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October 24, 2005
conservation vs. development
(in the form of a football match between the conservation organisations in Lao and the World Bank)...
lucky for all of you, this event was documented by IUCN Lao staff, and thus, i have these pictures to share. there are way too many easy jokes to make about the whole arrangement - i mean, when do you get to play the world bank at anything? seriously though, the match was a lot of fun, and i met lots of great people on both sides of the above binary (though i must say, conservation and development don't have to be on opposite sides all the time...) the pictures are evidence of that.
this is the only photo of anyone actually playing, though the match did occur. (final score: world bank 4, conservation 1)
all of the participants:
after the match...
and here's a great picture of me and latsamay!
great fun was had by all...and rumor has it that we'll be forming a "real" green team in the future!
Posted by ames at 6:32 PM | Comments (1)
October 20, 2005
Lent's over!
So it's finally the end of Buddhis Lent, which means that we joined the rest of the city in building a banana-stalk boat, filling it with candles, and nearly lighting our house on fire. This picture is of Elona making our boat with Matt Losch, visiting from Chang Rai:
When that was done, we headed down to the riverside to buy even more banana-leaf boats, light even more candles, and send our sins floating away with them down the river. The next day, after the boat races, we escaped the crowds and headed for Xieng Kuang (Buddha Park) 25 km away. Here's Matt sitting in the "mouth" of Hell (the entrance to a giant, three-storey pumpkin-shaped sculpture in which, among other things, you can see scuplted skeletons being flayed by sculpted not-so-skeletons, and a stunning view over the Mekong...).
Gotta love Laos.
Posted by dneedham at 5:52 PM | Comments (0)
October 13, 2005
long awaited photos from Luang Prabang, 20-22 Sept 05
night market in luang prabang
sunset from the top of phou si (spiritual center of lao pdr)
farming on the banks of the nam khan
amy on the boat
captain of our vessel
one of the highlights of our trip on the mekong was the floating gas station we visited to fill up the tank.
ryan on the boat (with a baguette)
mekong ("mother of all rivers") from the boat
one of the many wats in luang prabang
fantastic tree at one of the oldest wats in LP
more farming on the banks of the nam khan
mekong river
Posted by ames at 6:59 PM | Comments (2)
October 7, 2005
wild pigs in the forest
on wednesday, elona and i read several sentences about wild pigs and rats in the forest. in lao. i was so excited that i read them again for latsamay, my boss. all is well- dorian is off exploring the magical island of singapore, elona heads to burma for work this weekend, and i'm planning to attend a workshop on economic valuation of wetlands next week. i know, i know. my plans are the best ever. (dorian and elona in unison: amy, like you could even know that.) i'm actually pretty psyched about this training. anyway, as the team lao delegate currently (by default) in charge of updating this occasionally, i thought i should let the world know that all is well in the land of a million elephants. after busy days at work, elona and i are meeting for a beer at a bar whose lao name roughly translates to "the end of the world". falang call it the sunset bar. not a bad way to wrap up the first week in october...mom and dad, pictures from my trip to luang prabang to come soon. i promise.
Posted by ames at 6:31 PM | Comments (2)