A really fun experience on our slow boat was when we stopped at hill tribe villages along the Mekong River. There were many kids and adults in the village that looked at us curiously. We would wave to the kids that looked to be about 3-8 years old and they would sweetly wave back and say, “Hi”! I got to bring out my Polaroid camera and take some pictures of different people around the village which was really cool. I would first ask if I could take a picture of them, and then when they said it was okay, I would take the picture and then walk over to them and together watch the film slowly form into a picture. I would then hand it to them and they would say, “khop jai!” which means “thank you” in Laotian. After we would walk away, we would look back and every single time, there were at least four people huddling around the person holding the picture. I loved it. We stopped at three villages during our slow boat ride. My favorite group of people that I took pictures of was probably a group of kids who were about 6-8 years old. I took the picture and then gave it to them and they seemed really happy. When we looked back, there were about 8 kids who were all admiring the Polaroid picture. I really liked those stops.
Great post Tatey! I love the memories of you taking those photographs!
Thank you Dad! Me too 😄
Tate, I really like hearing about your visits to the villages. I think it was very respectful that you asked if you could take their picture before you did it and then really generous to give them the photos! Do these villages get lots of outside visitors from a variety of means or just long boats? Are the cotton and scarf sellers just setting up for the long boat visitors? Also, I am wondering how many people were on your long boat in total? (your folks may have mentioned that already but I can’t recall). Blessings on you each today!
Thank you Mrs Hakkarainen! I loved those stops. My guess is it’s mostly just people from the longboats who go there and that the scarves are made for markets and for the longboat tourists. I think there were about 30 people on the boat. It was a nice size!
A great post Tate, I think it’s a fantastic idea to take a Polaroid camera and give the photo to people, I bet they rarely have a photo of themselves to look at even though so many are taken by tourists. It will be a lovely memory for them as well as for you!
Thank you so much! It was such a cool experience that I had. Yeah I know!! 😂 yes it definitely will be. Thank you very much for commenting Mrs. Brockway!!
This is wonderful that you got to share the pictures with the children in the villages! What a great idea! Also – those fabrics remind me of the ones in the movie I assigned to you for watching. Does it look similar to you?