Lao New Year Madness
Young women getting drenched with yellow-colored water
Last month I went to Luang Prabang in Laos for the Lao New Year celebrations. I was there for about one week and did lots of work. Most of it has already been posted on the Laos Photo Library, but I’m going to start posting more of my Laos stuff in galleries on this site.
This new gallery showcases the insane street celebrations that take place during Lao New Year. During the New Year festivities, Lao people traditionally wash the Buddha images housed in the local temples, and also have ceremonies where they wash their elders’ hands in a show of respect. In the modern interpretation, young people crowd onto the streets to toss water at each other, throw talcum powder in people’s faces, and smear kettle grease all over their friends. The whole thing is quite chaotic and a bit stressful for a photographer who doesn’t particularly want to get water, handfuls of white powder, or grease and soot on/in his camera.
I really wanted to capture the sense of constant movement, the streams of water flying through the air, and the general sense of friendly mayhem. In order to do this I used slow shutter speeds for much of my work, and I’m rather pleased with the results I got. I hope you enjoy this set, it’s one of my favorites!
New Years and Doorways
A girl covered in white powder and coloring during the Lao New Year celebrations
A couple of weeks back I went to Luang Prabang in Laos for the Lao New Year celebrations. If you’ve ever heard of Songkran in Thailand, it’s really similar to that. Traditionally all the Buddha statues and furnishings would be taken out of the temples and washed by the community during ceremonies and parades. Young people would also wash their elders hands in a symbolic show of respect. Read more »
Highway to Luang Prabang
The view from Phoxai village, Vang Vieng District
Photography in Laos is not easy, I’ve been averaging about two photos a day which I can use, and for those of you that don’t know, that’s definitely not enough. But I think I’m figuring out how to work here… more on that towards the end of the post.
Yesterday I tried to rent a motorbike in Vang Vieng. I wanted a real Honda, not some Chinese piece of junk. I asked a guy if I could rent one for 10 days, and he got very suspicious. “Where are you going to go?” he asked. “Kasi”, I replied, which isn’t all true. Kasi is only 56 kilometers from Vang Vieng. Yeah, I was going to go through Kasi… but I was going to keep driving another 150 kilometers or so through the mountains to Luang Prabang. He said Kasi was too far, then became very aloof and stopped looking at me, which is the Lao way of saying no. Being the bastard that I am, I stood and stared at him and basically forced him to actually tell me no. Which he did. I asked another guy, went through the same questions, and was told a ridiculously high price for the bike. So, what should I do now?