I spent my birthday 30th birthday on assignment documenting one of Ock Pop Tok’s remote Village Weaver Projects as two members of the production team went to meet the weavers face-to-face to bring raw materials and go over designs for future pieces.
This village is extremely isolated. We first took a 12-seater plane from Luang Prabang to Xiang Khouang Province (the most bombed region in the world, during the US/Vietnam war) then a truck for over five hours, and the last 2.5 on rough dirt roads. We then ditched the truck and took a small boat across the river to reach the village. During the rainy season this village cluster is completely cut off because the roads and river are so treacherous.
Arriving late at night, I was struck by the silence, darkness (no electricity) and the stars! Our hosts arrived at the river bank looking like excited (but beautiful) angler fish in their headlamps, grabbing our bags and ushering us to the stilted wooden house we’d all sleep in that night.
Before climbing the stairs, below the house a little headlamp was illuminating the warp on a loom. It was 9:30pm and Mae Thao (grandma) was still working in the dark. She works until 10pm every night and wakes up at 3am to start again. After asking her why she keeps such a rigorous schedule, she just says “what else is there to do here?”
After a late night meal of sticky rice, bok choy and eggs by candle light I snuggled up on the ground sharing a bed with two others and far too long for the space allotted to me - feeling strangely content with being anonymous in a strange new place on my 30th birthday.
