Krzysztof Filla   Photo Gallery

Photograps 2020

Laos - officially called "Lao People's Democratic Republic" is a strap of mountainous land wedged mainly between Thailand and Vietnam. Since 1975 ruled by the communist party but today only in the name as the economy is driven by the capitalist engine and the lives of people by Buddhists and traditional beliefs. The country has the lowest density of people in S.E. Asia with population of 7 million. Most of the inhabitants dwell along the famous Mekong river, the artery of the Indochinese peninsula. The meandering river served for centuries as a source of food and transportation. Now it is changing as the river is dying from pollution and substantial number of newly opening hydroelectric dams. Laos has 6 operating dams in the country but there are plans to construct over 40 of them in the future. It gives a boost to the economy but the main recipient of the electric power is China that takes over Laos step by step. Some local people say, it is already another province of the republic of China. The Lao government announced in 2016 a ban for cutting trees but Chinese companies are exempt from it.
I went to Laos for the same reason as to its neighbours, mainly to see and photograph the tropical forest. To my surprise for 3 weeks spent in Laos I didn't manage to see any old growth forest, both on the treks through some locations I had chosen (based on maps) nor through the windows of my buses. All I have witnessed had been recently felled and the land is regrown by shrubs, bamboo and very young coppicing woodland. I am sure there are beautiful forests as there are 20 national parks in the country but simply my choices of destinations proofed to be wrong.