Luangprabang: 1st to the 5th March Workshop & Tour: I am heading back to one of my favourite parts of Southeast Asia again at the beginning of March 2015 to run a small group workshop and tour from Luangprabang in Northern Laos. I simple love this World Heritage protected town and its lush mountainous surrounds. I have been visiting here for several years now and have great contacts in the area. My forma students have experienced and photographed a traditional Mon House exorcism, nothing that scary actually but a little bizarre. A hill-tribe doctor administering to a women who just gave birth. The last day of the rice harvest on the top of a high hill, surrounded by amazing lush rice paddies and jungle. The fact I can speak to the locals is a huge plus for me and my students too. If they have a heavy regional dialect I have my trusted mini-van driver Thong La, who is fluent in many of the local hill tribe dialects. Plus his Thai is perfect. I also regularly use the same river boat captain, who knows my students and I want to visit the less travelled parts along the Mekong, a splendid day out, not only for photography but as an experience too.
Even though I must have visited the place over 20 times it still excites me to be heading back there as every trip has been different. I am also always so touched by the warmth of the locals I meet and the generosity of spirit they have. The picture below was taken at one of the villages I have visited on a similar workshop, reached by boat only, on the banks of Mekong.
