Laos - The Most Heavily Bombed Place on Earth!

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After a 9 hour bus trip which was not high up on the list of most comfortable bus journeys taken, we finally arrived in Vientiane (Laos Capital). We paid extra to travel on the 'VIP' bus, the main difference between the VIP bus and the air-con buses transpired to be the presence of a toilet which didn't flush! All in all a long journey on a very hot day with not the best Air-Con!

We spent the first couple of days chilling and planning the next stages of our trip - mainly, how on earth are we going to get to Vietnam??? We had planned to get the sixteen hour overnight bus to Vietnam from Vientiane, however after our VIP bus experience we decided that our marriage was not ready for the challenge of an extra seven hours on a bus together! We have decided to fly to Hanoi.

On Wednesday we visited 'COPE' (Co-operative Orthotic & Prosthetic Enterprise) - the centre is the only place in Laos which offers rehab and prosthetics to Laos people - free. The visit was absoultely fascinating, sobering, and at times heartbreaking. Neither of us had quite expected to be as moved as we were.

Laos has the unfortunate title of 'The most heavily bombed place on earth'! During the 'Secret War' prior to the Vietnam war kicking off properly, the USA in their wisdom wanted to stop the Vietnamese from crossing into Laos to travel the Ho Chi Minh trail towards Saigon. In the 1960s and 1970s the USA dropped more than 250 million various sized bombs across Laos. A third of these bombs (some as small as golf balls) are estimated not to have exploded - that's over 80 million unexploded devices in a country with a population of under 7 million. Unfortunately in such a poverty stricken country these devices are often worth risking collecting for the potential of selling for scrap metal!

We managed to arrange a further visit to look around more of the centre. The COPE section is based around the prosthetics and orthotics work, and is on the same site as the National Rehabilitation Centre, which does operations and therapy for in- and out-patients. We talked to one of the several prosthetists, who are all trained in Cambodia, who was very informative and clearly used to overseas visitors. We also got to have a peek at the NRC physio departments, but as it was 3.30pm and their day finishes at 4 no-one was doing anything... a good work ethic!!! Their physio had had training through overseas non-government organisations on several occasions, helping to improve their clinical knowledge and skills.

Later in the week we visited the Laos National History museum which was quite interesting, starting with dinosaur discoveries dating back millions of years through to modern day history. There has been very little archaeology in Laos and it seems what has been done has unearthed all manner of finds. Indiana Jones would have an amazing time here! The museum took us right through to the modern day, and was a very educational experience right up to the area that started talking about the 'American Imperialists and their Puppets'!

We visited Patuxai - which is a kind of replica of the Arc de Triomphe, but with a bit of South East Asian influence. We climbed up and had some fantastic views of the city.

Next stop Vietnam - somewhere we have heard mixed reports of so we are a little apprehensive...

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Comments

[Jane]

Hey Dave, It looks like you're both having a fantastic time but i'm not bitter!!!!!!! Yes we did hit 98% not that anyone really doubted that if you know what i mean. Take care xxxxxx