Justin Treadwell Travel Photography

LAOS | Wednesday, 3 July 2013 | Views [1102] | View Smaller Image

Tourists relax on the slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang during the low season in July, when heat and rain make travel more exhausting. To the locals, who refit their houseboats with car seats to ferry passengers, it's just another day on the river. The calendar is stuck on January.

Tags: laos, people, boat, calendar

A group waits by the river bank for their boat to fill with passengers before setting off. The enduring joke in Lao People's Democratic Republic is that Lao PDR stands for Please Don't Rush. There is a palpable sense of not-rushing along the Mekong, its people wary of dramatic change and enjoying the camaraderie that develops when people end up waiting around together.

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A young man heads home after a day's work in Luang Prabang. The Mekong is the highway, breadbasket and playground of the people who live in settlements along its banks. From childhood, they are taught to work with the natural rhythms of the river, learning to maneuver their long, low boats through the river's flow with confidence and ease.

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Justin Treadwell Travel Photography

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