Blogs from West, Laos, Asia - page 5

Woolly says – We’d had a slightly later start to the day, our huge breakfast needed to be walked off and feeling that we had got to grips with Vientiane I set off with confidence. Passing many of the places that we had seen yesterday it didn’t take long to arrive at the Cope Visitor centre, not maybe your usual touristy type of thing but one that we had all wanted to go to. Set up in 1996, COPE’s work has helped thousands of people with mobility related disabilities, including UXO survivors which now have access to prosthetic and orthotic services, allowing them to regain mobility and dignity. A very nice young lady greeted us at the door and told us to ask anything we wanted to before directing us into the cinema room. The video ... read more

The world is full of strange and wondrous things. Mud flaps don’t usually make the list, but the ones on the tuk tuks in Luang Prabang, Laos are adorned with the unmistakable image of Rambo. This may not be wondrous, but it is definitely strange. Rambo is a classic American hero archetype -- a self-reliant, super-individualistic, gratuitously violent, gunslinger outlaw. In the movie (First Blood part 2), Rambo is sent back to Vietnam on a top secret recon mission. In an orgy of carnage, Rambo wipes away the humiliation of defeat in Vietnam, vanquishes hordes of VC and some villainous Russian commies, and reasserts America’s Cold War awesomeness. It is morning in Reagan’s America, and Rambo is the great anti-communist avenging angel. America loves it. It’s less clear what the Laotians find desirable. Lao’s People’s Democratic ... read more

Tuesday After a great night's sleep we are up,ready, and out on the streets of Vientiane by 9am. Most of the sites we want to visit are within comfortable walking distance, we say 'most', more about that later. First point of interest, the Victory Gate (Patuxai), an oriental version of the Arc de Triomphe, constructed in 1964 from cement pilfered from the Americans, originally intended for an airfield. It was built to honour the lives lost during the Laos civil war. But, due to continuing struggles with the Americans, never quite finished. Impressive none the less and for an entrance fee of 30 pence, you can walk to the top on crumbling but wide staircases. Paula conquers her fears and makes it to the very pinnacle via a narrow spiral staircase and we are rewarded with ... read more

Getting to Vientiane I had a lazy morning in Phonsavan. After eating the hotel breakfast, I wandered around the nearby market. Phonsavan’s market is huge - way out of proportion to the size of the town. My guess is that this market serves a large hinterland. There were Hmong in traditional attire too. After packing, I checked out at 11am. My flight to Vientiane wasn‘t until 1.20pm. I considered forcing some lunch down before heading to the airport because I wouldn’t get to eat before 3pm otherwise, but I decided against it as I wasn't hungry. I reasoned that there might be a snack bar at the airport, but I bought a stuffed bread roll just in case. I woke up a snoozing sawngthaew driver and hired him to take me to the airport. En route, ... read more

It was at 4am that we first heard them. The alarm was set for 5am but wasn’t needed. The drums to awaken the monks for prayer could be heard two blocks away. In the darkness we walked round the corner and only about 50 metres to the next corner where we waited for the daily procession of monks to come by to collect their rations of, mostly rice, from the local people. Sticky rice has been prepared especially for the occasion and carried in small woven baskets. Another bell signalled that they had left the nearby temple and shortly, out of the gloom, appeared a line of bright orange, each monk carrying a leather and stainless bowl with a lid and held by the side with a shoulder strap. Into this the locals put a small ... read more