Kurt Johnson

Photos from our weekend in NM.

Photos from Mesa Verde, Durango, and Silverton.

Photos from Oregon.

My Tho City, Vietnam

We're working on scanning photo albums from Susanne's folks.  More photos from Vietnam in the 1960s-1970s are here.

Election day in Saigon; families were required to fly the flag.

I'll post notes on Vietnam shortly but in the meantime some of our photos are up:

• Saigon
• Mekong Delta (Can Tho, Vinh Long, My Tho)
• Hoi An
• Hue
• Nha Trang (private album for family)
• Hanoi

The first of two albums from Cambodia is here. We are now in Hoi An, Vietnam after visiting Susanne's family near Nha Trang and spending a week decompressing in Saigon.

Kids on Cambodia's Ton Le Sap Lake rowing over to sell us bananas; they are part of a community of ethnic Vietnamese who live on the water.  See EXIF data and an aerial view of the village

Kids spending a school day on the bank of the Mekong

In addition to Susanne's notes below I will post some commentary on Lao later.  In the meantime I've put together a couple of photo albums from our time in the country:

1. River stuff
2. Off the river 

One of the Hmong night markets in Luang Prabang (full album) 

Susanne has kindly contributed some writing below:

It only took us a few short hours of walking around Luang Prabang before we absolutely fell in love with it! The city is filled with wonderful examples of French colonial architecture dotted with distinctly Asian décor and style. I felt as if we were walking through what I imagine was old world Indochina. Even though this town has become a popular tourist destination due to its distinction as a World Heritage Site the town doesn’t feel spoiled or overrun by big buses and tour groups arriving en masse.

At first glance Luang Prabang is a sleepy town, however, just beneath the surface is a charming bustle of activity supporting the people who live there. Amongst a relatively small population of 30,000 people we saw numerous artisans at work. In the old city we found woodcarvers working away at an intricate wall hanging and silversmiths creating jewelry in the style worn by Hmong villagers. On a short boat trip up the Mekong River we went to a tiny speck of a village where we watched a woman make paper. She was whisking a wet pulp of paper fibers onto a screen submerged in a shallow tub of water. Later she’ll leave that screen in the sun to dry where the fibers come together leaving (tada!) paper. There were a variety of colors and designs - some were further elaborated by adding flattened leaves or flowers within the fibers (which make for nice gift bags or photo album covers).  In this same town we found a handful of homes with big looms either on the porch or inside where women were weaving all varieties of textiles that could be used as scarves, table runners, or wall tapestries. Textiles can be easily found all over Lao but we only saw women actually weaving in one small village on the Mekong River.

One of the highlights of our trip was a morning elephant ride combined with an afternoon kayaking on the Nam Khan River - a very enjoyable day for a mere $30 per person. Unfortunately we were tricked by a gloomy cloudy morning that turned into a hot and bright afternoon so we both got pretty sunburned. Besides this and chartering a boat to see the Pak Ou cave we had no other organized activity in our 5 day stay. We spent most of our time walking around town, trying to stay cool during the afternoon and having leisurely meals together. Almost every night we were there we went to one of the numerous open air riverside restaurants along the Mekong serving up tasty Lao food.

Prior to our trip I didn’t give much thought to what Lao would be like and I never expected to enjoy it so much. Even though I didn’t blaze any trails to Luang Prabang it’s still a happy day when you discover a gem for yourself. 

Two more albums of Bangkok photos are up:

• Wat Pho
• Bangkok (other than temples)

My album from the Grand Palace and co-located Wat Phra Kaew is here.  This was the highlight of our visits to temples in Bangkok, despite the fact that it was about 900 million degrees in the sun; at least one visitor fainted from the heat while we were there.

Link to album 

These photos are amazing. 

• http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20041223_1.htm
• http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20041224_1.htm
• http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20041226_1.htm

 I don't know who took them except that they have been floating around bulletin boards in China for at least a couple of years.

Every year the Wharton and Law students put on a charity "fight night" for volunteer student boxers.  It's one of the best attended charity events of the year and gives students a chance to get in shape, learn to box, or just be rowdy in support of their classmates.

Full albums (password required):

• Match 1
• Match 2
• Match 3
• Match 4
• Match 5