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photographie-irie > Monk Pair with Umbrella, Luang Prabang, Laos      Colorful monks everywhere doing all the things you or I might do, with umbrella. Luang Prabang is an upscale jewel of controlled development managed to preserve and heighten the charm of this splendid old capital city. Surrounded by green mountain peaks where the Khan River joins the Mekong, it is a place of natural beauty, more temples and monks than you can find in any similar land area, and UNESCO World Heritage Site status that preserves hope it will retain it's unique and relaxing charm through the inevitable development that is happening. What they are doing in the way of development now seems to be maintaining that optimistic mantra. Wonderful sights, great food, most excellent fruit shakes, and more monks and umbrellas than you can shake a stick at.
photographie-irie > Bus Terminal, Luang Prabang, Laos This picture presents my major mode of transport around SE Asia - the bus. All manner of tourist vans and buses and trucks are available at premium prices for wary visitors, but local transport is a much cheaper and intimate way to experience the real place you came to see. Sometimes tight, with long winding roads, but always an adventure. For extra passengers little plastic chairs came out to set in the aisle. But while I heard multiple stories of 'lost' items on 'tourist' buses in Thailand, I never experienced anything similar using more local conveyance throughout all of SE Asia. Much less expensive and easy to coordinate once you get the feel for it, and in many cases a much better ride than were one to stick with the tourist facilities and routes, especially in Thailand. In Thailand for instance, public busses I used in the South were cheaper than tourist equivalents, with all the comforts of air conditioning, reclining seats, an under-deck luggage compartment and movies playing, in addition to that peace of mind you get from an elaborate Buddhist shrine up front blocking part of the driver's view. What will happen will happen. The bus shown in this image is probably the most minimal is terms of all the rides taken in my long journey. All you need is time and attitude.
photographie-irie > Kuangsi Falls, Luang Prabang, Laos      This is the lower reaches of a series of extensive waterfalls and cascading pools at Kuangsi Falls south of Luang Prabang. In these larger pools local kids and adults have their natural amusement park, swimming, diving, swinging and playing in their beautiful backyard. Visitors and locals play together here as well, although most visitors tend to ascend on either side to the taller waterfalls up above, to reach even more beautiful isolated pools looking down on the valley, some difficult to reach but accessible with careful footing and an eye toward how others did it and then managed to get down. Colorful monks, travelers and locals alike share all the wonders of this great place. One of the nicest such places I have been.
photographie-irie > Hmong Homes, North of Luang Prabang, Laos      The Hmong and other ethnic minorities in Laos tend to live in rural mountain areas, where they would prefer some autonomy from prior and current communist government repression. After the Hmong fought the US government's war in Laos during the Vietnam years, the succeeding Pathet Lao communist government exhibited payback with continuing repression and reported abuses focused upon the Hmong. Many escaped Laos to pick up as refugees in Thailand, the US and elsewhere, but a signifcant population still lives in remote and mountainous settings such as this. As in Vietnam and other partf of Southeast Asia where they are found, the Hmong tend to live off the land in animist harmony with it.
photographie-irie > Water Buffalo in Mudhole, North of Luang Prabang, Laos       Now that's a mudhole. Kinda makes you want to jump right in. I never got quite that local.
photographie-irie > Morning Monk Ritual, Luang Prabang, Laos       Luang Prabang is famous for it's many Buddhist wats (temples) and colorful, safron robed monks. A huge part of local culture, young boys traditionally become monks to study in the wat for at least three months. You then see them everywhere around town, with shorn heads and saffron robes using the internet cafe, taking a walk to appreciate the sunset, having a cigarette on the veranda. They are easy to engage, and look forward to the opportunity to practice their English. And every morning at the crack of dawn, these young monks and their elders walk the streets of town in single file, where along the way local patrons support the temples and monkhood through their daily contribution of food to fill the monk's orange bowls and bellies. Locals sit on the sidewalk to put offerings of sticky rice, bread and fruit into the monks passing bowls.
photographie-irie > Morning Monk Ritual 2, Luang Prabang, Laos      Coming and going, the single file line of monks is a colorful ritual very popular with the tourists that can arise early enough to enjoy. Their path though the city announces the beginning of the day for most, as restaurants open their doors for visitors needing that cup of strong Lao coffee that will keep them from returning to bed. As with most all of SE Asia where mountain climates don't temper the coming day's heat, early morning is the best and most productive time of day. So in getting visitors out of bed for this early morning spectacle, the young monks do us a great favor to help get us going.
photographie-irie > Bicycling Parasol Girls, Luang Prabang, Laos      As with the prior image of a military pollce riding his motorbike one handed with parasol in the other, so do these ladies here travel on bicycle. His motor-biking version probably evolved from prior parasol use on bicycles before motorbikes became ubiquitous as they are as they are in present day Laos. With the easy going pace of life here, and the most basic economies and dependability that are part of bicycling, it is still a major transportation form in present day Laos as it is throughout SE Asia.
photographie-irie > Motorbike Parasol Soldier, Luang Prabang, Laos           There is so much I like about this subject here. A soldier of the perceived heavy handed and repressive Lao military cruising on his motorbike with parasol in hand to maintain his complexion as light as possible, and proudly advertising local brew along the way. I have mentioned elsewhere that light complexions are most treasured wherever I have travelled in SE Asia, and that as a result locals largely try to shield themselves from the sun. But in Laos, as with other finely developed local arts unappreciated by modern society elsewhere, the art of riding motorbikes with a parasol or umbrella is finely tuned and ever present. Whether guarding from sun or rain, one handed motorbiking is a given, in order to finely balance that parasol the with slight tilt forward, necessary so as not to catch the breeze, ruin a perfectly fine umbrella, and turn it into a disasterous space shuttle type drag chute. They have very nice umbrellas and parasols in Laos, and lots of them. I never witnessed a single local miscue in this fine art among the hundreds of single handed riders I would watch over a short period of time, downtown or on open road. And as with any finely practiced sport, they look good doing it, especially the cute girls. Note in the blurred background is another one handed rider with parasol in other hand.
Monk Pair with Umbrella, Luang Prabang, Laos     

Colorful monks everywhere doing all the things you or I might do, with umbrella. Luang Prabang is an upscale jewel of controlled development managed to preserve and heighten the charm of this splendid old capital city. Surrounded by green mountain peaks where the Khan River joins the Mekong, it is a place of natural beauty, more temples and monks than you can find in any similar land area, and UNESCO World Heritage Site status that preserves hope it will retain it's unique and relaxing charm through the inevitable development that is happening. What they are doing in the way of development now seems to be maintaining that optimistic mantra. Wonderful sights, great food, most excellent fruit shakes, and more monks and umbrellas than you can shake a stick at.
photographie-irie > Monk Pair with Umbrella, Luang Prabang, Laos      Colorful monks everywhere doing all the things you or I might do, with umbrella. Luang Prabang is an upscale jewel of controlled development managed to preserve and heighten the charm of this splendid old capital city. Surrounded by green mountain peaks where the Khan River joins the Mekong, it is a place of natural beauty, more temples and monks than you can find in any similar land area, and UNESCO World Heritage Site status that preserves hope it will retain it's unique and relaxing charm through the inevitable development that is happening. What they are doing in the way of development now seems to be maintaining that optimistic mantra. Wonderful sights, great food, most excellent fruit shakes, and more monks and umbrellas than you can shake a stick at.
Monk Pair with Umbrella, Luang Prabang, Laos     

Colorful monks everywhere doing all the things you or I might do, with umbrella. Luang Prabang is an upscale jewel of controlled development managed to preserve and heighten the charm of this splendid old capital city. Surrounded by green mountain peaks where the Khan River joins the Mekong, it is a place of natural beauty, more temples and monks than you can find in any similar land area, and UNESCO World Heritage Site status that preserves hope it will retain it's unique and relaxing charm through the inevitable development that is happening. What they are doing in the way of development now seems to be maintaining that optimistic mantra. Wonderful sights, great food, most excellent fruit shakes, and more monks and umbrellas than you can shake a stick at.
See photo in original gallery.
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