This installment of Travel Photo of the Week captures a unique countryside scene in Thailand. On my first trip to Northern Province of Chiang Rai in 2003, I had my driver take me to the town of Mae Sai at the Thailand/Myanmar border. About 10KM from the border, we passed by a series of colorful roadside concessions selling a variety of fruit wines as well as strawberries and dried fruit.

Young (and smiling) Thai ladies manned most of the concessions. In order to entice oncoming motorists to stop and sample their wares, many of these girls would stand on the shoulder of the highway holding a bottle or two of wine in their hands.

Charmed by the beguiling smile of a young Thai Lady, we stopped at one these roadside stalls for an impromptu wine tasting session. Before leaving, I purchased a couple of bottles of wine and photographed the young lady as she stood in front of her shop with a bottle of strawberry wine in hand. The bottles of wine in the background create sort of a beehive effect and makes for a great photo.

What about the wine, you may ask? Available in four flavors - strawberry, lychee, mulberry and herb/fruit mix – the wine is very delicious and somewhat sweet (too much sugar) and costs about $3.00 US per bottle.

Calypso Island Chronicles introduces a new feature - Travel Photo of the Week. Every Friday, I will be publishing a special Travel Photo – the photo will be selected from my vast library of images from my worldwide travels to such places as Thailand, Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Mexico, Laos and Malaysia. Each photograph will be accompanied by a brief description or story of the special circumstances that led to the picture being taken. Occasionally, I will publish a digitally rendered watercolor/oil of the photograph to give it an artsy look. Like to participate? Feel free to submit your own travel photo with accompanying story in 250 or less words for inclusion in this new Friday Photo of the week feature.
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As it was my last day in Luang Prabang (Laos), I biked around town looking to capture some more images of this colorful and charming town. Before returning my to my hotel, I came across this very pleasant cafe located not so far from the Tourist Information office.

Overlooking a beautiful lotus pond, the setting was so very idyllic and peaceful. Too bad that the coffee (and the toast) were quite ordinary. Oh, how I really detest instant coffee! Believe it or not, I ran into another tourist at the cafe from my hometown of San Francisco who I had met earlier in the week in Luang Prabang. She was entranced by the extraordinary view too!

This picture is actually a digitally rendered watercolor. It definitely creates a better mood than the original photograph. Picture was taken in December 2006.