Category: Laos photos (Page 1 of 7)

Buddhist Lent Day in Laos

July 10, 2025 / montanaron

Today, July 10th, marks the beginning of the Buddhist Lent period, or Boun Khao Phansa, which lasts for approximately three months. It’s the time when Buddhist monks return to their home temples, there to stay for the length of the period to study, meditate and reflect for spiritual renewal. It happens on the first day after the full moon of the eighth lunar month and marks the beginning of the three-month rainy season. Well, the rainy season this year seems to have begun much earlier, and it’s been raining most of the morning. It’s been raining here since June and my yard at my house has been flooded for at least the past ten days, making it difficult to go jogging in the morning without getting my shoes soaked.

Anyway, at the end of the three-month period, on Boun Ok Phansa day, Lent finishes. The day after that is the final day of the Vientiane Boat Racing festival.

I’ve posted before about the start of the Lent period here, and here. Although it’s not an official national holiday, quite a few businesses shut down, especially local small mom-and-pop vendors.

Here’s a photo, taken this morning, of Nai preparing a goodie basket for the monks at a nearby temple. Most merit-makers include sweets in their baskets. I kid Nai that he’s going to make the monks fat. But, most people, including Nai, also include cooked rice and other food, like fruit, in their offerings to the monks.

Nai has a small shrine inside the house. He lit some candles and prayed to Buddha before he left for the temple. This evening he’ll probably light a bunch of candles on the porch and add some goodies to the outside shrine he also has.

Rainy Season Full Blast in Laos

July 8, 2025 / montanaron

Yes, rainy season has arrived in force in Laos. Many villages and towns have been inundated and flooded, if they’re near a river. I haven’t heard of any deaths, but there may have been a few, although nothing catastrophic. It seems, though, that the entire country has been hit quite hard by recent rainfall.

As for me, I’ve been unable to leave my house to go jogging in the mornings without getting my shoes soaked. For a week now, my yard has been under water, more or less, but today the water receded enough for me to get out and get some running in. It had started to recede earlier in the week, but when it did, we’d get hit with another torrential, overnight storm. Not much fun.

And this is just the start. Rainy season will usually run from now until the middle of October, so I suppose I can look forward to other periods of jogging being postponed due to a flooded yard. Sheesh. Here’s a view of the yard before the water went down. Of course, I shouldn’t complain too much. Compared to folks whose villages have flooded and whose houses are underwater, I guess I’m not too bad off. More later.

Vientiane Boat Racing Festival 2023

November 6, 2023 / montanaron

The Vientiane Boat Racing Festival takes place every year around the time of the end of Buddhist Lent in Laos. The finals of the boat racing competition take place on the day after the end of Lent, which this year was Monday, October 30th. Before the racing, there are several days of the festival where there are concerts, activities for kids and vendors, who start setting up booths, stalls and tables to sell various products, hand-crafted goods, food, toys, shoes and many other items. I try to go to the festival every year because there’s so much to see, hear and do. The highlight, of course, is the boat racing.

This year, I went on Saturday and on Monday. Saturday was spent just walking around and taking a few photos, while Monday I took in a few of the races and also did some more walking in the area, which is right along the Mekong River. I didn’t take many pics of the festival area this year, but here are a few. Included with these are some photos I took last year and a few I took in 2020, none of which I have posted before. The reason I put them here is that they are very representative of the festival from year to year, like the one in 2015 and another in 2014. Looking at my photos from past years, it’s easy to see that as far as the vendors go, nothing is ever really different.

There are always many different kinds of Lao food for sale, so you’ll never go hungry at the festival. Plenty of eats at this vendor’s stall.

Lots of sweet goods also.

If you prefer home cooking or just getting a pet, you can try to win one of these ducks. See the bright red rings on the ground? Apparently, you try to toss a ring around a duck; if you’re successful you get to keep it. It costs money (I don’t know how much) to toss the rings, but you might get lucky right away..

You might work up a powerful thirst walking around in the heat, so you could always slake that thirst with a bottle of Lao-distilled vodka. (No, thanks.)

Lots of clothes for sale too.

And stuffed animals for the kids.

Though the animal isn’t stuffed, these children are enjoying the goings on anyway.

So, it was a fun day at the festival. I had taken the bus into town because I knew the traffic around the site would be extreme, to say the least, but when I was ready to leave, after stopping for awhile at one of the local watering holes, it started to rain, a very heavy rain. The last bus back to my neck of the woods was going to depart pretty soon, and I had about a half kilometer walk to the bus stop, but I didn’t have an umbrella. I could get drenched or try to find some place that sold umbrella. I found a small mom-and-pop market close by, and, yes, they had some umbrellas. Not exactly my favorite style, but it kept me fairly dry on my walk to the bus. Whaddy’a think? Cute, eh.

Next post I’ll have videos of some of the boat races, so check again later.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

August 8, 2023 / montanaron

It’s monsoon season in Laos, when the rainy weather is prevalent from May to the end of September, so wet days are to be expected. However, if I recall correctly, last year I only had to ride my motorbike in the rain for just a few times during the entire season. This year, though, has seen me put on my rain poncho more times than I can count, and it seems that it’s been raining whenever I go to work in the early afternoon and when I ride home around 8:30 at night. During the last four days, including last Saturday, that has been the case, and the rainfall has been very steady all day and night, though only heavy for just a few periods; it’s mostly been moderate or light. Luckily, the front yard hasn’t flooded (yet) like it has in the past. This photo is from August of 2018.

flooded front yard in 2018

The view from our front porch is quite different now. The house in front of us was torn down, and this past January and February a large, warehouse-sized building was constructed, though it hasn’t been rented out yet. Here’s what the view is now.

view from the front porch

Yikes, looks like the grass needs to be cut; I’ll pay the neighbor to do it when it’s a bit drier.

[Edited on Aug. 9] Here’s a shot of the grass that the neighbor cut today.

Then, lo and behold, the sun came out!!! It’s been quite awhile since we’ve had any sunshine. This is looking at the neighbors’ pond to the side of my house. Notice the blue sky.

[End edit]

The rain has stopped for now, but more is forecast for later. This is the last day of the second term this year at Vientiane College so now we get a month-long vacation, and guess what? I won’t be riding my motorbike in the rain for awhile!

Of course, it hasn’t been only Vientiane that has had a lot of rain, and many areas are much worse off than us. Landslides and floods are prevalent throughout Laos, as reported in these Laotian Times articles: Provinces hit, Vietnamese Nationals Stranded and Landslides. Unfortunately, there’s still a ways to go in August, and September is also quite wet. Hopefully, the fatalities, and landslides and floods will stop.

Pride Month in Laos

June 15, 2023 / montanaron

You might think that recognizing Pride Month in a somewhat repressive, but mostly benign, communist country would be a no-go. That’s not true, though. First, there is an LGBTQI group in Laos with a presence on Facebook, Proud to Be Us Laos, that participates in quite a few public events (see the Facebook page above), and recently the government allowed for the celebration of International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, and Transphobia (IDAHOBIT Day) for the first time during Pride Month this year.

Also, the U.S. Embassy showed its recognition of Pride Month by decking out part of their outside wall with the Pride colors. Here’s a photo I took when riding my motorbike to school last Saturday (sorry, it isn’t the sharpest of shots).

Pride colors on U.S. Embassy wall in Vientiane, Laos.

In addition, Vientiane College is also celebrating Pride Month with colorful streamers adorning our reception area. Here are a few shots I took on Saturday morning after classes had finished.

So, it appears that things are looking up for the gay, lesbian, etc. population of Laos. Let’s hope that more acceptance is forthcoming!

Pi Mai Lao

April 20, 2021 / montanaron

Happy Lao New Year! That’s what Laos celebrated last week on the 14th, 15th and 16th. The holiday is also celebrated in Thailand as Songkran, and it’s based on the traditional Laos New Year, which occurs in April, the hottest time of the year here. The dates have been standardized, so the holiday is always at the same time. I’ve posted about it before, so just go to the search box and type in pi mai–you’ll find plenty of posts about the holiday.

Of course, with the pandemic still screwing things up, the celebration was somewhat subdued. I went out to The Farm, where I used to live, on Thursday to join in the festivities, but there really wasn’t much going on. Compared to past years, it was quite calm with only a few other people visiting Nai’s sister’s house. His sister Nui and her husband Noi were present, a few nieces and nephews also visited with some of their children, and a few of the neighbors also came over to drink the ever-present Beer Lao and eat a bit of Lao food. So, I didn’t take that many photos, but here are some of them.

Pahng, Nai’s niece, and Vee, his brother’s wife, get ready to dig into some grilled fish, one of my favorite Lao foods. Gotta have some Beer Lao, too.

A few neighbors also visited, including Noy, on the right, and an unknown man from Luang Prabang, down for the holiday.

This is Leo, one of Nai’s niece’s boys. I’ve got other photos of him from previous years. Just do a search for Leo.

Nai’s niece, Go, with her three boys. From the left are Go, Ohm, Savan and Leo.

Here the three boys are lying down for a short nap. From the left are Ohm, Savan and Leo.

Stormy Weather!

May 8, 2020 / montanaron

Wow, we had a heckuva storm out my way yesterday afternoon. It started rolling in about 4 p.m, and I was thinking it would be nice to have a breeze and maybe a bit of rain. The clouds looked pretty benign, but the full force of the storm hit around 4:30 and it was anything but “nice.” I swear we had a mini-tornado. The winds were coming from all directions and they were extremely strong. The roof of my house was being lifted a few inches and dropped back down, more than once. The neighbors’ trees, large and strong, were being bent to about a 60 degree angle, debris was flying through the air, and the rain, only about 15 minutes worth, was fierce!

After it was over, about 30 minutes later, I took a walk around. Our house was OK, but the neighbor in front of us had part of his roof blown off, much of the roof of the karaoke across the road was destroyed, and a small pavilion in the rice field behind our house was torn up. Their was sheet metal all over the yard, and I don’t know where it came from. Plus, the power was knocked out for about 3 hours. This was a bad one, and had me a bit scared. Below is a photo of the pavilion and of the neighbor doing repairs to his roof. We’re supposed to get more storms again this afternoon. I certainly hope they’ll be nothing like yesterday’s.

The pavilion behind my house after the storm yesterday.

My neighbor repairing part of his roof.

USA Trip–In Oregon

October 16, 2019 / montanaron

Introduction

I’m finally getting a few posts up of my visit to the United States in August. While there, I spent some time in Seaside, Oregon with my brothers Randy and Rich, who lives in California. Then Randy, his daughter Whitney and I flew over to Great Falls, Montana, where we were able to hook up with brothers Bob, from Great Falls, and Doug, from Ft. Worth, Texas. Finally, I ventured alone to Las Vegas, Nevada, Sin City in the desert.

Off I Go

In this post, I’ll write about the first part of the journey, to Oregon. I flew out of Vientiane to Bangkok on a Thai Smile Airlines Airbus A320, which carries about 150 passengers. On this particular trip there were only 25 passengers (I counted). If this is typical, Thai Smile must be losing a bundle of money on this 55 minute flight to Suvarnabhumi airport in Bangkok.

From Bangkok to Taoyuan airport in Taiwan aboard an EVA flight took about three and a half hours (the plane was quite full) and the EVA flight to Seattle took about 11 hours. Again, the plane was full, but at least I had an aisle seat so it was easy to get up and walk around. Best to try to avoid deep vein thrombosis on these long flights. Seattle to Portland was basically a short hop, about 30 minutes in the air.

In the Beaver State

Earlier, when planning this trip, cheapskate (thrifty?) me looked for the lowest-priced tickets I could find that had reasonable layovers. So, I got into Portland a little after midnight and stayed in the airport until 10 a.m. because Randy couldn’t pick me up any earlier. No problem; I’ve spent longer times than that in worse airports. (The Portland airport is a wonderful facility, especially if you have to spend a long time there, which I would do on a later flight–more on that when I get my Vegas post up.)

Meeting My Long-Lost Brother

Of course, after an 11-hour flight, I was pretty bedraggled as I headed down to a lower level of the airport to get my checked baggage, so I was unaware of just about anything that was going on around me. My mistake! After hanging out at PDX all night, I waited outside the terminal for Randy, who pulled up just around ten o’clock. I went to toss my bags in the back seat and when I opened the door I got a shock. There was a fellow back there holding up a sign with my name on it. What the hell! It turned out that this was my older half-brother Rich, whom I’d never met before. It turns out that he had planned a surprise for me and had been at the airport around midnight holding up that sign as I arrived, but I hadn’t noticed it. He didn’t see me either, since he thought I’d be wearing a NY Yankee baseball cap, which I didn’t have on. He had reserved a room at one of the local hotels, so I could have stayed there instead of the airport. But, I totally ruined his surprise, much to my chagrin.

Unfortunately, we didn’t get much time to hang out because he had an early afternoon flight back to California. I’m grateful that we got to spend an hour or so together–he’s a great guy and I really thank him for the time and money he spent to go up to Portland to meet me. The next time I’m able to get back to the ‘States, I want to make an effort to hook up with him for some quality time together. We had a couple of beers at the hotel, getting to know each other, then it was time for him to go and time for Randy and I to head over to Seaside, a 90-minute drive. Sorry, Rich, that I ruined your surprise.

From left to right: Randy, Ron and Rich.
Taken from Randy’s iPhone just before we dropped Rich off at his hotel. Unfortunately, he had to catch a flight back to California.

Fishing on the Mighty Columbia

I spent four days with my brother and his daughter, Whitney, at his beautiful home in Seaside. He had promised to take me out on his boat to do some fishing on the Columbia River, so after buying an Oregon fishing license online, I found myself at his boat dock at a marina near Astoria early the next morning, around 7 o’clock. A friend of his, Vern, would spend the morning with us out on the choppy river, trying to hook into a salmon or two or three.

A very strong tide was working against us, though, dragging us toward the Pacific ocean. We went with it for a while, then headed back upriver until Vern caught a nice fish, though my brother, who mainly handled the boat, and I were skunked. We called it a day around noon and put back into the marina. The next day we started out a little later to avoid the outgoing tide and the water was less choppy, so the ride was much easier. Joining us were John and Don, a couple more of Randy’s friends. This day, John would get a nice-sized salmon, but the rest of us were shut out. I had one on my pole, but it spit the hook out just as it was about to be netted and hauled into the boat. Sigh. There was quite a crowd on the river, with dozens and dozens of boats joining the hunt. Again, we put in about noon. I like to joke that I came half-way round the world to catch a Columbia River salmon and all I got was one lousy picture of a salmon. Sheesh. Maybe next time, whenever that will be.

This is my brother’s fishing boat. It’s larger than it looks here, but I wouldn’t take it deep-sea fishing. Notice the color scheme and other little details? Yup, he’s a huge University of Oregon Ducks fan.

We’re heading out to the Columbia from the marina. Lots of boats docked here. The marina is about 30 minutes from my brother’s house.

This is the second day out. I believe that’s Don on the left. As you can see, there are lots of boats trying their luck/skills.

Back on the first day, Randy and Vern are cleaning Vern’s fish. Kind of an unwritten rule is that you share your catch with your boat mates, so Randy got a nice filet and we ate salmon for dinner.

Early Morning Surprise

Anyway, I had a great time with my brother and my niece. We drove around and took in some of the sights, though the area was very crowded with tourists. Randy said that after Labor Day, Seaside and the surrounding environs would be back to normal, a situation he could hardly wait for.

This was taken at Ft. Stevens State Park, the most north-western point in Oregon. Beautiful afternoon!

Still at Ft. Stevens, my niece, Whitney, and my brother Randy.

I spent a few relaxing days at his home, which has a beautiful back yard with a very large vegetable garden, so we ate delicious fresh veggies, salads, salmon, clams and other local delights; my brother is, seriously, a wonderful cook and a great all-around guy. He even forgave me for setting off his house alarm early one morning. (It’s quite loud, believe me!)

A Bigger Surprise

The one surprising (to me) thing about Oregon is the state’s liberal marijuana laws. You can legally smoke it in your home and you can grow up to four plants in your yard as long as they are hidden from public view. Head shops (dispensaries) abound, but many tokers are baby-boomers who grow it in their yards and roll their own. Awesome. I didn’t have the chance to try any, and I’m not sure I would have, even if I had been offered some. It’s been more than 30 years since I’ve partaken of the herb, and I’m not sure if I’d want to start again. But, who knows?

OK, that’s Oregon. Next post I’ll write about the few days I had in Montana. See you then.

Baseball in Laos? Yes!

January 22, 2019 / montanaron

Although in it’s early stages, baseball has been gradually growing in popularity in Laos. This past weekend there was an international tournament played in Vientiane, with 10 teams from 5 countries competing for a trophy and other prizes. The teams were from Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan and Korea, which had the most teams here.

An article in the Vientiane Times yesterday gave a nice overview of the sport in the country. It seems that this was actually the 5th annual Korea-Laos International Baseball Tournament, but it’s the first I’ve ever heard of it. The tournament was played at the football (soccer) field, an all-grass setting, so no infield dirt or pitcher’s mound. However, the article stated that through funding from Korea, two new “stadiums” will be built before the end of 2019. I imagine that there won’t be two stadiums built, but, rather, two fields at a new baseball complex with seating. You never know, though.

So, I went to the football stadium this past Saturday to check it out. Here are a few photos from the event. One note: the sight lines were terrible, so I was unable to make any good photos. The “dugouts” were opaque plastic boxes which you couldn’t see through, the officials’ and umpires’ tables were directly behind home plate, there was a large schedule board blocking the view from another angle, and a concessions table also blocked the view, along with various protective nettings. I hope the new fields will not include these kinds of encumbrances to viewing the games.

The Times didn’t have the results of the tournament in yesterday’s edition, but I’ll check in today’s paper. I’ll update this post if there is any further news about the event.

UPDATE: The Tuesday Times reported that the Laos team tied for first in the tournament with a team from Seoul, South Korea, with each getting 33 points. Hmmm, I have no idea what the points represent. Run differential, perhaps? Anyway, congratulations to both teams.

(A further note on the photos. For a better view of an image, right click on the photo and select View Image. To get back to the post, you’ll have to click the Back Button on your browser.)

Laos baseball — Players from one of the Korean teams do a few warm-ups before their game. There were very few interested spectators at this particular game. The stands were mainly populated by friends of the players or by players from other teams. The Laos team was scheduled to play later in the afternoon, but I left before that particular game. Perhaps there were more people watching then.

High Water in Vientiane

September 5, 2018 / montanaron

I went into Vientiane a few days ago to see how far the Mekong was from topping the embankment (levee?) that was constructed after the big 2008 flood. It has quite a way to go before it gets that high, but it is flowing through some sluice gates and other channels to flood the park that’s on the city side of the road that runs along the top of the levee. I watched a video of the effort to pump water out of the area, and you can watch it on Facebook here.

Though it’s not going over the embankment, the river has flooded the new addition to the night market in that area. Here are the new vendor stalls that sit, usually, right above the river. Someone who did the planning must have thought that the river would never get this high again. Tell that to all the sellers who had to move their goods to higher ground.

Night market vendor stalls under water

More night market stalls under water.

We had no rain yesterday and there’s none in the forecast for today or tomorrow, but the water level is forecast to keep rising for the next few days, according to the Mekong River Commission daily bulletin. (If you click on their link, check out the Nongkhai report–it’s only a few miles downstream from the old place where I used to live and is much more relevant than the Vientiane report.)

The river has crept nearer to the old place, but it’s still safely below the houses. However, if the water does get higher over the next few days, that situation could change. Thankfully, many of the houses are built on stilts or on foundations that are several feet above the ground. More later.