Luang Prabang Pete

I was there in Oxford and think the same ❤️

That’s clearly a photo of me and my mates dancing to Bella Lugosi’s Dead circa 1981

Visiting Bangkok’s “Marble Temple” today, built by King Rama V in 1899 to complement his new Dusit Palace. Lots of expensive Italian marble and European cathedral inspired stained glass windows.

This is so true. With 40yrs in IT/Telecoms I see the same irrational exuberance that led to the .com crash in 2001. This one will be worse. It’s all illusionary bollocks (albeit with great specific applications to slowly revolutionise science after the crash). The madness I see now is bonkers.

Ah that is sad news 🥲 I still listen to Happy Families quite often. Great album. RIP.

A traditional Hmong house in Ban Chok, Northern Laos.

Little Hmong girl plays on a smart phone whilst the pigs trot past her house at sunset

Life in a Hmong village, Luang Prabang Province

Random farmer met on a track in Chomphet district, Luang Prabang

A view of his ancient hunting rifle

The sort of people you meet when trekking through the hills of northern Laos 🇱🇦

Surely there’s laws against that?

UNESCO Heritage Buildings During 1994 UNESCO documented 443 civilian buildings in Luang Prabang which best represented the traditional Lao architecture and the Colonial French style. The heritage inventory document thus...

I have spent the last two years photographing all 443 UNESCO World Heritage buildings in Luang Prabang and creating an online library where anybody can look them up. As Hugh Cornwall said “Everybody has to have something to do with their time” www.luangprabangculture.com/unesco-herit...

Cocteau Twins must be my most favourite band ever after buying Garlands back in ‘82. But with a few exceptions I’ve never learnt any of the song names. Maybe it’s related to the unintelligible lyrics. I just put an album on and float away in my happy space. Words and names are not important there.

Wat Pak Ou, founded 1547

The library building. Very few of these survive in Luang Prabang province

Rear of the library. It is very dilapidated

Wat Pak Ou is rarely visited by any of the thousands of tourists that visit the nearby caves north of Luang Prabang. But it is a beautiful and important temple which is in desperate need of some love and care. Especially the old library building standing next to it.

Things I’ve missed without realising it 😃

Monks and children watching the Luang Prabang boat races from Phousi hill.

A meet and greet today with the elephants at Green Jungle Adventure Park outside of Luang Prabang.

A monk at Wat Sok Sickharam, Luang Prabang, carving a traditional “hanlin” which will be used at Lao New Year for pouring water over the Buddha statues.

That’s the Stuka Attack version of the Holy Spirit dove swooping in here

One of the great things about visiting Bangkok is being able to stock up on. books. Now to try and catch up with my reading 📖

Visiting Jim Thompson’s house today, first time since 2008. Still a great tour. He had so many great works of art in his collection.

I don’t know what these flyers are about, some sort of rave I guess, but they look great 😃. #bangkok #chinatown

In 1871 Siam’s King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) visited Singapore. Later he initiated the building of shop houses like he had seen on his trip. Many can still be seen like these in China Town At the end of the row one can still see the old notice from the Royal Privy Purse regarding rental payments.

And the 1% with all their wealth hidden in tax havens would still cheat the system

All roads lead to Rome they say but in Thailand all roads lead to Democracy Monument in Bangkok. Here on the northern side of the roundabout stands the rather neglected 0km marker for road distances in Thailand.

A Hindu shrine on the side of a large busy main road in Thonburi, Bangkok, with Ganesh statue and linga. The large sign is the words of the correct prayer when making devotions.

Very cool 😎 ⭐️

Guilty Pleasure! I was the same, could never admit to my mates back in the day how much I loved this song. I was right though.

One of the best albums ever

Excellent read.

Early evening at Ban Peo Keomisay. As the crow flies just 8km from Luang Prabang. Beautiful scenery #rurallaos

Today I visited Ho Xai, 15km north of Luang Prabang, Laos. This was once the country retreat of King Sisavang Vatthana. After his forced abdication in Dec 1975 he retired here until in 1977 the Lao communist authorities sent him to Prison Camp No1 in Houaphanh. He never returned.