Friday, March 02, 2012

Back to Luangprabang

Let's start with a couple of my favorite shots! 



Luangprabang at night

On the 15th of February I went back to Luangprabang.  This time I flew on Lao Airlines from Chiangmai.  I had only an evening and a morning before I went to Sayaboury for the national elephant festival, but that’s another story (actually it may be as many as three, stay tuned). On the 23rd I returned to Luangprabang for the evening, before flying to Bangkok on the morning of the 24th.    On these stopovers I made no attempt to make new discoveries, rather I chose to enjoy what I knew would be comfortable and restful.   As I did last year, I stayed at the Sokxai Guest House. Next time I’ll likely stay there again.  The place is reasonably priced, clean, well accompanied and most importantly the people are very nice.

Lao Airlines was nice as was Bangkok Airlines.  Bangkok bills themselves at the “Botique Airline”  They even offer a private lounge for their customers which offers complimentary coffee, juice and breads. 
Hostess in the Bangkok Airlines Lounge 
Of course every visit to Luangprabang means opportunities to photograph the monks who in their devotion have become quite the tourist attraction.

Well worth getting up at dawn!
A collection of 50 photos are on line at:  http://s935.photobucket.com/albums/ad200/jnelson1944/Luangprabang%20201202/ They include a few candidates for my new photo project idea.  I’ll call it “A few faces of Lao”.  Of the two below, which do you think might make the better front page candidate.  Which one will be more likely to cause the viewer to want to see more? 
He's about my age, not many left from his era.  Laos has suffered so much in war.


She was waiting to give to the monks