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| Sunset over the Mekong River, Vientiane | Another shot of the same sunset. | Definitely click for a closer view...this was the flier for my guesthouse's kayaking trip. Hilarious. | A 12' reticulated python skin. The snake got into the hencoop and ate the chickens, so they ate the snake instead... |
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Roasted rat, anyone? (From a little market town on the road to Vangvieng. I didn't try them because I wasn't feeling well, but I'm hoping to find some later.) |
Roasted bats. If you look at the closeup you can see tiny little teeth at the bottom of the jaws (bottom of the center skewer). | Roasted chick embryos. Chick embryos are a delicacy in Vietnam and Laos, and eggs are sold with numbers on them indicating the number of days they were incubated before sale. | Roasted beetles, from the market in Muang Sing. The stand also had them llive and crawling about... |
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| I think this is a mongoose. It was on sale at the market in Muang Sing, and I almost bought it to get a closer look--but it was gone (sold) on my return. | A food stall at the night market in Luang Prabang. On closer look... | ...I noticed they were selling roasted, flattened pig heads. I have to admit, they looked tasty despite the expression... |
A butcher woman in the Muang Sing Market. To the left, a haunch of water buffalo. (I know it was a water buffalo, because the head and skin were rolled up under the table. Also, the hoof is still on the leg...) |
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| Water buffalo innards on sale at the Muang Sing Market. | These women are not selling gasoline. They're selling Lao whisky. But can you really tell the difference...? | Woman going to the morning market at Muang Sing. Lovely photo. | Some beautiful scenery from my Wildside rafting trip. |
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| Take a closer look at this--this is forest regenerating after slash-and-burn. Bamboo forest regenerates first (because bamboo grows fast), then eventually the dipterocarps (big trees) overtake and shade out the bamboo. | Me climbing up a rock wall, during a climbing lesson. I wasn't big on rock climbing, but I like the photo... | Floating down the Nam Ha River, in Vangvieng, Laos. Lao people normally fish with tiny bamboo spearguns and drop nets, but for really big fish (like this one), they use long bamboo poles and cries of "Beer Lao! Beer Lao!" | Vangvieng, Laos, or a street in Southern California? You decide... |
| Around Luang Prabang | |||
| Luang Prabang is a World Heritage Site, and the second-biggest town in Laos--population 30,000. (Vientiane, the capital, has about 300,000 people.) It's full of small boutique-y tourist shops, beautiful temples, and the gorgeous scenery everywhere in Laos. | |||
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| Wat's that? Yep, another wat (temple) ...this was quite a pretty one. | Monks praying in a wat. Laos, like Thailand, is mostly Theravada Buddhist. | The Night Market, where various vendors sell gorgeous Lao weaving, quilting, saa-paper lanterns (left), knives, knicknacks, and, well, stuff. (They also sell all kinds of food...I ate my roasted rat here.) | Closeup of one of the textiles. |
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| I started giggling uncontrollably when I saw this. It's the "Office for Protection of Foreigners". | Some forms of transportation in Laos. This is a tuktuk, or three-wheeled cart. | And this is a cyclo-rickshaw... | And this is a midrange songtao, or pickup-taxi. These can be anything from the microvan here, to minivans, to actual pickup trucks, or glorified golf carts. |
| Craftwork from Around Laos | |||
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| Knives being forged by hand. Here the blacksmith hammers away at a blade... | ...and here are some of his helpers. Cute as the dickens, aren't they? | A young child pumping the bellows. He was quite gleeful about it, in classic four-year-old form... | Woman embroidering outside the Hmong Market, Luang Prabang. |
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| Woman spinning silk (yes, from my travel shawl project ;-) ) on a charkha, in Luang Prabang. | Woman weaving using supplementary-weft technique in Luang Prabang. | Me weaving using supplementary-weft technique, in Luang Prabang. | A piece of naturally-dyed, handwoven silk, 2 meters long, that I bought for $28. |
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| A piece of Tai tribe weaving, with the characteristic diamond pattern. | Pot of indigo paste, at the natural dyeing/weaving center. | Completely gratuitous...here is a piece of elephant jawbone, on sale in Luang Prabang. I'd have bought it, except for CITES regulations...it had fascinating crenellations. | |
