Travel Photos

This leg of the trip I really got to see faces.  I’ve always been interested in portraits, and everywhere I look, from the car window or through the camera’s eye, I see people staring back.  Maybe cars don’t come around too often, maybe they’re trying to relay some message across cultures and language with a glance.  Some seem forlorn.  Some just look tired beyond their years.  I regret not asking the driver to stop on the side of the road, when were driving from Xieng Khouang to Samneau.  There was this one village, with the sun setting in the background, wooden houses illuminated, and the rice paddies just aglow.  I’ve never harvested rice, plowed the fields, or carried water.  I’m sure it is some of the most difficult tasks one could do year after year, but I actually thought how wonderful it would be to live that life.  Aside from the satellite dishes connected to the humble homes, there are some villages and communities that truly live with the earth and the sun.  You’ll still find the colorful products like canned goods, chips and other modern products littering the landscape, but for many moments during our road trip, I actually thought that time had passed by these people.  That’s the best photo—the one I didn’t get to take.

Posted in Lao Culture, Laos Trip, Writing.