Hi,

After our time in Cambodia, we flew to Vientiane, the capital of Laos and from there we travelled north ending up in Luang Prabang.

Laos was not what we expected. We expected it to be poorer than Cambodia, it is not. There is a much bigger middle class and the gap between rich and poor seems less in many respects.
Also, it being a communist country and while Cambodja is a sort of democracy, the political systems and street practices did not seem different to us.

Right in the middle of North Laos, in Vang Vieng (we'd never heard of that town before) we found a scene familiar to the Dordogne / Verzere area in France in summer.
Western back-packers from Europe and Australia bussy with camping, biking, climbing, rafting, tubing, cave exploring and canoeing.
In the evening eating pizza's and drinking large quantities of Beer Lao (the local brew) in lounge style bars...
This was all so very *alien* to the rest of the country.

The north of Laos was covered in thick smog, spoiling much of our trip, until the first rain came.
The Lao farmers are burning the forests in large quantities.
Wildlife is hard to find. Almost no birds in the forests, no monkeys, no bats in the caves.
When asked for, the people tell you it's all eaten...

It was an interesting trip for sure.

Here are a few pictures:

The Lao Arch de Triomph:



One of the many old Wat's in Vientiane:



Budists often have small altars outside their houses.
This altar we found in the forest at a place where the locals hid when Laos was invaded by American forces.



Hmong children, the Hmong are a minority living in the mountains.
They arrived in Laos 200 years ago from Mongolia.
The Lao think they are dirty, lazy and good for nothing.
I guess in many respects Lao society is not that different from any other....







- Bert

PS I'll post some more later

[einstrigger]

Thanks for posting this series and please post more! My father lives in Vientiane and although he described it to me, I always suspected it was poorer and more "3rd worldly".

[bymy141]

Ok, two more on Vientiane.

What was different also, was the integration of prostitudes into society.
Western and eastern man "ordering" girls in the restaurants and everybody behaving if it was completely normal.
Well, us Amsterdam raised Dutch, we thought we were used to something!

The main temple at the national "mall".



In one of the many garment factories.



- Bert

[bymy141]

A few more:

Sunset over the Nam Xong river (at Vang Vieng) with Karsten hills on the horizon:



Along the road





Only one dollah please!



- Bert

[fractal]

Cambodia is a lot more corrupt than Lao.

Lao has some great temples, but i'm more interested in the people & #6 in the first series is superb. A classic portrait from SE Asia.

[the swede]

Very nice and very interesting series!

I like the view over the small river with houses on the right, and the portrait of the girl is wonderfull to.

[bymy141]

Wilderness and wildlife is consumed in every possible way, not only in Laos.



Many lakes suffer from intens fishing practices, resulting in dropping catch results.
Fish is often offered either smoked or dried.



And of course there are wat's (temples) everywhere





A self portrait



So far the Laos series, I've run out of storage space here on this forum.
There is a lot more to show, I find it hard to make a selection that both shows the scenery and are photos worth showing...

Thanks you all for the possitive feedback so far.

- Bert