lao distaste for Vietnamese hegemony. In and around Laos, the country is pronounced as "Lao", and the ethnic majority constituting about 70% of the population are called "Lao" rather than Laotian. Ethnic minorities like the Hmong dot rural and mountain areas outside the city, some maintaining a tenuous and challenging existence amidst past and continuing government repression. Outsiders attempt to group all inhabitants of this country as "Laotian" based upon the country's political boundary, but the strong and unique heritage of the ethnic minorities like the Hmong, Dao, Yao, Tai dumm, Shan, and 88 other peoples occupying Laos defies any attempt to address them as Laotian in Laos, especially given recent internal political history. But for all the warnings of potential dangers to visitors regarding possible hostilities relative to these ethnic and political struggles, I encountered nothing but friendly interaction among the wonderfully mellow and friendly Lao, Hmong, Dao, and all the others I met, and even with the military soldiers. Certain roads traveled on motorbike and bus were cautioned as being unsafe for tourist travel by the US State Department and equivalent agencies of Australia and others. Yet when I passed mountain peoples with rifles I guessed it was for hunting, and the only thing they gave me was smiles and assistance when my motorbike broke down. Perhaps I wasn't particularly concerned because you get used to automatic weapons traveling the world these days, or maybe because I live in Alaska where guns are commonplace. Shit can happen anywhere, like at Columbine High School in Colorado, where the State Department would have issued travel warnings for Americans visiting Colorado if it were a foreign country in the way the State Department maintains warnings for lesser events when they occurred years ago in Laos or Thailand or Bali or Cambodia. Local information is always your best guide as long as in getting local you don't drop yourself in the middle of something already happening. These fishing ladies did not shoot me.
See photo in original gallery.
