Side trip in Northern Laos

(*** I've made 2 new entries today, so make sure you've read the previous one before hitting this one! I'm trying to catch up!)

My trip to the Plain of Jars was even better than I'd imagined. I started off with a vague interest in seeing the archaeological sites (more about them at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_of_Jars) , and ended up with a better feel for the country I was so clueless about.

Always interested in ruins of any kind, I was curious about the Plain of Jars and thought the detour would be worthwhile. And while I'm quite happy to have seen them and would recommend the side-trip to anyone visiting Laos (I know there are a few of you out there!), the Jars themselves were not the best part of the journey.

The first day was simply to be a travel day from Luang Prabang to Phonsavanh, so again, I wasn't expecting much. Our group consisted of an English couple in their 40's, 2 Swedish girls in their early 20's, another solo traveller about my age from Netherlands and myself. The 2 Swedish girls giggled the whole way, and kept to themselves, the girl from the Netherlands was very very shy and the English couple were car sick for most of the journey. Interesting. But I thoroughly enjoyed the trip, as you got a lot of glimpses into rural Laos life. Whole villages are set up along the only paved road in the region. The road was built around the mountains, so to say the ride was curvy is an understatement. The not-quite 9-hour mini-bus journey almost did me in too, so I am soooo happy I didn't take the public bus! (to give you an idea, they pass out plastic bags to everyone at the beginning of the trip on the public bus).

The villages are made out of wood sheds built on stilts on the hills along the highway. The only "playground" the kids have is the highway itself, so our driver has to honk his way along the road, to alert the kids and make sure they get out of the way. I should say it's not only for kids, but also for chickens/dogs/pigs/motorbikes/buses. I was annoyed with the constant honking at first, but once I realised this was just how it was, I relaxed. And since the driver and his wife spoke no English, we had to use hand signals to convey things like: "Stop now! I am going to puke!" (from the English couple), "Can you please stop at the next available toilet?" (Every 2 hours, from 1 of the Swedish girls) or "When are we stopping for lunch?" (again, from the Swedish girls who were somehow expecting to be catered to at every step). I have to admit it wasn't much of a success, as the driver just started stopping on the side of the road every time we had a request. Peeing by the side of the highway while hanging on to a bush to avoid rolling down the mountain, and holding on to your pants for obvious reasons, is a talent I still haven't quite mastered, but got a bit of practice during this trip. Thankfully, I wasn't the one puking my guts out every 30 minutes or so, so I was a happy camper.

We arrived in Phonsavanh in late afternoon and decided to go to dinner as a group, minus the English couple who weren't quite done feeling car sick. This group dinner was one of the moments that makes me soooo happy to be traveling on my own. Without going into all the gory details, the 2 Swedish girls were the most unpleasant travelers I've come across yet, going on and on about how awful Thai and Laos people are, how everyone is just out to get their money, how everything is so different than in Sweden (duh!) and they would just for once like to have a good breakfast like they do at home (snif, snif). All this, after only 2 weeks of their 5-month 'round the world journey! I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that they will get better as they go along, but somehow I doubt it. But moving on...

The next day was the tour of the Plain of Jars (3 different sites), the old Capital and a minority village known as "Bomb village". Our tour guide was great, giving us a lot of information about the area and how they live. The day started off a bit rough, witnessing the result of an unfortunately frequent event in Laos, a bike/motorbike accident. Just as we were starting our touring day, we passed by a dead body in the middle of the road. The accident had happened not long ago, and they'd only just thrown a sheet over the person. Our guide said that they have fatal accidents weekly, with some weeks having 2-3. And what is even more surprising to me is that the roads here are much less congested than in Thailand, so I can't imagine what the statistics are like there.

The Plain of Jars sites were quite spectacular, made even more so by the evidence of war that surrounds them. I learned a lot that day about the 'Secret War' waged on Laos by the Americans back in the 60's and 70's. And while this was all new to me, it was made even more shocking by the fact that the daily lives of the Laos are still impacted by that war, even 40 years later. There are so many unexploded artillery lying around that they can't use the land to farm without risking their lives. And without farming, they live at an astonishing poverty level, so they try to make some money by salvaging and selling scrap metal, by locating said artillery and further risking their lives. You can see evidence of this in the 'Bomb Village' we visited later in the day, where they use old bomb casings as stilts for their homes, cooking utensils, decorations, ...

It wasn't all depressing news however, as the next day we visited an orphanage and a school for victims of UXO's (unexploded ordnance). The orphanage was very modern, and children are cared for by a mom in families of 6-8. The director of the orphanage and school was very proud (and rightly so, I thought) to show us around and you could tell they cared about the children, who all looked healthy and well cared for.

After these great few days, it was somewhat of a letdown for me to arrive in Vang Vieng. This place is known as a backpacker haven, but seemed more like a backpacker hell to me. It's little more than 1 road village set up for backpackers to get drunk and/or high watching reruns of Friends and The Simpsons. Lots of fun for some, but definitely not my style. Although I will guiltily admit to having dinner in a 'Friends' cafe the 2 nights I was there. Damn that show is funny!