Photographic opportunities in Laos

Dear All:

We are going to Laos next December for a couple of weeks.

I would like to know your experience and best places to get good

pictures, street, people, landscape, reportage.

Thanks in advance

Claudio

hi claudio,

in the south the 4000 islands are nice to visit and to take pictures.

dont miss the bolaven plateau. it is best to reach from pakse by a rented motorbike (8 dollars a day). there are wonderful waterfalls and it is a nice coffee growing area.

in the north i liked vang vieng. there are nice rock formations. in luang prabang you will see a lot of monks and temples.

i also liked phonsavan in the east with the plain of jars.

hope this helps, chris

You will have already heard about the alm run in the streets of Luang Prabang, by now. Surely fascinating. How correct is to shoot that as it was a safari, that's another story.

The karstic landscape around Vang Vieng is interesting, and so it is the hilly one in the Golden Triangle accessed from the Laotian side in Muang Sing.

I greatly enjoyed the two-day slow boat trip up the Mekong from Luang Prabang to Huai Xai and the following day-long 4WD ride into Luang Nam Tha. A great taste of Asia, both from the fluvial landscape and the people point of view.

Although it is one of the most frequent photos in the guide books, Wat Sim in Vientiene is a most enjoyable place to photograph and hang out if there are not a lot of tourists. You can't photgraph in the main temple but the rows of Buddhas are impressive.

As mentioned Luang Prabang provides a variety of scenes with orange robed monks, street markets in the afternoon/evening, crumbling temples and nice river and hill shots.

One thing you'll also notice is that it is like traveling in Asia 10+ years ago - very slow paced, not much hassle and relatively easy to meet people though language is a pretty strong barrier, though French will still get around in some of the villages.

Jeff

everywhere is great. i would sugget getting off the beaten path. i know it is hard and you will probably go from the friendship bridge up through VV and LP and out onto the mekong and exit hoy xia as all the tourist do, but that tour is getting very crowded. i was in VV 5 years ago and it was a town full of tourists drinking beer and watching western movies. not where i would like to be ever again. but the rest of rural loas will provide you with a lifetime of photos....provided you can survive the long and dust ride in the back of apickup full of people doing 25MPH and stopping at every farm along the way! now THAT is what i call fun!

enjoy your visit and be sure to post some photos. i usulaly do not even talk about loas as too many tourists muck it up.....i just let them all stay in tahialand.

eddie

I liked Vang Vieng but I agree it is too touristry now. It's great if you need a break from travelling and just want to relax with other westerners. Indeed there are some great rock formations there. I stupidly missed most of them due to bad sunset timing. Luang Prabang is pretty amazing. Get up early (6am) to see the alms. You can do a trek to the north where you can get lots of shots in the villages. I did a 3 day bicycle tour because I felt it would allow me the freedom to stop and take photos where ever I wanted. In the end I don't think I was much better off, than some of the other tours. And if you do the bike tour make sure your fit enough to bike with all your photo gear.

Good luck,

Patrick - http://www.patrickperon.com

Check out the Kuang Si waterfalls just outside Luang Prabang. Same as all the other touristy spots, get there early in the morning or later in the day. The climb up and around the falls is worth the effort! Enjoy!

-b