Royal Palace Grounds in Bangkok
Wat Phu and the Reclining Budda (Bangkok)
The White Temple Near Chiang Rai--truly spectacular and unique!
Another view
The White Temple is not PC...
Me and Ashley enjoying an afternoon with some beers at the waterfall.
Stupa seen on excursion to a border town near the Golden Triangle
Mekong Mixing of rivers and countries: Laos (upper right), Burma (upper left), and Thailand (bottom) can all be seen in the photo.
Big golden budda on a boat at the "Golden Triangle." It was touristy and cheesy.
Disassembling a raft (in Mae Sae, anothe border town)
Dead spider on the trail...bad omen for our motorbike outing?
Tires make excellent trash cans...a fine example of Thai ingenuity.
Most rice paddies in Chaing Rai (and elsewhere in SE Asia) lay fallow, but in the highlands here, a few were green.
The infamous point of no return as our motorbikes cross the river and we put tremendous trust in words issued by people who are extremely grateful for our $3 river crossing. My comrade is having second thoughts...
Giraad is living enjoying the moment, rather than considering our potential fate.
While we try to ask for directions, the village children play with our motorbike horns.
A night at the Teepee Bar in Chiang Rai. In costume: Ashley (middle), John Right.
Banyan tree?
A road cutting through the loose-rock hillsides of northern Laos.
Gutting a pig as part of some sort of ceremony in a small village in the Luang Nam Tha valley.
Luang Nam Tha Valley with rice paddies
Beware the slingshot (this little tyke nearly got me with a stone) and I scolded him mildly for it.
The first step in making brooms (mostly for export to China) is harvesting the fan-like plant. Next, these are whacked and finally assembled.
Our conversation doesn't get us clean water, but they do offer us water out of an old gasoline tank. This is my first experience with quite isolated villagers.
Those same broom-making plants.
Water buffalo tusk, anyone? Whatever you want, you can find at the market...
I think I gained weight rather than lost weight while trekking. Here is our lunch!
A random hunter outpost
The Pouban (Akha people) Village where we had our guided home-stay.
The trekking crew
I'll let you count the lines (I'm thinking centi)
Some old-growth
Village view from near the upper end of town. It runs along the ridge. Affords a wonderful view.
Animals rule the streets.
The town was dominated by the youth: their energy and playfulness.
And the animals, not to be outdone!
The festival site. We didn't witness an event.
Tamar
School
We finally tracked down a bamboo ball, which the children hit with their all-purpose-toy utility bamboo sticks.
Dinner (delicious cabbage/pork and tomato dishes served over sticky rice)
The locals brought out the Lau Lau (local rice whiskey moonshine, featured int eh Beerlao bottle)
Morning with valley fog breaking up
Village Chief, his son, and me
River trekking back to the road. Local guide (left) and Kong, a guide in training (right)
some old growth
I've got a nice bleeding wound from the leach. The guide thought the hiked up pants would make me look "windy, not cool" (a Lao expression). I'm still not sure what he means, but I went with the flow for a photo.
Idyllic, Muang Nuai
Tamar and I explored this area together.
Venturing onto some small foot paths (fingers crossed on land mines).
Village inaccessible by road, along the Ou River
Wearing a traditional hat.
Taking a page out of Aaron's book. He was enjoying photographing wall patterns, so I tried my hand at it. Doesn't take a lot of photographic skill to get an abstract photo.
Stuffing mattresses
Names written in Lao.
Water buffalo doing their thing.
We'd hired a villager to take us to another village upstream.
Bride in Muang Knoi
River trip to Luang Probang. Not the most comfortable jouney, but very nice scenery.
Freedom of the river. Gardens lined the river (seen at upper left).
Wat in Luang Probang.
Meal I made during my cooking course. I had to eat all of that! It was delicious, but I came away with leftobers.
pork and chicken laab
Luang Probang chile paste...mmmm!
Veggies with tomato garlic dip.
Feeding the monks in Luang Probang, near dawn.
Limestone cave near Veng Vieng.
Scenery near Veng Vieng.
Sunset in Veng Vieng. Yes, this is sunset mode (not true color), but the colors were quite red and the normal camera mode didn't pick it up.
