Perfect Moments Photography | A Rene Pallesen Journal

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2. May 2013 08:17
by Rene Pallesen
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Vanuatu - Captured by the tribes

2. May 2013 08:17 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

They finally caught us and wanted to put us in the big pot...

...but we told them that we are too skinny and that some of the fat tourists would taste better and be able to feed the village for months, so they let us go (whew...)!

2. May 2013 08:16
by Rene Pallesen
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Vanuatu Tribes

2. May 2013 08:16 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

While in Vanuatu we went on a couple of tours to get some insight into the old tribal culture.

We did one evening tour with food, song and dance and then a couple of days later we did another one during the daytime with a bit more insight into the tribal life.

On the evening trip they would be jumping out at us in the middle of the bush.

Afterwards they entertained us with song and dance.

During the day tour explained the significance of things such as their tribal drawings.

How they would use bark for making clothing and other items.

How they would preserve banana for several months.

...and the wild pigs they would hunt.

And they would also explain how cannibalism used to work in their society.

As well as other traditions.

I took a whole bunch of portraits of the people in the village.

There were also a bunch of kids around.

2. May 2013 08:15
by Rene Pallesen
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Aiden playing with the local kids

2. May 2013 08:15 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

On one of the trips to a local village Aiden started playing with the local kids.

It was great that he had some fun as it is pretty hard for someone his age to sit still for long periods of time.

The local kids were great at helping him around and holding the dog so he could pat it.

2. May 2013 08:13
by Rene Pallesen
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Vanuatu - Fireshow

2. May 2013 08:13 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

One evening we went to see a fire show...

This turned out to be probably the best fireshow we have ever seen...spectacular.

Fortunately I brought my tripod along so I could capture the following amazing pictures.

The whole show was about 30 minutes with 6-10 performers and finished with group dancing where all the local kids also participated.

2. May 2013 08:11
by Rene Pallesen
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Vanuatu - Kids

2. May 2013 08:11 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Obviously I took a large amount of family photos in Vanuatu.

Here are some of them.

...and...all this holiday can be very exhausting...

2. May 2013 08:10
by Rene Pallesen
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Vanuatu - Kims Dad

2. May 2013 08:10 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Kims Dad joined us in Vanuatu.

It was great to have him along and quite funny at times.

When we were out and about he wanted his photo taken with people we met.

And he was brave enough to try the local Kava...I didn't tell him how they make it.

And it was great to have him there to help with the kids.

2. May 2013 08:10
by Rene Pallesen
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Vanuatu - The market in Port Vila

2. May 2013 08:10 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

On one of the days we made a day trip into Port Vila city centre. Here was the big market with is open 24 hours per day.

The market is full of fresh produce of all sorts depending on the seasons.

There is even some live produce available such as chicken and crabs.

Because the market is always open, people live and sleep between the stalls with their families.

It is also the place that people go to during lunch to buy food to eat.

There was a whole row of women sitting their waving their arms to keep the flies away from the food.

Also, I don't understand why the western world is spending so much effort and resources on finding cures to diseases such as cancer, diabeter, high blood pressure, arthritis, obesity, athma etc. since they here in Vanuatu already has one magical cure that takes care of them all. It was cheap and easily available at the market and it doesn't matter how much you buy, the price is always the same.

They were also selling improvised charcoal stoves bringing back memories of Kenya where everything was cooked on a Jiko's.

While we were outside the market discussing where to go next this woman and her little girl walked past. The little girl let go of he mums hand and walked over to Aiden (who was sitting in his pram) and gave him a BIG kiss...Aiden is such a chick magnet.

2. May 2013 08:09
by Rene Pallesen
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Vanuatu - Waterfalls

2. May 2013 08:09 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

There are a number of waterfalls on the main island Efete in Vanuatu.

Some of these are very accessible as they are right next to the road such as this one.

Others are a bit more of a hike, but definitely worth it...such as these ones at Mele.

Unfortunately the access to the falls is not being very well managed. They have cut steps into the limestone and scrubbing the surface to avoid people slipping when walking. Unfortunately this also erodes and changes the waterfalls and I think they should put a walking track adjacent to the falls instead.

2. May 2013 08:08
by Rene Pallesen
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Vanuatu - Out and about

2. May 2013 08:08 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

One day we hired a driver to take us around the island.

One of the places we stopped was the Blue Lagoon which is a small semi freshwater lagoon with large lime stone deposits making the water very blue to look at.

We also stopped at Turtle Bay which is supposed to be a turtle sanctuary...but for what it is (tiny) and the knowledge of your guide (none) very over prised.

But they did have some live coconut crabs.

Some baby turtles

And a couple of large turtles in a very small and dirty enclosure.

2. May 2013 07:33
by Rene Pallesen
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Vanuatu - Around the hotel

2. May 2013 07:33 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

The hotel we stayed at was in a great location at the back of the lagoon with a little private beach.

...and a Tam Tam out the front.

It was great using some of the watersport equipment such as kayaks and catemarans

And it had a golf course which we didn't get a chance to use.

Mostly we would just relax or swim when around the hotel.

9. February 2018 07:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Water fall - Laos

9. February 2018 07:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Just outside Luang Prabang there is this amazing waterfall cascading down a limestone creek.

We decided to get up early to go a take photos, so that we could be there early before all the crowds arrived.

At the entrance to the park there is also a Bear rehabilitation centre. They rescue bears from captivity and keep them until it is safe to release them back into the wild (if ever). The bears have a big area and seem to love climbing and sleep in the hammocks provided.

8. February 2018 22:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Our kids - Laos

8. February 2018 22:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Our kids had a blast of a time in Laos. They loved each other company (for the most part) and sometime looked like real little travellers.

They were respectful at the temples and even offered a prayer.

At other times they behaved like animals and should be lock away in a cage.

But for the most part they liked exploring things that us adults wouldn't see such as this crater from a crash landed U.F.O.

8. February 2018 22:03
by Rene Pallesen
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The kids and families of Laos

8. February 2018 22:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

What I especially remember from my last trip to Laos was the kids. One of my most cherished photos is one of two little girls holding a bouquet of flowers that I took 20 years ago (it is on this blog if you look for it through the search function).

The children are still there. They are still very shy, dirty and smiling.

They make up their own games such as these kids at a school playing marbles with tamarind seeds.

These kids were playing a game where the kid under the table had to poke the feet of the kids above the table.

And some things never change, kids teasing each other.

The girls in the school yard 'hang out'.

Visiting a local school was great for our kids to get a glimpse of how other kids live.

Along the road we stopped and a family was outside with the mother breastfeeding her son in their outdoor living room. This is where everything happened such as the cooking, washing, feeding etc.

The chicken were running around freely

Here is a rare shot that Kim took with my camera in it.

It is a very family oriented life they live

7. February 2018 21:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Catching local transport - Laos

7. February 2018 21:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

For getting around the towns in Laos we mainly used Tuk-Tuks. These are small motorbike powered minibuses and the experience can be very mixed. Most of them are generally good, but some have bad brakes have a plume of smelly two stroke engine smoke trailing behind them. We could easily fit our two families into one and I'd joke that there would even be room for another couple of adults.

The kids loved the tuk-tuks and have the fresh air blowing in their hair while riding.

The only downside is that you'd never quite know what the fare would be until you started bargaining and from town to town the fares seemed to be very different. Even though I believe I am reasonable proficient at bargaining, I'm still confident that we paid more that the locals would be paying for the same trips.

For the longer trips we would catch either local buses (mini vans) or in some instances it was worthwhile us hiring a private bus as we were enough people to fill it.

From Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang we hired a private van taking us across the mountain pass at Kasi. Last time I went through here it was in an open bus and at the pass it was raining and really cold. This time round we had a beautiful clear day with a great view of the valley below from the top.

The week before they had a lot of rain and a landslide had taken out large parts of the last section of road (I read in the local newspaper a few days earlier that the road was closed). Our little van was struggling getting enough grip and our driver had to reverse to get enough of a run-up in the next attempt to make it through the steep and muddy section.

The larger trucks were really struggling getting through.

6. February 2018 16:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Morning Markets - Laos

6. February 2018 16:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

The morning markets are interesting. This is where the locals still go to buy their fresh produce and all kinds of specialties are being sold here. It would be easy to go here and get the ingredients for some really delicious food.

There are also some unusual things that we don't see in our western kitchens. such as:

Dried Squids:

Fresh fish - of cause, but this have sharp teeth.

A protein and herb table that would make most chefs (and diners) salivate:

The Chillies in Lao are more hot than in Thailand - We loved the heat.

A pig:

River crabs:

Beetles:

Dried rats:

Caterpillar - these are yummi when fried:

Frogs:

River snails:

Dried squid, shrimps and fish:

5. February 2018 16:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Bamboo Bridges - Laos

5. February 2018 16:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

During the dry season the people of Luang Prabang builds traditional bamboo bridges across the smaller river. This saves them a lot of time (and cost) to cross directly into the centre of town rather than a long detour to the other larger bridges.

It also earns them a small income to charge foreigners a small fee to cross the bridges.

5. February 2018 16:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Silk - Laos

5. February 2018 16:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

They still manufacture silk they way they used to. It was interesting for the kids to see the process from small caterpillar eggs that hatch to worms to the production of the silk itself.

I had always wondered where the colour blue (Indigo) came from. I knew it used to come from a seashell, but I was fairly certain that this wouldn't be the case here. It turns out that they use a special leaf from a plant that when mixed with water and left fermenting/oxidising turns into a blue dye.

They also use plants for most of the other colours.

After they spin the thread they use traditional weaves to make it into pieces of garment. These days the silk garments are fairly expensive - hundreds of dollars, but it used to be really cheap.

4. February 2018 22:02
by Rene Pallesen
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Pak Ou cave - Laos

4. February 2018 22:02 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

A two hour boat ride north of Luang Prabang is the Pak Ou cave. Since we were traveling two families the best way to get there was to hire a slow boat just for us.

The flow boats are long narrow boats that are ideal for navigating the Mekong River. This part of the river is full of underwater rocks but the boats seem to navigate these treacherous waters with ease.

Having the boat for ourselves gave us more flexibility with regards to how long we wanted to spend at the cane and also meant that we have more room to move around.

The front of the boar is where the captain sits and steers the boat. After this there is a section for the passengers followed by a small pump toilet and then the living quarters for the captain and his family. Out the back there is a small kitchen for them to do the cooking.

The cave is upstream into an area full of limestone mountains.

The many boats moor at a long and wobbly floating bamboo bridge that takes you to the cave itself.

The cave itself is not big but it is full of small Buddhas that have been put there over hundreds of years. You can tell that this used to be an important place of worship.

Now however the place is so crowded with tourists (guilty here too) coming in on boats that it is hard to move around. I could not stop myself from taking this photo of Buddha holding up his hands to stop more boats arriving.

At the top of the hill the hill there is what I think is a more 'pleasant' cave. It is equally interesting and much less crowded because most tourists don's make it up the many steps to the top.

4. February 2018 16:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Lao Lau (rice whiskey) - Laos

4. February 2018 16:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

The traditional Lao Lau is still being made. Just north of Luang Prabang on the river there is a little village on the river called Whiskey village whos main income is from the production of Lao Lau.

When I was there two decades ago this is what the locals were drinking (now they drink beer instead). I still remember the foul taste from the home brew that was distilled in large oil drums after having been fermented in large clay pots. Whenever I see it I always wonder if distilling strong alcohol right next to an open flame is the wisest of ideas!?!?

The process itself hasn't changed, but these days most of the whiskey is sold to tourists and I tastes a lot more pleasant that it did back then.

3. February 2018 15:03
by Rene Pallesen
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Food - Laos

3. February 2018 15:03 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

The food in Laos is good. It is traditional cooking mostly still cooked over an open fire.

You see them start cooking the food well before sunrise in big pots.

The food itself is mostly a fusion of Thai and Vietnamese. It has all the noodle soups from Vietnam, but with the more street food and spice of Thailand. The picture below is a typical noodle soup with a traditional cube of coagulated blood.

We were eating a lot from small street type restaurants following the rule that is had to be popular with the locals. The logic behind this is that the locals would know what is good and would also be choosy regarding the quality of the food, so chances are that it would be fresh and not cause food poisoning (none of us or the kids had any issues on the trip).

There are some dubious food there, such as some of the meat BBQ where they sometimes have the meet cooked earlier on the side of the BBQ and then just re-heat it when you order it.

Also be careful with some of the food stalls where the food may have been sitting there for most of the day and often from the day before.

From a 'snack' perspective there are some personal favourites that I absolutely love such as the BBQ fried squid - the packet stuff is just not the same.

Also the Bamboo and coconut fried rice is delicious - they sell them at bus and train stations and especially the purple rice one is yummi!

The freshly made puffed breads over an open fire - they will use two rakes to flip them until they are done.

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23. June 2015 11:07
by Rene Pallesen
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Phuket - Snake show

23. June 2015 11:07 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

They also had a snake show at the elephant place.

Some of the snakes were very poisonous such as this monocled cobra.

And the huge king cobra (which kept coming over the safety barrier).

Chong and I volunteered to hold the python.

I wonder how often the snake guy has been bitten by his snakes.

22. June 2015 11:07
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Phuket - Small monkeys

22. June 2015 11:07 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

At the place we went riding elephants they had a group of little monkeys that we could hold and feed.

They were chained to their little houses which was a bit cruel, but the kids loved seeing the monkeys up close.

The kids thought it was very funny when one of them grabbed my nose.

21. June 2015 11:07
by Rene Pallesen
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Phuket - Elephant ride

21. June 2015 11:07 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

One morning we went on an elephant ride with the family.

Kim had been on elephant rides before and is terrified, but she was still brave enough to do it again (She was screaming that she wanted to get off most of the way).

It was an amazing experience for the Kids.

They got to see the big animals up close.

20. June 2015 08:07
by Rene Pallesen
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Phuket - Kata Beach

20. June 2015 08:07 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

One one of the first days we went to the beach at Kata. The hotel had a shuttle bus to the beach which was an easy 10 minutes walk away.

The beach was actually surprisingly nice with warm water.

About two months ago a sailing boat stranded on the beach during a storm. No one has claimed the boat and a few attempts of lifting it off the beach has failed.

We told the kids that it was a pirate ship, so they wanted to have a closer look.

Kims dad didn't want to go in the water, but decided to keep to his thing with wearing warm clothes in hot humid weather.

19. June 2015 08:26
by Rene Pallesen
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Phuket – Travelling

19. June 2015 08:26 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

This year we traveled to Phuket in Thailand along with Kim's sisters family and her dad.

We had to fly via Bangkok, so we were a bit worried how the kids would handle the long flight (especially Lucas), but everyone handled it reasonably well.

The boys were very excited to be going on a big aeroplane.

Once we arrived to Bangkok it was pretty obvious to see that they were very excited.

The only thing that never made it all the way to the hotel was our stroller. We lost it somewhere between Phuket airport and the hotel...but wasn't a big loss and hopefully someone puts it to goo local use.

20. May 2015 12:05
by Rene Pallesen
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Passport photo session

20. May 2015 12:05 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

It is time to renew Aiden passport and like last time there were a lot of outtakes that we could not use, but which were quite funny.

20. May 2015 11:05
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Grandma and grandpa

20. May 2015 11:05 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Here is some more photos of my grandma and grandpa on my mothers side.

Here she is with her sisters (my grandma on the far right)

Here is some of her when she was young.

Here is one that I assume was taken in 1969 based on the date of the photo.

I think this one if my grandpa when he was young.

And here is some more.

And here is some family gathering photos.

I think it is her brother on the left. And my cousin Mette on the right.

And this is with my grandparents on my fathers side (left to right bedstefar, mormor, morfar, bedstemor, mum and Claus).

12. May 2015 11:05
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Grandparents and Great Grand parents

12. May 2015 11:05 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

Going through some old photos I came across these of my great grand parents (on my mothers side).

I am pretty sure that the little girl on the left is my Mum (So the photos must have been taken around 1943-1944) and the other two girls are her sisters (My Aunties) Eli on the right and Yrsa in the middle.

I assume that the women in the back are their grand parents (my great grands) with the woman on the right being my grandmothers (mormor's) mum and the one on the right being grandad's (morfar'd) mum.

Here is a family photo of what I assume is my grandmothers (mormor's) family. I think it is my grandma in the middle right behind my great grandmother.

I assume this is my great grandparents, but I cannot be certain.

This must be a birthday for my grandmother.

This was taken outside the farm where my mum grew up. It is my grandad (morfar) in the middle on the right and it could be my grandmother (mormor) on the stairs with her mum. The farm is still there today owned by my uncle.

This must be some of the family on my grandads (morfar's) side, so possibly some of his siblings.

9. May 2015 18:05
by Rene Pallesen
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Comissioned work

9. May 2015 18:05 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

A friend asked if I would do a commissioned corporate portrait for professional usage.

I said I was happy to help and on a very rainy day we managed to get the the shoot done. This is the most corporatey of the lot.

9. May 2015 18:05
by Rene Pallesen
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Ring flash portrait

9. May 2015 18:05 by Rene Pallesen | 0 Comments

I purchased a cheap ring flash and had a bit of a play with it one evening and took the following happy snap photo of Kim.

We are planning a holiday and I am thinking that I might bring it along.

Temple of Horus - the Most Complete of Its Kind Part 2

Home

Vanuatu - Captured by the tribes

Vanuatu Tribes

Aiden playing with the local kids

Vanuatu - Fireshow

Vanuatu - Kids

Vanuatu - Kims Dad

Vanuatu - The market in Port Vila

Vanuatu - Waterfalls

Vanuatu - Out and about

Vanuatu - Around the hotel

Home

Water fall - Laos

Our kids - Laos

The kids and families of Laos

Catching local transport - Laos

Morning Markets - Laos

Bamboo Bridges - Laos

Silk - Laos

Pak Ou cave - Laos

Lao Lau (rice whiskey) - Laos

Food - Laos

Home

Phuket - Snake show

Phuket - Small monkeys

Phuket - Elephant ride

Phuket - Kata Beach

Phuket – Travelling

Passport photo session

Grandma and grandpa

Grandparents and Great Grand parents

Comissioned work

Ring flash portrait

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