mekong trip 2013 | Without an H

Posts from the ‘mekong trip 2013’ category

Becalmed

130705-053-edited

I ran out of steam a little in Pakse. Having spent the previous seven weeks travelling from Yunnan province in China down to southern Laos, I found that I had lost my momentum. The weather – alternating between exhausting heat and apocalyptic thunderstorms – didn’t help, and Pakse isn’t the most enticing of towns, but I can’t really blame these things for my lack of energy. I know from experience that when these listless moods come along, I just have to wait them out. After a few days of feeling tired and heavy even before breakfast, I woke up one day suddenly feeling clearer and brighter. I left town the next day.

Pakse looks a little like Savannakhet, my previous stop, with plenty of that faded colonial thing going on, but feels more neglected than charming. Although I wasn’t that happy with my pictures at the time, with distance – in terms of days passed and miles travelled – I’ve come to like some of them and am happy to post them here.

Since leaving Pakse, incidentally, I’ve been getting up early in the morning and cycling in the afternoons, England have been doing well in the cricket, and the world seems a brighter place.

130705-002-edited 130705-039-edited 130710-013-edited 130705-062-edited 130706-020-edited 130706-025-edited 130710-068-edited 130710-002-edited 130710-006-edited

A wet wat

130709-061-edited

At the time, I thought that my visit to Wat Phu Champasak was a complete washout, ruined by the rain. But looking at these pictures again today, I quite like the way the ruined Khmer temple looks in the wet.

130709-025-edited 130709-029-edited 130709-045-edited 130709-039-edited 130709-050-edited

Monks’ faces and Buddhist places

130630-091-edited

Pictures of temples and monks in Laos are something of a cliche, but to avoid photographing them would be pointlessly contrary. So here are a few more monk portraits and wat details, taken in Savannakhet and Pakse in southern Laos.

130710-041-edited

130705-014-edited

130710-029-edited

130710-023-edited

130630-041-edited

130710-021-edited

130710-018-edited

130706-005-edited

That faded colonial look

130703-096-edited

It’s hard to write about Savannakhet without using phrases like faded colonial charm and elegantly crumbling. It’s a quiet, sleepy riverside town, and I spent an enjoyable few days there doing not very much.

130701-006-edited

130703-122-edited

130630-066-edited

130703-141-edited

130630-082-edited

130703-128-edited

130630-089-edited

130703-027-edited

130703-056-edited

130703-064-edited

130703-002-edited

Flag

130630-017-edited

Low-key patriotism in Laos.

Mekong sunset

130701-052-edited

I thought it was about time I posted a picture of the sunset over the Mekong. This was taken in Savannakhet in southern Laos, looking over the river at Thailand.

Temple

130628-212-edited

I nearly missed this temple altogether. I was wandering the streets of Nakhon Phanom in northern Thailand with no clear plan in mind, with one eye on the threatening clouds overhead and half a mind to stop walking and take shelter somewhere with a cold beer. Instead, I walked on for another block, and came across Wat Srithep. An hour or so later, I left with some of my favourite pictures from this trip so far. 130628-153-edited 130628-171-edited 130628-186-edited 130628-192-edited 130628-216-edited 130628-088-edited

I was only in Thailand for three days. After leaving Vientiane, I continued south, spending an uneventful couple of days in Tha Khaek (that rain again), before crossing the Mekong into Thailand and the border town of Nakhon Phanom. My Lao visa was about to expire, and although I could have had it extended without leaving the country, it seemed like a good opportunity to see the other side of the river for a couple of days. I’m now back in Laos, in Savannakhet, which is lovely, and this blog, which has been lagging behind my movements for weeks, is now almost up-to-date.

Capital

130622-022-edited

I knew that travelling in south-east Asia in the wet season would be awkward at times, and that was certainly the case for the few days I spent in and around Vientiane. The capital city of Laos, not the most picturesque place to begin with, wasn’t done any favours by the rain. It wasn’t even dramatic-tropical-downpour rain, but persistent-drizzle-under-grey-skies rain, the kind of rain I left England to get away from.

Vientiane looks and feels very different to other places in northern Laos. The French influence is much more apparent, in the street names, food, architecture and general ambience. It hardly rivals Paris or London as one of the great capitals of the world, but it’s still a city, albeit a small, low-key one, and that makes it distinctly different to Luang Prabang or Luang Namtha.

Above and below are views of and from Patuxai, Vientiane’s Arc de Triomphe.

130622-033-edited

Wat Sisaket is home to hundreds of buddhas, big and small.

130622-055-edited 130622-061-edited 130622-073-edited 130622-092-edited

Khou Din market seems to have escaped the mallification, if that’s a word, which has made nearby Talat Sao market not very interesting.

130624-030-edited 130624-042-edited 130624-051-edited

130624-046-edited

Nong Khiaw

130616-123-edited

Nong Khiaw, in Luang Prabang province in northern Laos, is the kind of place that adjectives like breathtaking and stunning were invented for. A bumpy three hour bus ride from Luang Prabang town, the village is on the banks of the River Ou, surrounded by towering (there’s another one) limestone karsts. My landscape pictures don’t begin to do it justice, as I wasn’t organised enough to be in the right place at the right time, but that gives me the perfect excuse to go back another time.

130616-044-edited

130616-037-edited

130616-093-edited

130617-043-edited

130616-098-edited

Eleven monks

130613-056-edited

I don’t know what exactly makes Buddhist monks such compelling subjects for portrait photographs. I think maybe it’s something to do with how their shaved heads seem like an attempt to deny them their individuality, but their orange robes demand that you look at them.

130613-053-edited