Back from Laos

I have just returned to my home in Chiang Mai, Thailand after some mindblowing days in Laos. Most of the time was spent in remote hmong hilltribe villages in absolutely drop dead stunning mountain landscapes in the Xieng Khoung province. Driving through these mountains in a 4WD through stunning mountainscapes and then visiting villages so remote the kids had never met a "white fella” before. The joy, innocence, strength and laughter from these kids were moving and inspirational and hard to stop smiling and laughing. Naturally, the camera and watching themselves on the lcd screen caused a lot of stunned laughs from the kids!

I am nursing a hilltribe cold (warm in the day but at night in these mountains in a guesthouse with no heating and no windows – COLD!) so more to come later, more stories and many more images. Here’s one of the hmong tribe boys who instantly took to the camera, he tried to pose and appear in every shot:

hmong_coolkid

7 Comments on “Back from Laos”

  1. Cute little Tacker eh Bo!

    Your stories are so similar to PNG and how the kids react there eh!

    I have a good story for you mate. Last week we returned a girl back from rehab in the Melbourne hospital. She was dancing near a fire with a grass skirt on…not whilst we were there but we came across her in a lot of pain and burns all over her legs and back.

    She would have died for sure if we had not intervened and together with one of the passengers we sponsored her to come to Aus for Treatment.

    She has now made a full recovery and I feel quite proud that we were able to help her.

    Kids in these remote areas are so precious and fragile all at the same time eh!

    1. What a fantastic story Mark! Yes the kids here are so precious and fragile but also incredibly strong. They are used to having to fight for survival and giving the right opportunities and education these kids could become world champs of anything!

      Sorry I haven't visited your blog for a bit, just got back online, but only have an expensive 3G modem connection presently so only doing essentials online (which should include your blog of course hehe).

  2. No worries on visiting the blog mate..I know that you are in remote areas and the complexities that such locations can create when trying to use modern communications!

    Plenty of time mate! When you do get around to it, I have posted the story and photo of little Grace who we helped last year with a belly button infection.

    Have fun mate…off to Rottnest tomorrow for the weekend so I know I am gonna have fun eh!

  3. When you do get a chance mate, I managed to get a couple of cracker baby Orang shots at the zoo recently…pretty happy with them eh…and I have a couple of reasonable canoe shots that are more recent then that.

    Cheers,

    Mark

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