Laos - Viang Xay to Vientiane - Day 206 (18,390 miles)

The Laos national flag is often flown along side the Communist movement Hammer and Sickle, on a day to day basis it's easy to forget this is a communist country but that may be because Laos is the first one we have visited. We haven't seen any Mao style suits, queues outside food shops or heavy military presence but these are obviously pretty stereotypical symbols of communism.

While researching places to visit we were intrigued by the information we read about Vieng Xay a town in the north east part of Laos. Like some other places we visited it would require a 3 day round trip to visit one place and it was going to mean rejigging our already full schedule. We decided to go for it and the 170 mile journey took around 7 hours, very scenic but very, very winding roads. The road surfaces where pretty good but the lack of speed made it a tiring day for John, all I could do to help was give him regular bum massages when he was feeling a bit numb.

This area is a remote pretty valley surrounded by limestone cliffs that contain a network of caves, for this reason it was chosen as the Pathet Lao Revolutionary (Communists) headquarters during the second Indo-China war. From the mid 1960's 20,000 PLR military and civilians sheltered in an underground city, it was basically a civil war but the US fearing the spread of Communism funded the Royal Laos Government and used US aircraft and weapons to bomb areas where the PLR were active.

It became known as the Secret War as few Westerners were aware the US were involved. Unfortunately as it was hushed up the information we have heard here and the Internet information give varying accounts as to what happened so I don't want to quote any facts and figures. However during our time here we have seen many huge bomb craters, areas where bomb shells are reused for other purposes (the Laos are resourceful people), amputee victims of unexploded ordnance and visited the offices of a charity called the Mines Advisory Group who are training local people in bomb disposal.

Heavy stuff, if you are want to know more try Googling Pathet Laos, Laos Secret War or Vieng Xai

The tour of the caves took around 4 hours over an area of around 7 km, the caves contained offices, living accom, kitchens, a school, a hospital and a large cave with a stage used for concerts, filmshows and weddings amongst other things.

Above is the Politburo meeting room.

Each set of caves had a bomb proof emergency room with a sealed door and an independent filtered air supply in case of chemical attack.

Outside one of the caves.

On a lighter note we shared the cave tour and dinner that evening with Agnes, Bara and Margret 20 year old Icelandic girls, they were great company. We don't have a photo as I didn't think it would be healthy for John to be in possession of a photo of 3 such gorgeous fit women!

After our 3 day trip we stayed a couple of nights in the town of Phonsavan, we took the easy option and booked a guide and drive to take us round a few of the local sites. Above is Ban Tajock village the locals use spent bomb cases for various uses including fencing, stilts for buildings, to grow vegetables in and many other uses. They also melt down and reuse the steel to make knives and tools.

We were taken to some hot springs, apart from being very smelly the water was so hot it would definitely have resulted in third degree burns so rather than take a dip and risk a visit to the local hospital we watched this man fishing in the adjacent river.

The Plain of Jars are areas of Laos where large Bronze Age stone jars (some up to 2m high) are scattered over the landscape. Supposedly there is no confirmed explanation as to the reason/use for these jars but the scientific work that has been carried out over the years suggests they were burial vessels. This is another area that was heavily bombed in the war and there are still lots of unexploded ordnance and bomb craters. Paths have been cleared and marked so that's where we walked (seemed sensible).

Next stop was Vang Vieng, we travelled through possibly the most dramatic scenery we have seen in Laos. However, it was a really misty day and the higher most jagged peaks were hidden.

This is a bit of a party town and is on the Backpacker's circuit of SE Asia so to avoid being middle aged and grumpy we opted for a nice little bungalow across the river from most of the action that was accessed via this bridge.

It was nice to watch life on the river, trucks, people, clothes and dogs were all washed here and fish and various river weed gathered for food.

Leaving Vang Vieng we hit the first wet weather we'd had for several weeks and although this was the main road between VV and Vientiane (the capital) the oily tarmac surface covered in a layer of red clay dust soon became like a skating rink. Buses and lorrys where sliding and unable to get any traction up the hill. This didn't bode well for us!

John did a marvelous job and negotiated round the trucks to the bottom of the hill without dropping the bike. I followed behind on foot, it really was like walking on ice.

We only drove 98 miles that day but it took around 4 hours! It was good to get to Vientiane and find a guesthouse, we then bumped into Julia, Jill and Allie 3 Brits travelling around Laos by bus, we had previously met them in Vang Vieng and joined them for a nice curry.

Vientiane is an OK city, but we weren't planning to sightsee too much. Our main aim was to get new 60 day visas for Thailand so this meant 2 trips to the Thai Embassy on consecutive days.

We took a Tuk tuk 30k out of town to the Buddha Park, a rather weird place full of various Buddhist and Hindu statues. It's fairly new so the old looking statues are aged concrete rather than stone! My memories of the visit were that the tuk tuk ride was fun (as always) and as I had a bit of an upset tum and the only toilet on site was the squat variety I was glad to leave!

Local oncoming traffic.


Love Jane and John

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