I really liked Vang Vien. It was a relaxing stop on our quick tour of Laos. And instead of site-seeing, we got to do things. Our first afternoon we went for a walk through rice fields, following the “blue flaks” (flags) to a cave. It started getting dark, so we never actually made it to the cave, but it was still fun to walk through fields in the shadow of beautiful limestone cliffs. The next day we inner-tubed down the river, at some points having to paddle with my slippers to keep going (it is dry season, so the water was a little low in some places). The sun set softly behind the hills, followed by a ribbon of thousands of insects flying across the horizon. It was really amazing and lasted for about 5 minutes; we saw a repeat performance the next night. On the third day we rented bikes to ride out to another cave. Along the way we were greeted with many sabadi (hello) as we passed through villages and by schools. A couple kids stuck out their hands for a high-five as I rode by. It was fun. Our last day in Vang Vien we switched to a hotel with free internet and spent the whole morning taking turns skyping people back home. All in all, it was a great few days. Vang Vien is at an interesting place as the number of visitors increases each year and the town continues to develop. Only a couple of years ago the main road was dirt. Now it is paved and new buildings are going up everywhere. Having visited similar foreign-tourist only type destinations, it was interesting to see this town in this in between stage of development.

 

I have a few clarifications to Matt’s post. #1.) My daily activity consisted of more than just walking for 20 minutes, so he speaks for himself there. #2.) I wouldn’t say I was “plagued” by knee problems the last two years, but it did start bothering me significantly more during this trip.  However, during a certain bathroom break at the airport my knee popped so loudly that I thought I might be stuck in the squatting position permanently.  Fortunately this was not the case, and I think the pop relieved some of the problems in my knee, resulting in no problems with it during the trek and thereafter.  #3.) We walked often before the trek.  I don’t think this has changed much.  It’s cheaper that way, duh.   #4.) After a few days of 3-4 hours straight of stairs during the trek, I will say that a small hill of stairs leading up to a temple or cave is much less intimidating than before.  #5.)  That cave was freaky and the spider as big as my face.  Ok, maybe not as big as my face because I have a big head, but it was definitely large enough to cover the average person’s face…  #6.) Yes, I was definitely pedaling faster than Matt.

Joylani and I don’t consider ourselves outdoors people, but we’ve come to the conclusion that we do a lot of outdoorsy things as a result of traveling. At home, our outdoor exertions were limited to about 20 minutes of walking a day, between our apartment and the train station and the train station and our offices. But being in some of the most beautiful (and undeveloped) parts of the world, we’re constantly outdoors. Swimming, walking, hiking/trekking, and cycling, among other things, have become frequent activities for us. In the course of our travels, I think we might do more outdoors activities than a lot of people who consider themselves the outdoors type, whatever that is. And although neither of us are exercise junkies, fitness buffs, or consider ourselves super-healthy, as we’ve traveled we’ve become more confident in our abilities. A turning point for Joylani was the Annapurna Trek, both physically and mentally. Her bad knee that’s plagued her for the past couple years hasn’t acted up since then, her endurance has really improved, and we joke that it’s the first time she’s ever had visible leg muscles. Most of all since the trek, I’ve noticed that she’s willing to walk any distance or hike any trail. I’ll ask, “You wanna catch a sawngthaew?” or “Let’s just take a tuk-tuk.” Looking at a map, she’ll say its only x kilometers, so we walk more often. And hiking, she’s much quicker and doesn’t tire or rest much anymore. Once she told me, “Yea man, that Annapurna was tough. Since then though, I feel like I can do anything.” It was in that spirit, that we decided to rent mountain bikes to ride to some nearby caves. The caves are 15 kilometers north of town, but the route was along the paved main highway, so we thought it would be easy. We got the bikes in the early afternoon and set off. It was pretty hot. Not as hot as some other days, but definitely hot enough that shade was much preferable to sun and resting a more appealing option than exercising. And it was bit more hilly than I expected. It wasn’t a lot of hills, but the road was a continual undulation of upward and downward slopes, although it was more uphill as we were heading upriver. We stopped once and gulped down a bottle of water before hopping back on our bikes to the caves. When we arrived at the village indicated, on the hand-drawn map we got in town, we turned off the highway onto an unpaved road. I’d say dirt road, but it was more rocks than dirt. It was tough holding the handlebars as our bikes bounced hard and jerked every which way over the rocks. Good thing we’d shelled out the extra .50 cents for mountain bikes, because I don’t know what we would’ve down without thick tires and shocks. Luckily, it was only a kilometer or two before we came to the river. Crossing the river on a bamboo bridge, we then walked about a kilometer to Tham Nam cave. We passed one cave on the way and there were a couple others in the vicinity, but Tham Nam was our destination.

me, my headlamp and waterproof batterypack, and my tube, ready to go in the cave…yes, its that little hole behind me

We arrived to find a little bar/restaurant, some inner tubes stacked up, and some headlamps. The cave wasn’t what either of us were expecting. It didn’t have a big arched mouth, but was rather scary looking. Basically a small river was flowing out of the limestone cliff and there was a foot or two of space between the water’s surface and the roof of the cave mouth. A group of three guys went in ahead of us, while we strapped on our headlamps and sat in our tubes in the cold water. There was a rope in the water and strung through the cave, so we waded into the river, sat in our tubes, grabbed the line and pulled ourselves into the darkness. The line zigzagged into the cave. Immediately inside the temperature was already cooler, the air misty, and much darker. The water near the entrance glowed green from the light outside. Looking into the cave, it was pitch black and all we could hear was the echoes of the three guys that had entered a few minutes before us. We pulled ourselves along the dark tunnel, looking at the cave walls, which were covered with all sorts of interesting surfaces. Like the other caves we’ve seen, some parts of it looked smooth and rounded, some parts looked like hanging drapes, some areas were covered with patches of small crystals, and there were small stalagmites hanging from the ceiling.

can you guess what Joylani’s thinking? 

As we penetrated deeper into the cave, the air was thick with mist. It was hard to see anything, as our headlamp beams becamse visible beams and then just reflected right back at us like headlights in thick fog. A few hundred meters into the cave, the water was too shallow to sit in our tubes and the ceiling was too low to stand, so we got out of our tubes and carried them in a crouch/walk for a few meters until the ceiling rose again and we found a sandy island inside. There were a few other people there, who left for the entrance just as we got there. The cave kept going to the left and the right, so it was like we came to a T-junction. But neither side had a rope and Joylani wanted to go back, so we looked around for a minute or two before heading back. On the way back, we discovered another rope tied to original one. We followed it down an offshoot of the main tunnel, where it also stopped at a “beach.” Leaving our tubes, we crawled on the clay under the super-low ceiling behind the “beach,” which brought us to another place where the river flowed. There wasn’t much to see or do, as we didn’t have our tubes and there was no rope, so we headed back. On the way back, Joylani (of course she would be the one see it) spotted huge spider. Knowing how much she hates bugs and especially spiders (I’m sure anyone that’s read our blog for any amount of time knows the same), I wasn’t too surprised when she screamed, panted a few times, and said, “Matt. That’s the biggest spider I’ve ever seen.” I wasn’t too surprised because Joylani often speaks in hyperbole about bugs. But when I’d crawled to the open space where she was and I looked up, it was true: there, on the cave wall, was the biggest spider I’ve ever seen in my life. It wasn’t one of those fat hairy ones with a lot of body mass. Rather, it had medium-sized, sharply-shaped black body, with long legs that were thick near the body and came to sharp points at the end. I have no idea how dangerous it was, but the fact that its legs could cover my entire face was enough to get us back to our tubes FAST. We pulled our ourselves back towards the mouth of the cave, via the rope. A few minutes later, we were back outside in the late afternoon sunlight. The ride back to town was a death ride. I hadn’t eaten anything except a pancake and few slices of fruit for breakfast. My thighs burned as I pedaled and even Joylani was going faster than me. I caught up to her a few times on the uphills, but I was dying. The dusty air was irritating my sore throat and a late afternoon breeze was blowing against us, slowing us and making my eyes water. On one long uphill, we got off our bikes and walked them up the hill. We did eventually make it back to town beat, sweating, panting, etc. Today was one of those days that embodies the outdoor spirit: uncomfortable, difficult, and scary, but scenic and rewarding too. Even after today’s 30km bike ride and cave expedition, I don’t consider myself an outdoorsy person. But I do enjoy trying and experiencing things even if they’re too hot or too cold, scary or difficult, uncomfortable and even comfortable, too. And as the trip goes on, I see Joylani increasingly doesn’t let the unpleasant/difficult aspect of things get in the way of experiences and fun. For those that have been following our blog, I’m sure you’ve seen her adventurousness increase as her fears diminish. Many times in the past six months, she’s both surprised me and made me proud. Those of you that know her can see how today is a good example of how she’s changed; suggesting cycling 15km to and from our destination, following a rope several hundred meters into a dark cave filled with water, and not freaking out when seeing a six-inch spider. Of course, we’re both changing and growing in many ways, but today was just an example and reminder of one way in which Joylani has.

bad photo, but you get the point

Today was one our funner days in Lao. Joylani and I both felt sick in the morning, but at least we could sleep in. It wasn’t a travel day, so no waking up early to catch a bus. Nor is Vang Vieng a tourist trap, so we didn’t have to awake early to go on a tour. Sometimes I think I sleep-in less while traveling than at home… We had a lazy morning, eating a good breakfast and then spending some time online. By noon, we were feeling considerably better, so we rented some inner tubes to float down the river. A sawngthaew dropped us and our tubes about 3km north of town. From there, we got in our tubes and went with the slow current of the Nam Song. The fun thing here is that there’s a bunch of bars and restaurants along the river to stop at. Plus, they all have zip lines, swings, or really high platforms to jump off of. The place we stopped was a bar playing loud music. Some Lao ladies pulled us in from the river with bamboo poles. We climbed up and met a couple from SF we’d met on our boat ride to Nong Khiaw. We talked to them for bit over some Beer Lao’s. Then I encouraged Joylani to go up and try the zip line. The line descends from a 30-40 foot platform. Joylani never jumps off stuff into water, so it was fun to actually see her do this. She had a nice glide down and let go right before the end of ride, coming down feet-first in the water. I went for a try and took a guy at the bars advice to hang on until the end, which is basically where there’s a stopper to stop the handles. So I whizzed down and it felt like I was going pretty fast when the handlebars hit the stopper. I was violently jerked from the zipline and I flipped backwards almost into a dive before hitting the water.

one guy goin down the zipline 

After that we got back in our tubes and floated down some more. There were a lot of other people lazily tubing down the river and tons of people drinking and chilling out at the riverside bars to Marley and techno-ized Black Eyed Peas. When I saw a really high crane-looking tower with a platform and swing, I knew we had to stop. A guy tossed us a rope and pulled us in. We ordered a drink and I climbed up the tower. I grabbed the handlebars at the end of the cable and jumped off the 40-some-odd-foot platform. I swung down towards the river and then back up again until I became stationary in the air and dropped off the swing, probably only 15-20 feet up. I had to do that one twice

another guy going on the swing… 

After that, we got back in the tubes and floated down until we got to our guesthouse. Most people that’ve visited Vang Vieng rave to me about the drinking part of the tubing, but I actually enjoyed the swings and stuff more. I mean, Beer Lao is pretty good and it doesn’t get too much more relaxing than floating down the river and drinking beer. But jumping and flipping into the river at faster speeds and greater heights than most riverside rope-swings was definitely a highlight. A touristy activity, as there were no Lao tubing or drinking on the river, but it fun nonetheless.

 From reading some of my recent posts relating to SEA, it shouldn’t be surprising that I almost decided we should skip past Vang Vieng after several people told us it was really touristy. But it was a convenient place to breakup the journey to Vientiane and was supposed gorgeous. Well, I am glad we came. It was a much shorter bus ride than we expected and its only another three hours south to the capital. Additionally, it is gorgeous. There is a range of limestone mountains/cliff/karsts just across the Nam Song (the river) to the west. Our guesthouse is ideally situated on the banks of the Nam Song, facing the mountains- the morning sun illuminating the mountains and the evening sun setting behind them. The downside is that it is really touristy, but it has forced me to reevaluate my view of touristy places in SEA.

The first thing I saw when I stepped off the bus in Bangkok was a food cart piled with various types of seasoned and fried insects.  I knew that the cuisine would change as we traveled east through Asia.  And I’ve seen plenty of different types of meats in markets at home and abroad.  But nothing was so exciting as seeing “dog meal” on a menu for the first time.  We’ve made it, I thought to myself.  No longer in the veg-heavy subcontinent, seeing dog meal on the menu marked the beginning of a new place in terms of what constitutes “edible,” particularly with meat.  On the same menu was a dish made from field rat, as well as various parts of pig and cow which I don’t think I’ll be trying anytime soon.  Even though I don’t have the appetite to try the more adventurous things we are coming across in the markets and restaurants, I do enjoy hearing about them and seeing it for myself.  A couple of days ago we saw strips of buffalo skin drying out in the sun.  It gets scraped and re-softened before getting eaten (picture rawhide dog bones, that’s what it looks like).  Another delicacy in Laos and other Asian countries is the hardboiled chicken or duck embryo, also known as the “pregnant egg.”  Having thought I was getting a regular hardboiled egg, I accidentally ordered one the other night.  I thought it was strange that the shell didn’t crack when I hit it with a spoon, it seemed extra hard.  The membrane was pretty thick too.  A fair amount of liquid spilled out when I finally broke through the shell.  Must have gotten a lot of water inside it while it was boiling, I thought to myself.  But then I realized that there was no egg white and the yolk seemed extra large.  As I peeled back a small section of shell, there was a strange form of yolk/baby bird cooked inside.  Matt was pretty grossed out by the site, and I wasn’t planning on eating it, so I put it back in the little dish it was served in.  I had read about these eggs before, and suddenly it dawned on me why I had seen numbers on other “hardboiled” eggs at the market—the numbers indicate what stage the egg is in.  At the market in Phonsavon, we saw bowls of live grubs and crickety bugs (previously we’d only seen cooked insects), the usual fish, bats, chicken…wait, bats?!  Yep, a basketful of bats, wings tied down so they couldn’t flap.  That was a new one.  So was seeing a live rat a few stalls down.  Actually, I weren’t quite sure what it was when I first saw it, the snout wasn’t as pointy as a rat, plus it was a little bit larger than most rats.  I looked it up online and think it is a river rat.  In the process I came across a story about scientists who discovered a new mammal species at a market in Laos—the rock rat.  This was just a few years ago!  The web search also led me to an interesting website dedicated to exploring different social views on what constitutes meat and well as trying it along the way.  The site is www.weirdmeat.com, I recommend checking it out if you’re interested in that sort of thing (check out the “master list”).  I thought it was pretty cool to read about how the different meats are prepared and what they tasted like with out having to do so myself.  I have a phobia about eating meat that is not flat.  It’s just difficult for me.  In the meantime, the only new foods I’ve been trying are fruits, though I’m sure eventually I’ll try some of the more exciting items available on our journey.

Man-made jars being destroyed by nature (erosion), nature destroyed by man (bombs and defoliants).

Visiting Phonsavon has been a somber visual realization that what the US did in Laos was a terrible thing. The visual impact is so much more sobering than just reading about what happened here. The pain inflicted on the people is bad enough, yet on top of that, scars have been inflicted on the environment that have lasted and will continue to last for a long long time. When a war is over, it doesn’t mean that everything is all neatly wrapped up.

Nearly everywhere we’ve been in SEA so far has been tropical. Southern Thailand was jungles, northern Thailand was hills covered in forest and jungle, and Laos has been nothing but mountains of green. But on our bus ride yesterday, about an hour from Phonsavan, the landscape changed dramatically. After 6 hours of driving through misty mountains, we began driving through dusty ones. The air was dry and trees were sparse. There were fields of nothing- no trees, no farming, nothing. Nothing but dry grass and red dirt. Phonsavan is a dusty little town devoid of much vegetation, too. Yesterday, I assumed that our journey had brought us to a drier climatic region.

war scraps decorating our guesthouse

This morning, our guide informed us that Phonsavan and the entire province was once totally green with jungle. Well, he’s not old enough to remember the war, but he said all the older people talk sadly about how green and beautiful Phonsavan was before the war. But its been like this ever since the war; an entire province decimated by American bombs and defoliants. There’s not much to see in Phonsavan and its not a very scenic place either. Neither Joylani or I wanted to visit the main attraction, the Plain of Jars, which are some enormous stone bowls created around 2500 years ago. Even on one of the bus rides here, Joylani told me I didn’t even know what I wanted to see. That was true, I guess I just wanted to see the landscape, see how the place looked. Nobody had said the landscape would be so desolate, but I figured the most heavily bombed region of the most heavily bombed country in the world would look a little different. And it was beyond belief.

Joylani standing on rim of bomb crater

jars

story of our day- craters and jars and dead landscape

Our tour took us to three different excavation sites where jars have been found and UXO (unexploded ordinance) has been cleared. The jars were interesting, if for nothing else, because of their size. Most were at least a meter tall and some even taller. Nobody is really sure, but its theorized that some stored food stuffs, while others were used as urns. Lao folklore credits ancient giants for creating them. The tour guide didn’t have a problem with us wandering from the trail, as we stayed between markers indicating areas that had been swept for UXO. I wasn’t about to risk my leg to get a close-up shot of a jar. We also stopped by a village that produces lao-lao, a distilled spirit made from rice, as well as an old Vietnamese Russian-made tank that had been destroyed by an American air strike, its turret sitting a good 50 feet from the chassis. Besides the jars, there were huge craters, 20-30m in diameter, from the US bombing campaign. Climbing up a hill to get a view of the landscape, I could see many craters in the barren land and thought about how a bombing campaign could turn a jungle into a wasteland.

stay between the markers…or else….

After the tour, Joylani and I went to the local MAG (Mines Advisory Group) office to learn more about America’s “Secret War.” In case you’re not a history buff (like me) or visited your local MAG chapter today (like us), here’s a synopsis of what went down. In 1962, the US and Vietnam (among other nations) signed the Geneva Accords, which recognized Lao and Cambodia’s neutrality in the growing conflict. Bound by international law, neither country was allowed to conduct military operations within Lao or Cambodia. Well, both sides breached this agreement fairly quickly. The North Vietnamese were aiding the Pathet Lao and Khmer Rouge (domestic communist parties), as well as utilizing the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail, which cut through southern Lao and Cambodia. The US military was fighting on behalf of the Lao and Cambodian monarchal governments (against the Pathet Lao and Khmer Rouge), while the CIA was training and arming hill-tribes (mainly Hmong) to fight a guerilla war.

In 1964, the US began bombing Lao. For the rest of the decade, the US denied having ever dropped a single bomb in Lao. Even in 1968, when Johnson was praised for ending the bombing campaign, the bombing continued in Lao. In fact, that marked a turning point in the secret war, as the US increased the number of bombing missions in Lao from 300/month to over 13,000/month. By the end of the bombing campaign in 1973, the US had dropped over 2 million tons of bombs on Laos. To give you a frame of reference, this is more than was dropped on Germany and Japan combined during WWII, making Lao the most bombed nation in history. Put another way, it was one ton of ordinance for every one person in Lao at the time. Or it could be said that it was two tons of ordinance for every person living in the bombed regions. This stepped up campaign backfired for the US military though, as the refugee crisis it created exposed the bombing campaign to the American public and Congress, who pressured the military to halt the bombing. A video clip I saw showed various Senators livid that the US was violating the Geneva Accords they had signed, as well as the fact that civilian targets were not differentiated from military ones, and perhaps most of all furious that the military could conduct the largest bombing campaign in history without the knowledge of the American populace or Congress.

What I learned the most about today though, was the civilian costs of the bombing. I should note that the exhibit was not anti-American in anyway (although it could of easily and justifiably been) and the focus was on the past and current costs that the Lao people must live with. First, I’ll give some details of the bombing campaign that provide the necessary background to understanding the current problems. The bombing campaign in Lao did not differentiate between military and civilian targets. It was a secret war and the US military felt no need to operate by the ROE that it established for Vietnam. Thus, villages and farms were bombed to stop food production. Hundreds of thousands of innocent villagers were killed. Another problem was that it was extremely dangerous to land with live ordinance, so if North Vietnamese targets were obscured by weather or heavy defenses, they’d be redirected to secondary targets in Lao or would just dump their bombs indiscriminately over Lao to avoid a landing safety hazard. The most commonly used type of ordinance were anti-personnel cluster bombs, which are designed to kill (rather than destroy or disable buildings, vehicles, infrastructure, etc. Over 90 million cluster bombs were dropped on Lao, killing anyone within several hundred square meters. I saw quite a few real cluster bombs today and although the size of an apple, each one contains 300 ball bearings as well as a metal casing- imagine one of those hitting the ground near you, much less dozens or hundreds at once. Today, and the whole point of all this, there are still 10-30 million unexplored cluster bombs in Lao, as its estimated 10-30% of the bombs failed to detonate on impact (for a variety of reasons, from not spinning enough times to arm to landing softly in mud or water). These millions of “bombies” as the locals call them still affect every facet of daily life. Most of Lao is agricultural and farmers risk their lives every time they work in their fields- using a hoe, buffalo and plow, shovel, anything. A third of UXO fatalities are children as they often pickup and play with the bombies. A lot of UXO is above ground, but much is below ground having sunk in mud or water when initially dropped. So UXO is continually found even in areas that have been swept a dozen or more times. This sounds stupid, but many people try to take apart the bombies if they find one. In such a poor country, the going rate of 15 cents for a kilo of scrap metal or 25 cents for a kilo of explosives is often too attractive an opportunity to pass up. Even if they’re great at it, you only have to make a mistake once and you’re a goner. Since the war, 12,000 people have died from UXO, although the actual number is probably considerably higher for a few obvious reasons. Looking to the future, with bombies all over the country, development is difficult. Although Lao is one of the poorest and neediest countries, farmers are not willing to expand their fields to grow more food. On a larger scale, infrastructure is expensive and slow to expand as UXO must be cleared several times before a road or building can be built. Its terrible what the US did to Lao, but the ugliness of war is still present here and Lao must face the horrors of a war that ended 35 years ago. Today was one of the most sobering on this trip thusfar.

A few more thoughts:

Most of the above facts were acquired at the MAG office. I was pretty impressed with their presentation of everything, from their posters and t-shirts to informational DVDs and books. And their message was not one blaming, finger-pointing, or victimizing. They were basically illustrating the problem and hopeful about the work that has and needs to be done, no matter how painstaking the process is. I bought a DVD and recommend checking out their website: www.magclearsmines.org

One thing that I just remembered and really caught me off-guard was when I was walking with a kid the other day to go fishing. He asked where I was from and I told him. He responded, “The US bombed Lao.” He didn’t seem to have any ill feelings as he kept up our amiable conversation, but was just saying matter-of-factly what he knew about where I had said I was from. And although he didn’t mean anything about it, I can’t stop thinking about it. And I guess I should think about it, because Lao is the first of several countries we’ll be visiting that the US has fought wars against within popular consciousness.

Related to that last point and to the credit of the Lao people, I haven’t felt any malice here. People ask where I’m from and I tell them. Even though there’s so much they could be upset about, they’re still incredibly warm and friendly people.

It has not taken long to figure out that traveling is a very slow process in Lao. We have been in Lao for nine full days and five of those have been travel days: three days on boats and two on buses. There seems to be two main reasons why travel is so slow. One, the roads are pretty bad and, two, transportation is incredibly infrequent. Lao infrastructure is minimal, although the roads we drove on the past two days were recently paved. But in Lao its often quicker to take boats than buses. But the infrequency of boats and buses increases travel time even more. I think this is caused by Lao being a rural country and people don’t have many reasons to travel great distances. Also, I think there’s something with the Communist government blocking free competition. For instance, I’ve heard that boat owners participate in a lottery to see who gets to do the highly traveled Huay Xai-LP route; supposedly a boat usually only gets picked once every three months, but makes a ton on money on that one day. But if it were a free market and that lucrative, lots of boatsmen would do the route independently, rather than be at the mercy of the government ticket office and its lottery. I’ll have to do another post on my thoughts of the commies here. The last thing that hinders transportation is that if you want to get to/from anywhere besides Vientiane and LP, you’ll likely have to string together several buses of sawngthaews. It’s just kind of frustrating. The pace of travel seems even slower after being in India where jeeps, buses, and trains leave at every minute from anywhere to everywhere and Thailand where there’s an extensive bus network and good roads.

It’s also frustrating when you can see so much more efficient ways of doing things; perhaps this is a curse of having just come from Thailand. From the border at Huay Xai to Luang Prabang, it was quickest to take a two-day “slow boat.” Yet, it could’ve taken one day if the boats left at 7 or 8am instead of 10am and they left on time. Yesterday, we were going to go east from Nong Khiaw to Phonsavan. While it looked shorter on a map to go directly there, transportation wise, it was faster and supposedly more comfortable to backtrack through Luang Prabang. Either way, it was going to take two days, due to the frequency of buses. It was somewhat frustrating because we arrived in LP yesterday at noon, but couldn’t leave until the once-daily bus departed at 8:30am this morning. We still have a lot to see in Lao, which means we have even more time on buses and boats, so I better start getting used to it. On the other hand, the travel has not been that hard yet, just long. And since Lao is not really developed, I am enjoying seeing a lot of the country.

On a more humorous (or is it disgusting) note and to balance out my kind words for kids in my last post, I’ll say that I hate traveling with kids. They always get carsick and throw up. Yesterday and today, there were toddlers barfing all over the place.

I’ve noticed that rural areas are kid areas. I think it has something to do with a lack of vehicular traffic and the atmosphere in a small community. Hampi was the first small place where we saw a ton of kids everywhere. Joylani theorized that since cars weren’t allowed in town, parents let their kids roam freely. This was also the case in the villages we trekked through in Nepal. There was no danger from vehicles, plus there’s a lot more trust in a small community. So toddlers would be walking around alone or in pairs, or sometimes, you’d see a whole pack of little ones. Nong Khiaw is also a kids village.

This morning after breakfast, Joylani and I took a walk to some nearby caves. It was about a 20 minute walk east of town, along the main highway (in Lao, that can be read as: a paved road with a motorcycle or bicycle every few minutes). It was a nice walk; scenic and quiet. As we walked, we overtook two little girls walking by themselves. The bigger one had her arm around the other and they sang a popular Thai pop song over and over, as well as giggled as they walked. As we turned off the road towards the caves, they turned too. Then a little boy started walking with us too, saying “Saaba di!” We climbed a few stories of stairs to get to the cave which was pretty high in the cliff side. Inside, there were a ton of kids, all around 10 or younger. The funny thing was that there weren’t any adults, just dozens of kids. We explored the massive cavern a little bit, but not too much as we didn’t have a light. It was actually a hiding place for the Pathot Lao (Lao Communists), before they came to power in 1975. Then we came down from the cave and walked with the horde to another nearby cave. This one was a super narrow tunnel winding deep into the cliff. Joylani started to go in and then turned around, which left me at the mercy of these little kids and their lights. They screamed and laughed all the way down until the end of the tunnel cave. It was really fun, but kind of scary because it was pitch black around every turn. A couple of them asked for money afterwards, but most of them just kept running through the jungle after we turned to go back to town.

girls on the highway

cave

This afternoon, I went fishing with the son of our guesthouse owners. Last night, he had us sign in, asked our names, said nice to meet you, and then, “Hey you want to come fishing with me tomorrow?” So today, he and I walked a few minutes down the road, then through some fields to a tributary of the Nam Ou river. We were fishing with throw nets, just circular ones with chain links attached all around the border. He gave me a quick tutorial on how to hold it and throw it, before we waded in the cold water and started throwing. We would throw, then walk over to it, pull it in, then walk upriver and repeat. We were fishing for little fish, just 3-5cm, as that’s all that was in these waters. We fished for about an hour and a half. He caught about 10 or 12 and I caught zilch. This and my Maldivian fishing trip has really discouraged me from fishing- I’m no good. This time, I blame it on my casting. Even with his perfect casting, he only caught a fish every 3-4 throws. Needless to say, my net did not hit the water in a perfect circle everytime; more like once every 5 times. Eventually we went back to the village and he cooked up the dozen small fish, which we ate whole with rice and papaya salad. It was a fun day with the kids.

this is a really rustic massage place (see sign)