The many smiling faces of Maly

The cheerful and bubbly Maly

This permanently-smiling youngster called Maly was a resident of the car ferry between Ban Phaphin, north of Champasak and Ban Muang, on the eastern shore of the Mekong River, selling the contents of her basket of wooden jars and chewing gum to the ferry passengers. She was a livewire, cheerful and bubbly, enjoying a pretend gun-battle with my brother Tim before studiously writing down our names and ages when we gave her a couple of spare pens and notepads. She persuaded us to buy some chewing-gum even though neither of us eat the stuff before we disembarked and waved our goodbyes, with a massive beaming smile on her face of course.

Maly and her basket of wares that she sells to the ferry passengers

I think Tim has just been gunned-down in his prime

Maly getting ready to reload and fire her pretend gun again

Writing down our names and ages with her new pen and notepad

Maly gives Tim her friendly salute after their pretend gun-battle