Photography tour in Laos & Thailand
| country: | Laos, Thailand |
| location: | Golden Triangle, Indochina holidays |
| departures: | 2010: 12 Jun |
| price: | £2360 - £2475 (13 days) including flights from UK, from £1510 - £1585 excluding flights. Price includes twin share bed & breakfast accommodation |
| vouchers: | Gift vouchers can be used with this holiday |
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introduction to Photography tour in Laos & Thailand
A unique photographic tour of Laos, accompanied by professional travel photographer Nathan Horton. In keeping with our philosophy, this trip intends to emphasize a travel photography that appreciates local people, their cultures, traditions and religions and encourages a positive impact on the places and people it visits.
This is an exiting tour, of a truly spectacular, fascinating and little known region. We begin in Thailand’s infamous Golden Triangle before taking you down the scenic Mekong River, through Laos' unspoilt mountains and jungles, to the ancient capital, now World Heritage Site, Luang Prabang.
After exploring the beautiful temples and colonial architecture of what is acknowledged to be the best preserved city in SE Asia, the itinerary continues over the dramatic central highlands of Laos to the present day capital of Vientiane.
Trip details: Maximum hiking time is 5 hrs on day 6. Accommodation is in hotels, guesthouses and eco lodges. Transport is by minibus, local bus, boat, pick-up truck and flight. Bed and breakfast included throughout.
Various extension options are available in Chiang Mai prior to or Bangkok after the tour. Travellers not taking up the flight option would join the tour in Chiang Mai on day 2 and finish in Bangkok on day 13.
This is an exiting tour, of a truly spectacular, fascinating and little known region. We begin in Thailand’s infamous Golden Triangle before taking you down the scenic Mekong River, through Laos' unspoilt mountains and jungles, to the ancient capital, now World Heritage Site, Luang Prabang.
After exploring the beautiful temples and colonial architecture of what is acknowledged to be the best preserved city in SE Asia, the itinerary continues over the dramatic central highlands of Laos to the present day capital of Vientiane.
Trip details: Maximum hiking time is 5 hrs on day 6. Accommodation is in hotels, guesthouses and eco lodges. Transport is by minibus, local bus, boat, pick-up truck and flight. Bed and breakfast included throughout.
Various extension options are available in Chiang Mai prior to or Bangkok after the tour. Travellers not taking up the flight option would join the tour in Chiang Mai on day 2 and finish in Bangkok on day 13.
day-by-day itinerary
| Day 1: | Depart London Heathrow Airport. |
| Day 2: | Morning arrival in Bangkok and transfer to Chiang Mai, the cultural and historical capital of Northern Thailand. Afternoon free to relax or explore this charming, friendly city and an evening tour of the famous night-bazaar. (Photographic themes; ancient temples, street life, people, markets etc.) |
| Day 3: | Leisurely morning to recover from your jet-lag by the pool or wander around one of the local markets before an afternoon drive through the mountains to neighbouring Chiang Rai Town, main commercial centre for the infamous Golden Triangle region – so called because of it’s former notoriety for warlords and opium cultivation. (Photographic themes; markets, landscapes.) |
| Day 4: | Day tour of some of the main sites of this far northern region: beginning at the bustling trading town of Mae Sai on the Burmese Border and on to Sob Ruak where Burma, Laos and Thailand meet, for a visit to the unusual Opium Museum, before following the Mekong River via the historic, ruined city of Chiang Saen to our day’s destination, the scenic riverside town of Chiang Khong. (Photographic themes; small town traditional life, river scenes, temples, people & landscapes.) |
| Day 5: | Time to cross the Mekong into Laos itself where we’ll begin with a visit to a traditional village of the Lanten people led by our host, the local school teacher, before continuing upcountry with a scenic drive though mountains and dense jungle to the remote town of Luang Nam Tha near the Chinese border. Accommodation at a beautifully situated eco lodge on the banks of the Tha River. (Photographic themes; landscapes, Mekong river scenes, ethnic minority villages.) |
| Day 6: | Day trip into the surrounding Nam Ha National Protected Area to hike through some of the spectacular scenery and visit some of the local hill-tribe villages to discover the traditional way of life of the area’s ethnic Akha people. (Photographic themes: ethnic minority villages, jungle, landscape.) |
| Day 7: | Drive across the mountains of Oudom Xai Province to the picturesque village of Nong Khiaw on the banks of the Ou River. Stop-offs to visit a Hmong village and a hill-tribe market on the way and overnight in traditional Lao style wooden chalets set high on the banks overlooking the river. (Photographic themes: ethnic minority villages, waterfalls, ‘on the road’.) |
| Day 8: | Boat ride down the Ou River, winding through mountains, limestone escarpments and pristine forests to the ancient Lao capital of Luang Prabang. (Photographic themes: mountainous landscapes, small villages, ‘on the road’.) |
| Day 9-10: | Nestled in the mountains, long isolated from the outside world, we’ll discover World Heritage Site, Luang Prabang’s fabulous temples, taste Lao delicacies (and the famous Lao beer!) in riverside cafes and stay in a converted French colonial villa. (Day 9 is a walking tour of the town including the National Museum & former king’s palace, Wat Xiengthong and Phu Si Hill Temple, with day 10 at leisure to explore the markets, temples of this photogenic town.) (Photographic themes; temples, street scenes, people, markets, landscapes, French colonial architecture, World Heritage town.) |
| Day 11: | Day trip through the surrounding hills to visit the spectacular Kuang Si Waterfalls and to discover the fascinating, traditional village life of some of the local peoples. (Photographic themes: village life, landscapes, waterfalls.) |
| Day 12: | Morning flight to the Lao capital of Vientiane and afternoon tour of some of the city’s fascinating sites; markets, temples and museums. |
| Day 13: | Morning departure from Vientiane, via Bangkok, and evening arrival in London. |
traveller reviews for Photography tour in Laos & Thailand
Most memorable were the rice terraces at sunset and dawn, the hike through Tiger Leaping Gorge, the Stone Forest, the lake and mountains and pagodas at Dali, the Jade Dragon Mountain at Lijiang, Shangri-La... (more)
how this holiday makes a difference
 In marked difference to some photography trips and in keeping with our philosophy, this tour emphasizes photography that appreciates local people, their cultures and religions, and encourages a positive impact on the places and people it visits.Please note that all group sizes are between 2 and 9 persons. Groups are accompanied at all times by Nathan Horton a professional photographer and one or more local guides. All transportation is organized by local operators and using local drivers. We feel that our ‘discreet’ group sizes lead to less impact both on the environment and the people that we visit as well as allowing for more supervision, advice and explanations with the high ratio of guides/tour-leader to clients. We instigated the visits to a Lanten tribal village close to Huay Xai in N.W. Laos with the assistance of the local schoolteacher who has since set up a small village co-operative stall where local handicrafts can be sold as souvenirs. This has led to an increase of interest amongst the villagers in traditional handicrafts as well as the locally produced mulberry paper the production of which had almost disappeared. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've led the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |
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