Stories of Places, People and Photography in the Philippines and Beyond
Sabaidee! Khawp jai lai lai for taking time to join me on this journey through Laos. While it may have taken me months to finish the whole Laos Chronicles, the actual trip lasted only 14-days including transit from February 5-18 2009. I would have wanted to wraps thing up quickly but there are so many details to write about the place and I want it written in a way people are traveling with me as well. So here’s the summary of the trip with itinerary details and budget.
The main activity for the day was to do the documentary shoot at the dipterocarp forest in Imugan. We met with the team of Foresters at the Kalahan Academy and they explained to us briefly where we are going. There were about a team of 8 foresters with us to cover everything we need. We’ll be tagging along with them as they work through the forest.
It was officially my last day of my two weeks trip around Laos. I can’t help but feel sentimental while I’m having my tea, toasted bread, jam and fruit breakfast at Lao Heritage Hotel. I was already awake by 5:30am just to get ready to go to the airport. Wattay International Airport is just less than half an hour away so I wasn’t in a hurry.
I was asking around some of the locals there on how long it would take for me to reach the Imugan Falls. Most people would say 30 minutes. But as they say, sense of time between the rural and urban folks have a difference. I’ll find out soon enough as I head to the falls while they are having a workshop that afternoon at Imugan Town.
We left Vang Vieng around 10am and arrived in Vientiane by 2:30pm. It’s a good thing the drop off point was near the National Museum so I only had to walk a short distance back to Lao Heritage Hotel where I checked in again. It’s great to be back at the capital city of Laos. I let the city air in and I just relaxed the whole afternoon. I tried the Riverfront Eateries that night for a Lao dinner then rested early for my last day in Laos.
Just the idea of staying in a forest town for four nights already excited me. It was one of the requirements for taking on this photo documentation project for an NGO on a small rural town known as Imugan in Santa Fe Nueva Vizcaya. It sits right smack in the middle of central Luzon in the midst of the Caraballo Mountain Range just between the Cordillera Central and Sierra Madre mountain ranges.
All eyes were on the President Arroyo these past few days since her recent State of the Nation Address (SONA) for 2009. But for now, forget all talks about politics and all that hulabula about the President. Let’s place our gaze instead on the presidential residency, the Malacanang. We’ll go through the extravagant halls of Malacanang Palace. Our Guide? None other than Ivan Man Dy as he gives us a taste of his relaunched tour “Power, Palace and a shot of Beer.”
