Peaceful Village before Under Attack

Villa Resort in the Lower Northeast of Thailand

I was so close to the thin line between life and death. That said, I could have been an immediate war photographer/author reporter, or hostage, or worst, a victim!

Our photographic team of 30-something professionals stationed at a villa resort in Thailand as a homebase for covering a tiny village in Laos called Chong Mek. We traveled back and forth between 2 countries on a daily basis.

We headed back to our Thailand Villa resort in the late afternoon from the last day shooting of Chong Mek village in Laos. As soon as our group entered the lobby, the front desk concierge at our resort singled me out and spoke to me cheerfully, "I am so glad to see you back safely, Don. All of your group okay?" I am sort of lost saying "We are fine, thanks. But in what sense are we 'safely back'?"

"The village you visited today was just under attack by Lao rebels!" the concierge's high-pitched words echoed in my disbelieving ears. I numbly shook my head and said, "How? Why? When?..." "I got the messages from CNN Breaking News around 30 minutes ago." He told me so.

My eyes had got a rather sharp burning sensation from watching the Satellite News back in my once comfortable second floor room of the villa resort.

Behind the scenes stories, 

Thin Line Between Life and Death


More eye-catching pictures at,

Chong Mek & the Emerald Triangle