Floating downstream

Originally uploaded by deepwarren

The last few weeks have been frantic, between attempting to get a work project finished and trying to get good routines going again after the holiday break. Today I got a film developed, that I'd had taken in Laos while tubing down the river. I'd brought a disposable underwater plastic camera rather than risk my dslr. I am rather clumsy, and a watery death for my camera would have been a likely outcome.

So I got the photo's back and they seemed magical. All blurry and yellow-ed, and taken in eariier era, rather than 4 months ago. And thinking about it, you feel the shoulders relax, and remember the feel at looking at towering mountains with yr bum in a rubber ring.

Travel is a beautiful thing.

Tubing on the mighty Zhong

Tubing
Originally uploaded by mic*

The number 1 highlight of traveling through Laos so far been tubing on the mighty Zhong in Vang Vieng, Laos. It's a little side river of the Mekong, and the whole idea is simple - pay the money and take a inner tube and float down river..

It's brilliant - you flat. Get reeled into bamboo bars that are perched up and down the river by 'tourist fishers' who perch on rocks and fling little tubes that you grab, and they pull you in.
There are firefox's and rope swings for the foolhardy and the game. And loads and loads of alcohol. And even happy shakes at the Last Bar. Sun, water and beer - can't go wrong really. Any attention to local rules about not too much flesh are here abandoned, and at least 60% of the female population is wearing a bikini - often in their national colours. the day we went, you could add some mud, and loud Brit house music and you had a scene that made us wish we had our camera's.

In fact, we went back for day 2 - not as many boobs as day 1, but lots of fun. We got to try the bars that we didn't get to on the first go, and had to cope with the shortage of cash disappointment at the last bar - not enough money for happy shakes!

An unnamed member of our group asked: Where do the inner tubes come from? And when told tractor tires - went 'Noooo, i've seen tractor tires, they have bumps on them.' Giggles all round really. Tractors and bus tires would be my guess, and they are guarded by the tubing cartel of Veng Viang with a zealous charging system. $15 if you lost one, $2 if you're returning your tube after 6pm. They also run on a rotation basis in the town, so if one doesn't open for the day, the other tubing place will. It stops competition, and perhaps shares the profits around a bit more.

The odd bit of the tubing scene is the number of girls in bikinis wandering through town afterwards dressed in nothing but their bikini (that, and the drunken teary scenes of girls freaking out cause it's dark and they don't know where such-and-so is..). After doing tubing, you realise the answer is often, sleeping it off in some bar along the way, half way down the river or in the closest pub.

Nong Khai

who laughing now?
Originally uploaded by deepwarren

We spent a day at Nong Khai, which is a border town between Laos and Thailand. It was a rather sleepy little scrappy number, but it had very fine food. Lots of river prawns, and seafood cooked on the open grill. Fish cooked in salt (we didn't get time to try that) and this rocking little seafood curry sold in a banana leaf basket for 30 baht. We were recovering from the train ride, so aside from wander about the markets and river side of town, we didn't do too much exploring.

Saw a Buddha! Another one!

I asked these people sitting in the back of the van if I could take their photo- which they thought was just hugely funny. So much so, that I took one fast snap, did the nop (head nod of hello/goodbye/thank you) and bolted embarrassed. Sometimes it happens. I haven't gotten into photographing people this trip. There has been so many tourists about, and the industry is so geared to westerners everywhere, that it seems a little rude to be snapping the people as well.

I'm sure I will get over. It could have been a rocking shot, if I was a little closer, a little steadier and concentrated just a touch. The light was right..

"Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film." ~Steven Wright

Bout to go to bangkok for a holiday, and hopefully wander through Laos and Cambodia before ending up at Hanoi with 2 of my beastie friends. Beasties are sorta those special friends that also manage to lead one astray more often than not. As DrP gloomily predicts my alcohol intake is about to treble, a prediction that might be actually erring on the side of caution considering I've managed to get it down to one night a week (okay, maybe 2, but it's a gentle 2).

I've also managed to give up smoking for 4 months and it seems quite perverse to go to SE Asia where you can cheaply remove whole afternoons in a blur of alcohol and nicotine. It's a holiday though, and i so need, a good long walk. Having all those overstressed danger signals where you start to think that you might be actually important at work (as opposed to valuable) and the whirly brain of what-do-i do? with said life.

Project 1 for trip is to start on a series of 100 photos of strangers - one per day at the least! It's a flickr group, and i think it will make a great set - complete with their name and their story.