Dervish on Mt. Phousi

I love this picture. A novice monk — obviously not a dervish, but in a movement that recalls one, at least to me — on a little crag of Mt. Phousi, in Luang Prabang.

Listening to Laos

In our week in Luang Prabang I asked several different teenagers and people in the 20s what music they were listening to.  From this by no means scientific survey, some popular performers today in Laos, where pop music or anything like it was pretty much illegal until 2003, are  L-Zone, The Cell  and LOG, Laos Original Gangstaz.
 UPDATE [...]

Laos: Economic indicators and other tidbits

I spent several enjoyable evenings chatting with Lin Thasiniphone, a 21-year-old who worked at our guesthouse, Lao Wooden House (this picture doesn’t do it justice).
 

We spent $40 a night here on two $20-per night rooms, each beautifully appointed and with a king size bed, with tropical fruit and baguettes breakfast included.  The story is that [...]

Leilah Burns on the palace grounds

As most of you know, we are carrying some of Leilah’s ashes with us and leaving them in places we think deserve her and that she’d appreciate.  Here’s where we left her in Luang Prabang, Laos: She’s on the little orange flowers and at the base of the tall palm tree dead center in this [...]

If he wasn’t a monk…

We were up on top of Mt. Phousi, a limestone hill that’s the spiritual and geographical center of Luang Prabang, at around sunset when this young man (a novice monk) got up on a little rock outcropping and just stood there.  If it was me up there, I know I would have been posing at [...]

On the slow in Laos – Updated again with pics July 26

 This is a view of Luang Prabang from across the Mekong.   The steps lead to a famous Wat — the name of which I can’t remember — where kings’ funeral rites were conducted. 

A: We shuffle in our flip flops down a curving road, lined with fruit and flower trees, palms, bamboo and thorny plants, great trees [...]

Saffron dawn

This morning not long past dawn, after a hide wrapped wooden barrel drum was struck, Keleakai and I sat cross-legged outside our guesthouse gate as barefoot monks and novices from all over Luang Prabang walked through the city with their alms bowls, into which our neighbors on the street dropped pinches of sticky rice and other [...]

Views from Abroad

We are in Laos — where internet connections are slow again and keyboards are sticky from humidity and spilled BeerLao, all of which means I will update later with pictures etc. For now, some newsflashes and observations gathered from local press and conversations with Americans.
A: We’re headed next to Thailand, where something sounding like [...]