Blogs from East, Laos, Asia - page 6

As I mentioned in my previous blog, we left Luang Prabang by express bus for Phonsavan - an eight hour journey down highway 13 and then onto highway 7. Both highways are now paved which made the journey a little less life threatening. We were lucky to have a half empty bus. There were only seven of us foreigners on the bus - and we had all been on the same slow boat to Luang Prabang. The rest of the bus was half full of Laos people. We were able to take two seats each to ourselves, which was going to make for better sleeping. At least, we THOUGHT we would sleep. It is pretty hard to sleep when the road makes a roller coaster feel tame. The road wound through mountains, following the countour of ... read more

We had decided on Sam Neau as our guidebook told us it was a worthwhile little picturesque place to stop by on the way to the Vietnam border. The surrounding mountains and paddy fields were in fact quite beautiful, but everywhere you look there is some kind of construction going on. I’m sure for the people who live there it’s a good thing but scaffolding and piles of sand and rubble everywhere aren't very pretty to look at. We walked around town to find a guesthouse and eventually settled on the first place we saw. We spent some time online before grabbing some dinner at what seemed to be the only restaurant in town. We were tired from the long bus journey and so slept in the next morning. We wanted to visit near by Vieng ... read more

After leaving the beautiful Luang Prabang, we took a horrendous 6 hour journey (which felt like the world's worst rollercoaster) to a gritty town called Phonsavan. We found out that until a month before we arrived they didn't have streetlamps, and so tourists would often hurt themselves walking back to their hotel at night! During the Vietnam war, the CIA conducted a secret war in Laos, as it bordered Vietnam. During the 15 years it is estimated that the CIA flew a bombing mission over Laos every 9 minutes! This meant that over the bombed areas 12 tonnes of bombs were dropped per square kilometre. There were also lots of CIA officers in Laos, the most famous of which was Colonel Tony Poe, who used to cut off his enemies ears and staple them to reports ... read more

As I said (briefly) yesterday we’re in North East Laos now, close to the Plain of Jars. This region is well known for two reasons, the jars themselves and the so-called Hidden War. The jars are the subject of much debate and truth is, no-one really knows their history. They range in size from 1m to over 2m high, with a diameter of between 50cm and 1m. The material appears to be limestone and each one has been hollowed out using (presumably) a harder stone. The age? Well, certainly thousands of years but no-one can say for sure. The first theory is that they were used for fermenting alcohol from rice, to be used for celebrations, That would tie in nicely with current day Laos. However in the 1930’s a French archaeologist found human ashes under ... read more

I went up to Nong Khiaw by minivan on the 10th. I was the first collected from my hotel and the driver invited me to take the front passenger seat. Although the ride was better than most I have taken, the seatbelt didn't work and I was left to grip the handle over the door to keep my seat in several tight corners. Nong Khiaw is not a major attraction. I had the option to take a kayak tour up the Nam Ou. The tour involved taking a passenger boat up to Muang Knoi with the kayaks dragged behind, then after spending a few hours in Muang Knoi, kayaking down the Nam Ou back to Nong Khiaw. The tour was expensive, more than a million kip if no-one joined me. I decided to travel up to ... read more