More Places Less Visited

Wodaabe young woman at Gerewol Festival

Roadside travelers - Dhaulagiri Zone, Upper Mustang, Nepal

"My ambition and goal is to show extraordinary people doing ordinary things.  In so doing, I wish to show how different people can appear, to provide a glimpse of other cultures, to celebrate the diversity of mankind, and to demonstrate that despite our appearances we are so much alike." - Artist's Statement, Allen A Hale

Eight years ago as part of the submittal process for a gallery exposition, I had thought about my photography to develop the above artist statement.  Since that time, my photography efforts have followed the statement whether intentionally or by happenstance.

My journeys to experience and photograph the "extraordinary people doing ordinary things" have taken me to Bhutan, Cambodia, Chad, Ethiopia, Nepal, and Upper Mustang (Former Kingdom of Lo), Thailand, and Vietnam.

Monks filling butter lamps in Kagbeni, Upper Mustang

The journeys often involved travel along dirt roads to access the isolated locations where the extraordinary people were located.  In the case of Upper Mustang the travel involved travel where roads did not exist in many locations.  The way was often just following tire tracks across the dirt and rock strewn landscape.  Travel in Upper Mustang also included several determining your own crossing points across rivers.

Lo Manthang Street Scene, Upper Mustang (Former Kingdom of Lo)

Preparing firearm to banish "evil" - Tiji Festival in Lo Manthang

These experiences have lead me to appreciate and treasure traveling unimproved roads, dirt roads and even the lack of roads to access "places less visited".  My travels have included traveling along paved roads to access many well-known as well as popular tourist destinations including Angkor Wat, Bangkok, Vientiane, Hanoi, Chiang Mai, Addis Ababa and Kathmandu.  However the ease of access from the outside world to those places has made them popular which results in the dilution of their unique culture and homogenization of them.  International hotel chains, fast food outlets, and bus loads of Chinese, South Korean, and European tour groups can easily be found in these locations.  Great efforts are made to accommodate, appeal, and placate these masses often at the expense of local custom, style, and culture.

Making Coal Briquettes - Quan Lan Island, Vietnam

I have found that the extraordinary people are most likely to be found in the places less visited along with the places that are more difficult to get to.

Bhutan's West- East Main Highway, Trongsa, Bhutan

Some of the places to find extraordinary people do not even have roads.  One of my favorite places to visit is Tonle Sap in Cambodia.  Tonle Sap is a huge fresh water lake, the largest in Southeast Asia, near Angkor Wat.  It is more than just a "Great Lake".  Tonle Sap is a way of life and a unique culture to be experienced. It is one of my favorite places.  While Angkor Wat is overwhelmed (you have been warned) with hundreds of busloads of tourists a day, Tonle Sap gets much fewer visitors - mainly to Chong Kneas (you have been warned) by some of those busloads from Angkor Wat as part of their package tour.  However Tonle Sap is  large lake and there are unique places that get very few visitors where you can observe the unique culture.  Kampong Khleang can be accessed by land during the dry season.
 
There is floating fishing village called Moat Khla (also shown as Meat Khla) on Google Maps.  Moat Khla is 24 Km south of Kampong Khleang and accessible only by boat.  It is located 24 km south of Kampong Khleang - a 2 hour boat ride.  The entire village of fishermen and their families live on floating house boats. The school is also a floating structure.  The Buddhist temple is also  floating Wat.  There are also some floating gardens - small barges with dirt beds on top of them to supplement the inhabitant's diet with greens and vegetables.

Preparing dinner in Moat Khla, floating village, on Tonle Sap, Cambodia

Moat Khla, Tonle Sap, Cambodia

 
In May 2018, Duang and I returned from our second trip within a year to the Himalayan nation of Bhutan.

It was amazing at how much change in one year that we observed .  The change is driven by the widening and paving of the West to East road across the nation.  I was carrying some photographs to give to people that I had photographed the previous Spring.  I found just about everyone, a benefit of traveling to remote and sparsely populated locations.  However I missed one little boy and his father whom we had visited before.  I missed them because their home is now much closer to where we had spent the night before.  No, they had not moved, but the improvement of the main road has cut hours from the journey between the two locations.  I started looking for the four house village long after we had passed it   Fortunately our drivers and guides were going to pass the place on their drive back at the end of our eastern leg of the tour.  They agreed to give the photos and clothing gifts to the family on their return.

Rice Planting - Sapa, Vietnam

In 2019, besides returning to Upper Mustang for a third time, I traveled to Chad to attend the Gerewol Festival and later to the Omo Valley in Ethiopia to photograph some of the unique tribes that live there.

The Gerewol Festival was definitely a place less visited.  The festival is held somewhere on the Sahel, a vast semi-arid savannah on which the Wodaabe people lead their nomadic life tending their herds of cattle and goats.  There were often not even tire tracks let alone roads to travel on in order to get to the designated location of this year's festival.

Wodaabe men imitate birds to attract the attention and interest of women

Wodaabe men chanting and dancing at Gerewol Festival, Chad, Africa

No matter how far the distance, how less visited the culture, or how different the culture, life is basically the same ...

My interaction with the different cultures, various peoples, and witnessing some of their life style reinforces my conviction that, although we appear different, we are all alike.  I feel privileged and honored to be able to share the diversity of mankind as well as to celebrate the adaptability of mankind.
 
The Omo Valley of Ethiopia is part of the Rift Valley, the birthplace of man.  Many unique tribes inhabit the Omo Valley.  To visit some of the tribes is is necessary to have a 4WD vehicle and to camp out.

Suri people of the Omo Valley

The Buddhist philosophy is that life is change.  Most people have the attitude that most change is progress and progress is considered to be good.  I sometimes feel somewhat guilty when I reflect upon progress being a threat and disruptive to people.  Improving highways and other means to ease the access of people to the outside world benefits people through opening up markets for their goods as well as giving them greater access to conveniences and ideas not readily available to them.  This can be destructive for unique cultures, and lifestyles.  Access to the outside world often leads to the erosion of unique people's culture in that they make compromises for the sensitivities and comforts of their visitors.

Hamar young woman of the Omo Valley, Ethiopia

I hope that the people of those places, less visited, make decisions regarding "progress" that fully take into consideration the value of their traditions and culture rather than acquiescing to the false siren of becoming "modern" and emulating the dominant "advanced" cultures.

It is not for me to say what is best for others.  I can not stop "progress" no more than I can control the changes in my own life.  I do not have to like or approve the changes in this world.  I need only to recognize and adapt to all the changes in this world.

Until that day when changes will no longer happen in my life, a day that I am certain will arrive long before all the roads are paved, I will strive to seek out those places less visited.

I will cherish those places less visited.

I will enjoy those places less visited.

I will share with others those special places less visited through my photographs and writing so that they too may know of what is and may not long be - places less visited.

As this year draws to a close, the upcoming year offers new opportunities to visit the people of "places less visited".

For me, 2020, will bring a journey to PNG, Papua New Guinea, to document the people and culture.