Today we begin the long journey back to Laos – for what is likely to be our last 6 months. During my summer in England I have been dreaming and planning about the places I still haven’t visited and which ones I want to see again before we leave Asia. First stop though will be back to the The Nam Ou river.
I am currently in the UK until 7th August. Please contact me on my mobile 07850 740254.
Currently, down in the Nam Ou river valley, the first phase of construction on the Nam Ou Cascade Hydropower Project by Chinese corporation Sinohydro has begun, the project will generate electricity, 90% of which will be exported to other countries in the region. The project will directly affect many villages through construction, reservoir impoundment and back flooding resulting in loss of land and assets and village relocation.
Construction of Nam Ou Cascade Hydropower Project Dam 6…
When I first visited the 200 year old Laoseng ethnic minority village of Ban Watai back in 2013, a few months after arriving in Laos, I took the local bus to Hatsa and a small boat along the Nam Ou river to the village, I was just passing through on my way to the Akha village of Chakhampa. Now the river is blocked by the Nam Ou Cascade Hydropower Project Dam 6.
Not long after, the village cleared the forest and moved everything to a temporary location away from the river to make way for the water when the dam…
The Auspicious Day 18.5.15 in the Brokpa village of Merak, Eastern Bhutan
The Brokpa, the semi-nomads of the villages of Merak and Sakteng have maintained many of their unique traditions and customs. During my recent trip to Eastern Bhutan I was lucky to be present as a Brokpa family prepare to head off to their summer pastures with their zhomo (male yak and female cow cross).
Pema’s auntie prepared lunch with lots of tea drinking to see them off on their journey. It’s fair to…
Heading up to the 4200m Nachung-La pass | 20 May 2015
I have safely returned from the epic journey to visit the Brokpa people in Eastern Bhutan none the worse for a surfeit of yak products and a few friendly tiger leeches… The wonderful welcome from the Brokpa people more than made up for the effects of altitude – I have never eaten so little and walked so much with so little energy.
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A Layap woman from Laya holds a ball of sheep wool which was spun using a drop spindle called a Yoekpa in Punakha, Western Bhutan | December 2014.
The Layap are inhabitants of the northernmost region of Bhutan. Their clothes are woven from yak hair and wool. They…
I first met members of Laos’ smallest ethnic group, the Yumbri at the Sayaboury Elephant Festival although I had already read a lot about them. It was one of the saddest things I have come across in Laos to see them sitting in a hut roped off from the gawping and photographing general public. The government had invited them to build a ‘model house’, a shelter made from bamboo and leaves and there they stayed with a big donation box to help raise some money for their daily living expenses.
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You never forget your first personal project. In 1990 I bought my first car (a slightly unreliable orange Citroen 2CV for £300) and travelled around the coast of England and Wales photographing the remaining manned lighthouses.
“I thought I had a job for life” Portland Bill lighthouse, Aug 1991 from the series Living in a Lamp Post. Portland Bill was automated in 1996 and the process of automating all the lighthouses finished in 1998.
I’ll be sharing photos from this story this coming week over on Instagram @tessabunney
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Andrew Sheppy and Alistair the Oxford Sandy and Black piglet taken in my home village in Somerset back in 1986 when I was still a student at Farnham. The first picture I ever sold was from this series and was published on the front page of one of the (then) Fleet Street newspapers.
Washing and relaxing in Nameuang hot springs after working in the fields, Houaphan province, Lao PDR.
There’s nothing like a bit of trekking and road tripping through rural Laos… Recently back from a trip through Phongsaly, Oudomxay and Sayaboury provinces, I have many photos and stories to share over the coming weeks.
A Prai (Lao Mai) ethnic minority woman gathers broom grass (Kok Kham) along the roadside in Sayaboury province which will later be made into brooms to be sold at her roadside stall. Watching life go by whilst driving through the three provinces, this was the main seasonal occupation of the rural communities of all…
With the wonders of technology I am able to write this post in advance and schedule it for posting several days later so by the time this is live I will already be in a remote village high in the mountains of Phongsaly province.
The last time I visited the remote Akha Nuquie village of Ban Chakhampa it was an hour bus ride from Phongsaly, an hour boat trip along the Nam Ou river and several hours steep hike from the river to the village. Now though, the village has a road courtesy of the Nam Ou Hydropower project so…
In the past, the bulk of products collected or caught from the wild were used for family consumption, but nowadays a substantial proportion of products are sold in the markets for cash, taking value from local areas and nature to feed urban populations and international markets.
The women of the Tai Dam village of Ban Na Mor sell local products gathered from the fields and forests or grown in their own gardens – anything from cucumbers to bamboo rats, pineapples to barbecued frogs.
Ban Na Mor market is ideally situated on route 13 which goes to the border with China…
The Cham, a Muslim community of around 39,000 people living along the coast of Central Vietnam are one of the 54 ethnic groups recognised by the Vietnamese government.
In villages in Central Vietnam, Cham girls usually in groups of around 5 (but always an uneven number), undergo a Karoh (maturity) ceremony, one of the most important ritual events of their lives and if it has not taken place, the girl cannot marry.
After a purification ritual,…
Washing clothes in the Nam Ou river in the remote and roadless village of Ban Mouanghoun, Phongsaly province, Lao PDR.
In Laos, the 425km long Nam Ou river, one of the Mekong’s major tributaries, connects small riverside villages. It is a place where children play and families bathe, where men fish and women wash their clothes. But this river and others like…
A Khmu woman smokes a homegrown cigarette in the remote and roadless village of Ban Nam Houn, Phongsaly province, Lao PDR.
A little late especially as I am now back in Laos but recently returned from a wonderful 10 days travelling in Bhutan including a very cold night camping near Gasa Tsachu (hot spring) along with half of Bhutan!
At Gasa hot springs there are five pools with water temperature ranging from mild to extremely hot. During the winter months when farming work is done, families from all over Bhutan come here to relax in the restorative pools for many days.
The Hmong ethnic minority in Laos belong to several different sub-groups – the remote mountain villages I have spent time in this year photographing their traditional hemp processing activities are Hmong Du (Black Hmong), Mong Njua (Green Mong) and Hmong Krua Ba (Striped Sleeved Hmong).
This week Hmong New Year is being celebrated in the Hmong Der (White Hmong) villages around Vientiane. No traditional hemp skirts here, the New Year costumes are modern, bright, colourful, synthetic and anything goes! Long, short, tight, loose, all colours of the rainbow, more variations of the traditional than you could ever imagine. And the…