02/01/2005: The wonders of Laos

Hello everyone!

We're currently in Luang Prabang, Laos - a gorgeous city with a great laid-back atmosphere (like all of Laos seemingly). The entire city is a Unesco World Heritage site and it's no wonder. Unfortunately the road to wonder is full of pain and hardship. Ground travel in Laos is shockingly slow...when things go right.

But first back to Vientiene - where we stayed for five nights to recuperate from the "drug bus" border run. For a national capital, it's fairly sleepy but there certainly are some highlights. One was a great bike ride where we discovered that you don't have to get very far off the largest national highway (which is easily bikeable...four lanes at it's widest) to get to truly rural Laos. Amongst the other great sites in Vientiene, I thought it important to get back to my chemical engineering roots and visit the Beer Lao Brewery to pay homage and get a plant tour. It seemed like a good idea at the time - trusting my memory of where the plant was (I STILL know I read it was on Highway13) and a tourist map that turned out to not really be to scale (or even directionally correct). After biking for about 15km on very old bikes, Deanna had the inspired idea to actually stop at a store and look at the bottling address on the beer can - and of course we were on the wrong road. So using the trusty map, we decided that if we could just "cut through" we'd save ourselves a lot of backtracking. So off we went - past rice paddies, naked kids playing in a ditch, small ban(villages) with bemused locals looking at the foreigners riding bikes and waving. And on we went - asking for directions using the Lonely Planet guidebook phrases "I want springrolls!", trying sign language, biking in the general direction given and hoping the direction giver would yell across the fields if we went the wrong way. And on we went- pointing to the map (which caused no end of confusion as at this point, we weren't ON the map anymore), or saying "Beer Lao, Beer Lao" and being told that they don't sell Beer Lao there. And finally - we found ourselves being told that we were approximately 50km away from our destination. Discouraged, we biked in the direction we were told (to go back to Vientiene) and discovered ourselves on Highway 13 about a half km from where we had originally turned off for our "shortcut". Ugh. The next day, we hired a tuk-tuk to drive us to the Beer Lao factory where we took a bunch of pictures in the bottling plant and enjoyed a free sample of the product. The moral of the story is to enjoy the journey not just the destination but the true moral is to never walk or ride to where you can just drive. In an bizarre coincidence, did I mention that I've actually gained weight on thistrip?

After Vientiene, we took a trip to Vang Vieng (a backpacker's paradise with tons of great restaurants where you can kick back, enjoy a beer (or other stuff), and watch pretty much any movie in existence or Friends...the world seems to love Friends) and then to Phonsavan to see the enigmatic Plain of Jars. Nobody knows the exact nature of these jars - the current theory is that they're ancient funeral relics - but what really stuck with me was how we had to stick to the paths because there is so many unexploded bombs from the US's Secret War during theVietnam era. There's actually markers on the Plain of Jars sites...if you walk to the inside of the markers (the side of the markers painted white) that area has been swept with metal/bomb detectors. If you walk outside (the red area of the markers) then only visual methods have been used to "detect" the explosives. Being a very poor student of history, I knew nothing of the covert operation to bomb Laos (breaking all international codes on waging war), using US military - who "quit"the military, gave up dogtags, and even used fake names - to fly missions into Laos to drop bombs on the Ho Chi Minh trail. Anyway - the stat that sticks in my head is that more bombs were dropped on Laos than on Nazi Germany during WWII. And we technically weren't even fighting in Laos. Between the different jar sites, we actually stopped at a house in a village and were asked to stay for lunch and try their noodles (the entire village makes noodles). Pretty amazing hospitality considering the guide had never met the family before that day. Our host (an elderly gentlemen who had been the village chief before he"retired") was extremely gracious - offering us several rounds of rice whisky (Lao-Lao), and also telling us (through the translator) about how the entire village lived in caves during the worst bombing years and worked their fields at night to eat. And still - no bad feelings towards America - it never ceases to amaze me. The Lao people that we have met have been very genuine and friendly.

From Phonsavan, we wanted to catch the bus to Sam Neua and Vieng Xai - where the Pathet Lao (Lao communists) hid out in caves during the bombing. We bought our bus tickets at 7am and were told the bus was leaving at 8am. At 8am (with Deanna checking several times during the interim to make sure we weren't missing our bus), we were told the "bus had come and gone" which wasn't true because even some locals had "missed the bus". It just didn't come that day. We instead got onto another "sangthaew"...basically the back of a covered pick-up truck with benches down both sides in back. It's a big truck - but not that comfortable with 33 people jammed in with everything they can carry or feel like bringing to the market (20 is actually the "comfortable amount"). I alternately fought off the nausea (I haven't been carsick since I was 12 but the seats are sideways and it was hot) and tried to provide a comfortable resting surface for the women next to me as she had fallen asleep against my arm as I grasped the ceiling balance bar. This continued for 6 hours. At that point, we rolled into our connecting stop where it turned out that the driver hadn't waited. So...our one English speaking Lao friend suggested we wait on the side of the road for passing buses/trucks/cars that might want to give us a ride. He found one...three hours later, we had not. So we stayed in a pretty horrid guesthouse (as Deanna says "like camping...but inside!") where I think we both got bed-bug bites. Anyway, the next day we took the sangthaew to Sam Neua...this time at a more comfortable 30 people packed in...for another 5 hours.

When we finally got to Vieng Xai, I was amazed by the natural beauty of the entire area - extremely hilly with amazing valleys and natural splendor. The caves were great - there is one that is said to have housed up to three thousand people...it's huge...and many of the caves(especially of the leaders) have a true internal stucture...bathrooms, bedrooms, walls, and even emergency rooms with oxygen generators in case of chemical attack. Kaysone - the Pathet Lao leader - and his cabinet actually lived in caves for NINE YEARS before the US stopped bombing. That's amazing to me. I only lived in my craphole apartments for four years in college...okay five to be technically correct.

As I am tired of hearing myself talk about bus rides, I will give the abbreviated version of our trip from Sam Neua to Nong Khiew (on the way to Luang Prabang). The journey is about 200km and is supposed to take 9 hours. 5 flat tires later we arrived...20 hours after we left. There were two people in the aisle in each row and we were WAY overloaded with baggage as well. The Hmong boy next to me was throwing up the entire way except when he was sleeping on my shoulder, the women behind me threw up several times, at one point a women sitting in the aisle had to make a dash to the window to throw up. I don't think the Lao people (especially the ethnic minorities in small towns) get to ride in a car that often...and it showed. We stayed at a place (after waking up the proprietor at 4:30am) that made me wish for a tent inside the room.

From Nong Khiew, we took a beautiful river journey to Luang Prabang. No mishaps. And for the record (in case my accounts don't fairly portray the trip) I am still loving being here.

Take care everyone -