What Haven't Said About Laos

There are a great number of things I have seen and experienced in Laos. I think I was just fortunate to have traveled here. Reading the guide books and internet reviews I have found writers refering to such and such a country as, " having the most friendly people in the world." I suppose that you could use that absolute about many peoples, but here I find it very close to a truism. We have been treated very kindly, and there is no fear of theifs or of being missled. One girl who lives in Vientiane said,"the Lao people will try to price gouge a tourist, but they will tell you they are doing it."

Though this post is reaching coming from Vietnam, I have to try and squeeze in a few of the adventures that helped form my previously stated opinion.

1. Our four days in Luang Prabang were a wonderful "hello" to Laos. We watched the sunset from a temple on a hill in the center of the city. It looked like a orange orb that slowly ( we waited and hour) decended behind the mountain and cast a ever changing glare of color across the Mekong river. We met a really fun guy named Sai, who worked at our guesthouse, and after a few bottles of Lao Lao (local made whiskey that comes in used water bottles) mixed with Pepsi he invited us to go with him and his friends to the waterfalls near the city. At the Kuangsi falls we saw endangered bears that are being potched for thier bile of all things, for traditional chinese medicines. The falls were amazing we jumped of waterfalls into deep cool pools a color unseen in America. There was a rope swing, and given my lack of coordination an uncomfortable rope burn. There at the falls we met Sai's college friends, about 25 people all eating and drinking beer with ice ( a common occurance that I got used to). We drank, ate and played guitar, it was so nice to be with local people and avoid the mass of tourists there. Unfortunately, later that night after dinner I had my first and only so far bout with my stomach. I had to wake early the next day to take an 11 hour bus and it was not pretty.

2. Phonosavan and the Plain of Jars. We traveled far to see The Plain of Jars, a UNESCO sight and current archilogical sight. It was worth the trip. Basically, there are about 4 or 5 sights in the area containing large groups of stone jars. The 2 most interesting thing about these objects are that no one knows what exactly they were used for, and that they were and to some extent are infultrated by unexploded cluster bombs. We learned about the USA's "secret war" in Laos during the Vietnam war. About 7 million bombs were dumped in northern Laos, supposedly to deter the communist threat there. Later in the war planes would just use the country as a dumping ground. It is still a problem and people are still dying from the unexploded bombs even today. That something I was glad I learned more about. It is a bit different when you are in the country where things like that happen.

3. After breif stop in Vientiane we went across the center of the country see a 7 km long underground river/cave. We were also fortunate enough to be able to stay in a local village for 2 days. The cave was a real wonderful sight dark and cool with stilatites and stilagmites. We glided along the river in small boat with a motor. Although, we had to walk a few times because it was dry season. Pictures will explan beter than words.

Lastly, because I feel this is a bit long, I will save Laos new year, and my venture to Vietnam for my next installment.