The Dogs of India

Bennett Cain July 5, 2016

With 1.25 billion people, India has an absolutely massive human population. Prior to coming here, I was expecting to find visual evidence of this but the one thing I hadn’t considered was the seemingly equal amount of domesticated animals roaming the streets. Monkeys, cows, goats, pigs, chickens, donkeys, horses, camels, elephants, and the staggering number of stray dogs. With numbers no less than 30 million, there are more semi-feral canines in India than anywhere else in the world. They're found in any city, town, or village, and roaming in packs in remote rural areas. Because of the sheer volume of the dog population, 36% of the world’s rabies deaths are in India; 20,000 per year will die out of the 35,000 documented infections. This is a public health problem of massive proportions.

Prior to British colonization and the arrival of other dog breeds, the most commonly found canine on the subcontinent was the ancient, indigenousPariah Dog, also known as the Pye Dog or India Native Dog. While generations of interbreeding have left the Pariah Dog mostly mixed today, this guy I saw in Delhi exhibits many of the physical traits

While the name refers to an indigenous Indian breed, "Pariah Dog" has come to encompass all street dogs here. This name also suggests a scavenger species largely regarded as a threat or nuisance and living on the fringes of society. Their connection to people is ancient though, one of the oldest in the world, and many dogs are put to work as guards in slums in exchange for food. As with other animals here, people have traditionally just left the dogs alone but this neglect is part of the problem. The colonial solution was to round them up and kill them. As of 2001 this is now illegal but without a real policy in place, the problem of stray dogs attacking and infecting peoples remains largely status quo.

For a scavenger species, the large amounts of exposed garbage found all over India provide an abundant food source. Slums are the biggest refuse producer and as long as human beings are living without access to proper sanitation or waste disposal, there will always be large numbers of stray dogs.

Two dogs can multiply into three hundred within three years so sterilization is a more humane approach. Cities such as Jaipur and Mumbai have been successful in their programs to neuter, vaccinate, and return animals to their territorial areas. This keeps other dogs from coming in and breeding. The neutered animals will eventually die naturally and reduce their overall numbers. Implementing similar measures on a national level has yet to happen.

All across developing Asia, it's becoming rather posh by the middle and upper classes to keep thorough-bred dogs and it's no different in India. Even so, the average visitor is more likely to see street dogs in a wretched state rather than loved and well cared for animals. Letting a dog live in your house and be a member of the family is a relatively foreign concept in this part of the world. In my experience with dogs in India, most seemed pretty docile; afraid of humans and trying to avoid them. Even if food is offered, they're very skittish. A dog's life here is not an easy one.

Rural Isolation in Laos

Bennett Cain July 5, 2016

Instastory originally published on Instagram 12/24/14.

Laos is a remote and sparsely populated country in Southeast Asia wedged between Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, and China and sharing cultural similarities with all of them throughout its geography. While wholesale deforestation has been reported in places, there is still much unspoiled, natural beauty to discover here. Sights such as these natural waterfalls near Luang Prabang city are common all over the country.

While traveling in Asia, "homestays", where one sleeps and eats in the house of a local family, usually in a remote area, are an excellent way to immerse yourself in the culture. I've done homestays in China, Vietnam, India, and Laos have had incredibly rewarding experiences because of them that would have never happened staying on the beaten tourist trail.

The homestay that I did in Laos in November 2014 was in a very remote village in the northern highlands called accessible only by way of the Mekong River. The journey takes threes days on a traditional Lao river boat without electricity or other conveniences.

This is the captain of the river boat. He, his wife, and their sons live on it year round and earn their living taking travelers and goods back and forth between Laos and northern Thailand.

This disabled man was one of the captain's sons and he helped with serving meals docking the boat. He was fascinated watching me process photos in Lightroom so I took a quick snap and pulled it in to show him. I don’t think he had ever seen a picture of himself so was a little taken back by it. It was very touching. Though smartphones are becoming prevalent around the world, even in the most remote, I've been to a few places so far off the grid it's like traveling back in time. This was one of them.

Throughout Southeast Asia, religion and ethnicity is a complicated topic because of the many wars and social strife it's caused in the region. The diversity of peoples and their languages, religions, and cultural practices in this part of the world is staggering. Though it varies wildly from country to country, the treatment of minorities by the majority has been rife with mistreatment, exploitation, and human rights abuses. Small tribal groups in remote rural areas are particularly vulnerable. In Laos alone there are 160 recognized ethnic groups but the three biggest are the Lao, Hmong, and the Khmu, who account for about 11% of the population and live mainly in the highlands. The village I stayed in is called Dongchieng and is a tiny Khmu settlement only accessible coming in boat on the Mekong.

The Lao people make up in the majority of Laos and practice the Theravada Buddhism found throughout most of the rest of Southeast Asia. The Hmong and Khmu practice an ancient, indigenous animist religion ofancestor worship, shamanic magic, and the belief in nature and house spirits. These religious practices are wildly different than those of the Buddhist majority and puts them somewhat outside of mainstream society.

The communist government of Laos mostly leaves isolated communities like this one alone although it's known they install the tribal and village leadership themselves to ensure loyalty to the party. There seems to be very little human development happening here though, the livelihood coming from age old subsistence level farming practices. There is a school here so some education is available though most young people spend their time in the fields with their parents. Another problem in not just Laos but in many poor rural part of Southeast Asia is young women finding their way into prostitution.

This village was crawling with domesticated creatures - chickens, birds, goats, dogs, and everything is on the menu.

Dongchieng village is so far off the grid that infrastructure is almost non-existent. Water is from wells and rainwater catchments; their limited electricity comes from solar cells, batteries, and gas generators. This remains the only place I’ve ever been where I didn't see any cell phones or computers though someone here surely has them. If there's any place in the world that can fairly be deemed "the middle of nowehere" it's here. The only real source of income for these people is from surplus agriculture and what they can get from these homestays. They have very little; enough for their basic needs but there is always a palpable sadness in such poverty.

This is Mr. Tong, the Khmu guide on this homestay. He left a village like Dongchieng as a young person and became a Buddhist monk for eight years to seek an education. He recently rejoined the secular life to start a family and become a professional. In Theravada, the Buddhism of Southeast Asia, monks are free to leave the order and return as they please. Spending some time as a monk is part of many young men's experience in this part of the world. In Mahayana, the Buddhism of the Far East, ordination is a lifelong vow and to leave after taking vows brings enormous shame to both the individual and their family. Throughout my travels in Asia I was lucky to meet many people like Tong who were very gracious and happy to teach foreigners about their culture.

Inferno—Patong Beach, Thailand

Bennett Cain July 5, 2016

Instastory originally published on Instagram 12/22/14. These photos are a little raunchy. You've been warned.

Starting in the north of Thailand, I spent about a month making my way down to the beaches and islands of the south. There are so many of them, figuring out where to begin was daunting but Phuket seemed like a decent place to start as other islands are easily accessible from there. Patong Beach is the hub of Phuket island so I chose to begin there despite being warned of the sleaze and debauchery; tourists from around the world on their absolute worst behavior. After spending nearly a month in Thailand though I felt fairly numb to the country's multi-billion dollar sex industry as it's visible everywhere. On the ferry over to the island I realized what I was getting myself into.

High season in the islands. There is no escape from the crowds.

Those looking to kill brain cells will have no problem taking care of that in Patong. This is a 24 hour party designed to extract as much cash as possible out of every "farang" on the beach.

"Farang" is a Thai word used for "foreigner" which supposedly comes from the Vietnamese word for "French", a little vestige of the colonial era. As a farang, some Thai people in touristed areas view you as an ATM awaiting extraction and will go out of their way to get you into their establishment, possibly even trying to physically pull you in. Being referred to as a farang here is part of the experience as there seems to be an invisible line dividing Thai society and the hordes of visitors in their country. It's a strange and alienating feeling being called a racial epithet to your face even though the Thai’s insist the term isn’t racist. It feels racist to me.

Everyone and everything is for sale in Patong and there's no shortage of customers. It's just part of culture here but for a first time visitor it's definitely shocking.

Prostitution is technically illegal in the Kingdom of Thailand. Even so it's somehow a multi-billion dollar industry employing hundreds of thousands of people and countless cities and towns. Minimum wage in Thailand is 300 Baht per day or about 10 USD. Salaried employees don't do tremendously better and despite the appearance of a prosperous and relatively developed nation, poverty remains persistent. Cultural acceptance of the oldest trade in the world has meant little social stigma so many women here earn far better money by prostituting themselves. Thailand is a place of enormous cultural and natural beauty, the only Southeast Asian country to resist colonization which a tremendous point of pride for this country but there’s also a dark and ugly side. A side that is very easy for many visitors to experience first and might supersede all the other wonderful aspects of this country.

Russians comprise a large contingent of the tourist mass in southern Thailand and in places like Patong Beach, they have their own nightclubs, restaurants, and organized crime.

Many Russian girls are lured to Thailand with the promise of work in 5 star hotels and posh night clubs and instead find themselves passport-less, addicted to drugs, and walking the street in shitholes like Patong. Thailand sadly has one of the world's worst records in human trafficking

There are now officially three genders in Thailand. Male, female, and "kathoey" which is neither one nor the other and has recently earned legal status as its own identity. In Thailand the term has become synonymous with "Ladyboys," men found not just here but in every Southeast Asian country who live their lives as women. In this part of the world, gender and sexual identity are much more amorphous than in the west and acceptance of non-traditional norms has made Thailand perhaps the most sexually progressive place on the planet.