Luang Prabang Day 6, 1 February 2006

Kaew invited me to breakfast so I was up early. before I went to his guest house, I went to the read just by the Mekong river and sat down by the enbankment. I figured, I could practice on my panning, something that I still do not do very well. Everytime someone would pass whether riding a vehicle or on foot, I would point my camera on them.


Pretty soon it was becoming quite frustrating because it is very difficult to focus on a subject that passes at random distances from the camera lens. I was told that to pan successfully, you should keep both eyes opened, one on the camera and the other on the subject as you are panning. Easier said than done.

As I was panning away, Seng passed by and I greeted him. He was on his way to see Kaew. Something about a handphone. I showed him some of my panning pictures and he says he likes them. Unfortunately I was not really pleased with most of them.

I then went to see Kaew and asked him if we are going to have breakfast. He said, he is too busy at the moment. Besides, I do not think he could get away because his bosses are also busy working in the guest house.







So back I went to the patongko place. When I got nearer the place, I saw this magnificent assortment of Vespas lining both sides of the street. The shop was packed! I had to squeeze myself into one of the available spots on one of the benches so I can order my breakfast. I ordered the usual and went on to update my diary. I had already written a couple of pages, and my order came in, only it was wrong. I was being served coffee when I ordered ovaltine. So I told them to correct their order, then I wrote some more and the my orders still did not come. One of the Thais noticed I was still waiting and he asked the shopkeeper to follow up on my order. I thanked him and asked if they are touring in Luang Prabang. He said that he is part of the Vespa rallye. This explains why there were so many Vespas on the street that morning. It seems that they came from different places in Thailand. The one I talked to was from Nongkhai, just accross the river from Vientiane. The other one I talked to beside the street was from Bangkok. After breakfast, I took more pictures of the Vespas in the street. Later in the evening, as kaew ang I was heading for dinner, we saw the vespas lined up in front of a club. But for this morning, they were on their way to the other side of Mekong. I hope they had a photographer with them because this is a unique road trip that has to be documented.

The vespa guys had actually given me a good idea, I will also go to the other side of Mekong so I can take black and white shots of the place while the sun is still low enough and was illuminating the place. This time I will just take my hasselblad. Seng was standing by the other boatmen and I asked him if he already has a client. He told me that he was still free. So I asked him how much it would cost me to cross to the other side of the river and be back before noon. After a few haggling, we agreed on the price. I went to the area where there were many boats docked for repair and where the women were doing their laundry and washing their onions. Then Seng took me to the sandbar where there was someone mending his net and there was a woman planting new onions into her field. She had a little boy with her. I asked the mother's permission if I could take his picture and she consented. As I was positioning the the boy so that I can have a better background form him, he changed his mind and went to his mother. The mother was laughing and said that he got a little scared.

So I then walked on to the end of the sandbar and found a man mending his fishing net. He told me it was okay for me to take his pictures. So I took a couple of pictures while he continued working. I also took a couple of pictures of the fields and the huts. I even found a man collecting onions in a puddle of water. When I got back to the spot where the boat was, I saw that the kid and the mother was standing on their field looking the other way, so I positioned my camera and waited. Finally the kid turned around and faced my direction and I got my shot.

In the afternoon, I just biked around the different temples of Luang Parabang. I went back to Wat Xing Thong becuase of the wooden buddha statues lined by the wall of the funerary temple. This time I stopped by the back of the main wat and found the Tree of life fresco so I took a picture of this as well. The next two temples are where a lot of novices stay. I had a conversation with one of them. He told me that he was trying to learn english so he appreciated if someone would talk to him in English. I then took their pictures by the tiger statue in front of their main temple. This time no senior monk got angry with us. The other novices were studying their books. I saw some playing chess and others were taking their baths. Pretty soon, they will be starting their chores before their evening prayers.










It was already late afternoon when I biked back to the river enbankment by the Mekong. I wanted to go back to the man that sold locally brewed Lao which had snakes, centipedes and spiders in their bottles. While I was there an old italian couple also stopped by and looked at what I was doing. He seem to recognize my hasselblad. We talked about photography for a while. He seem to also enjoy this hobby. If he could not understand what I was saying in English, I would speak in halting Spanish and we would seem to understand each other. So I finished my pictures and went on to the spot across the patongko shop. There I found Seng with the other boatmen tackling a serious business at hand, a bottle of whiskey. They offered me some but then I declined. But I tasted a slice of grilled goat meat they were eating. They were having a good time amongst themselves. Once in awhile a couple of tourists, perhaps previous passengers would also drop by and have a conversation with them.

After finishing my roll of film, I went back to the guesthouse to drop off my camera and then made my way to the Red Cross for a massage. Since it was still early, I also added a session in the sauna. I was given the same masseur who gave me once again a good massage. Then I went to the back of the building to have my sauna. The sauna itself was the size of a huge wardrobe. Packed inside are some rowdy Laotian young men. It seemed to me that the sauna was woodfired and there was steam coming from below the seats. After a few minutes of this I got out and went out and took a very cold shower. I then left to meet up with Kaew for dinner to finalize the arrangments on our trip to his hometown tomorrow.