Laos – Huay Xai, Mekong River, Luang Prabang, Muang Ngoi, Sam Neua, Phonsavan, Vang Vieng
And then there was Laos. What an amazing county. I entered Laos crossing the Mekong at the northern most border crossing with Thailand – Chaing Kong on the Thai side and Huay Xai on the Lao side. Immediately one could perceive the differences between the two countries. Laos is similar to Thailand in many ways, but the pace is dialed way, way back. It is very quaint and simple, not many developed roads or modern infrastructure in place. The people live simple lives, but are quick to give you a saba-dee (hello) and a smile… Spent one night in Huay Xai – sampled some local cuisine saw a band playing traditional Lao music. Instruments included a hand drum, triangle, bamboo xylophone, a four string instrument played like a guitar and two string instrument with a skin covered resonating chamber and played with a bow. Very interesting…
The next morning Lorraine and I jumped on boat for two-day trip down the Mekong to Luang Prabang, with an overnight stay in Pakbeng. The boat was about sixty feet long and about eight feet wide, like all transport in Laos; it was short on elbowroom, but long in character. Up until recently, the Mekong was the key transport artery of the country, and between Huey Xai and Luang Prabang, it still is, as there is no direct road between the two. It was a fascinating trip, passing by lots of tall limestone rock formations, tiny little villages, men out fishing in homemade canoes, women doing laundry in the river, naked children playing along the bank. It was a unique glimpse into the heartland of Laos.
Luang Prabang sits right along the Mekong and has retained the 1920’s French colonial architecture mixed in with 500 year old monasteries – just named a world heritage site, local people are working to maintain and preserve the unique charm of this small town. The street markets here were interesting, with a wide mix of Lao food and local crafts. I was amazed by how inexpensive Laos is, deluxe rooms (with bathroom) – $3, dinner – $1, Beer Lao the local brew – very drinkable I might add – $.60 a liter – almost free! Spent four or five days here in Luang Prabang enjoying the atmosphere before Lorraine headed home, and I went north to the village of Muang Ngoi.
Muang Ngoi was possibly my favorite stop in Laos so far; it is a small village along the Nam Ou River an hour’s journey by boat from the nearest road. As yet there are no motorized vehicles in the village, just a couple of footpaths lined with coconut palms that take you from place to place. The guesthouse I stayed in was a simple bamboo hut with shared bathrooms. I spent most of my time sitting in a hammock, reading books and soaking up the river views. The village has a real south seas feel to it, men mending fishing nets, lots of children playing in the river, really quiet and laid back – a nice place to relax for a couple of days.
After relaxing for a few days, I decided to get off the beaten path and head east to Sam Nuea – very close to the Vietnam border. Not many tourist get out there as transportation is a little sketchy and they are not geared up for tourists, I had a hard time communicating with the guy at the transport hut, as he didn’t speak any English, so I just jumped in a truck heading the right way figuring I would get there eventually. My truck made it about two hours down the road and dropped me off in a small village – luckily there was a guesthouse there and the owner spoke some English. Found out that the bus came through at night, and I had 12 hours to kill – so we talked for hours about the war in Iraq and the Lao Government and drank plenty of Beer Lao. The bus ended up being late, around 10PM we were outside waiting when a couple of guys showed up with AK 47 assault rifles asking questions – the guesthouse owner talked to them, and they left without incident, but after that he suggested we go inside to wait. “Well, Toto, I don’t think we are in Kansas anymore.” I laid down on a makeshift bed to wait, and was soon fast asleep – I woke to sound of the bus roaring down the road, grabbed my backpack and ran out into the street flagging down the bus, jumped on and was whisked away. As I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and looked around, the bus was completely full, people sitting in seats, in the isles, on each other, I never saw so many people inside a bus before. I was the only foreigner and to top it all off the radio was blasting Lao pop music at a volume loud enough to make your ears bleed. I dropped my backpack on the floor inside the door, as people cleared a small spot for me and sat down on my bag, elbowing my way in and laughing as I knew this was my fate for the next twelve hours – maybe it was all just a dream…
Arrived in Sam Nuea the next day after the grueling bus journey – a dusty non-descript town that is closer to the capital of Vietnam then it is to that of Laos. Mix of Chinese, Laos and Vietnam culture – not much to speak of in the town itself, but there are two great sights nearby. The first is Suan Hin, an archeological sight that is called the Lao Stonehenge – spread out over five different sights – large stone monoliths at much as ten feet tall, are found sticking up out of ground surrounded by large stone discs eight feet in diameter, laying on the ground all around them. No one is really sure how old they are or why they were made – very mysterious and very cool. The second site was the caves in Vieng Xai – they were used to protect the revolutionary Pathet Lao (PL) government officials and thousands of troops during the secret war and bombing campaigns conducted by the American Government during and after the Vietnam war in Laos. An amazing collection of caves, rooms, and tunnels – a major stronghold virtually unassailable by air that was only recently declassified by the Lao government.
From Sam Neua, I headed south to Phonsavan where I visited another ancient site that may be related to Suin Hin. Plains de jars, is a collection of 54 sites where large stone jars carved from solid rock can be found on hilltops in the local countryside. Some of the jars are as large a seven feet tall and five feet across. I rented a motorbike and headed out into the hills to visit the three sites that are safe to see, as the local area and much of Laos is covered with UXO (unexploded ordinance) from American bombs. Seeing the jars was really amazing – there are hundreds at each site, and there is no explanation for what they were used for – another mystery. There were so many bomb craters in the area, some of them right beside the jars, it was surreal. The left-over six foot long casings of cluster bombs are so plentiful in the area that local people use them as building material, fence posts, pillars for buildings, even planters – you see thousands of them everywhere you look.
I am now in Vang Vieng relaxing for a couple of days – checking out some of the local caves – there are hundreds around – some of them quite large extending a mile or more underground, some you can even swim through. Next stop Vientiane – the capital of Laos. A great poet once asked the following question: “How does it feel, to be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone?” Well Bob, I have to say that it feels absolutely great!
Until next time…
Matt
PS – If you want to learn more about the UXO in Laos and the secret war conducted by the US, which the US has still not taken complete responsibility for, check out the following online article. It mentions the owner of the guesthouse where I stayed in Phonsavan who was nearly killed by UXO when he was a child. “Remnants of War”