Sunday, November 09, 2008

271206 on the way to Talat Phousy

A familiar sight in Laos - the gleaming white NGO vehicle:

PC270129
PC270129a

IRRI has a presence here:

PC270130

Once upon a time the cat studied about IRRI's work for secondary school Geography, & then later on again for some agro/biotechnology component of pre-university Biology. You know you're Asian when you hafta study about rice for both Geography & Biology :P

Land of a million NGOs:

PC270134

Along Th. Phothisalath:

PC270133

25-28,000kip each for school uniform blouse & sinh:

PC270133a

More than what many in the consultants' villages can afford, so everyone simply 'forgets' about the Lao Education Ministry's regulations about school uniforms & turns up in 'half-uniform' or no uniform...easy in remote villages, but not so possible in towns & cities, a reason why Spoil Market's parents sent four of their sons to be novice monks - paring down their education expenses to the bare minimum of fees, exercise books (~23,000kip for stack of 20), pens (1000-1500kip) & not a kip more...which the boys help to pay for using the cash they receive from alms.

Finally, a vehicle that is considered un-roadworthy by Lao standards:

PC270131
PC270132

Amazing thing is, it was still parked here at the Phouvao/Phothisalath junction ~2 years later in mid-October 2008, when the cat passed by on BP's motorbike...

No comments: