We are not going to Laos because we do not have enough time. However, many travelers say it is a fantastic place to visit. I learned a bit about it since it has some near-history connections with Vietnam. I wanted to share this with everyone since I think few Americans would otherwise learn about it. This is all from our “The Rough Guide To Southeast Asia”.

American Bombings in Laos

In 1964, a new phase of the war in Laos began. With the US pushing hard for an escalation of the bombing. Souvannaphouma (kept in power with help from the US) gave the go-ahead for so-called “armed reconnaissance” flights over Laos, which essentially meant the US could bomb whatever it pleased.

The war took place in total secrecy. US ground troops were kept out and military planes had to take off outside the country. As journalist Christopher Robbins wrote, “There was another war even nastier than the one in Vietnam, and so secret that the location of the country in which it was being fought was classified.” From 1964 until the ceasefire of February 19673, United States planes flew 580,944 sorties - or 177 a day - over Laos and dropped 2,093,100 tons of bombs - equivalent to one planeload of bombs every eight minutes around the clock for nine years - making Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in the history of warfare.

The Plain Of Jars

The fifteen-kilometre-wide stretch of grassy meadows and low rolling hills around Phonsavan takes its name from the clusters of chest-high funeral urns found there. Scattered across the “Plain of Jars” and on the hills beyond, the ancient jars, which are though to be around two thousand years old, testify to the fact that Xiang Kouang province, with its access to key regional trade routes, its wide, flat spaces and temperate climate, has been considered prime real estate in Southeast Asia for centuries. The largest jars measure 2m in height and weigh as much as teen tonnes. Little is known about the iron-age megalithic civilization that created them, but in the 1930s bronze and iron tools as well as coloured glass beads, bronze bracelets and cowrie shells were found at the site, leading to the theory that the jars were funerary urns, originally holding cremated remains. More recent discoveries have also also recealed underground burial chambers.

During the Second Indochina War, the region was bombed extensively between 1964 and 1973. American planes levelled towns and forced villagers to take to the forest, as the two sides waged a bitter battle for control of the Plain of Jars, which represented a back door to northern Vietnam. The plain was transformed into a wasteland, the treeless flatlands and low rolling brown hills pockmarked with craters which leave a lasting impression on those who fly over it into Phonsavan.

We tried out some vegetarian cao lau, which is a type of salad. It’s made with homemade hot noodles on the bottom, followed cooked tomato chunks and onions, then fresh carrots and mint leaves, topped by crispy noodles (instead of dried pork rinds). The salad has a light, crisp, lemony dressing. It sells for about 7,000vdg ($0.45). Very refreshing!

I’ve taken quite a liking to Vietnamese style coffee. A layer of condensed milk is poured on the bottom of the cup. Then the coffee grinds are placed inside a small metal brewer that sits on top of the cup. Boiling water is added to the grinds and allowed to slowly drip through into the cup. Afterwards, it’s optional to dilute the mixture with some extra boiling water. Stir it up and there you go! It’s sweet and creamy and not on your diet, for sure!

 

Evan bought the metal brewer to try at home. 

DMZ Highlights:

• Reconnected with Henning and Everett
• Became friends with Simon, Ed, and Suzanne
• Rode on the back of scooters through the DMZ
• saw old bases, tunnels of refuge, martyr cemetary, 11th parallel, part of original Ho Chi Minh trail, old tank, Agent Orange decimation turned into rubber factory, small villages with children in the backroads

Hue Highlights:

1. Folk music performance on a boat- set lit candles to float on the river
2. Forbidden City

The bus from Hanoi to Hue stopped for breakfast where we were approached by a Vietnamese guy offering a tour of the DMZ (DeMilitarized Zone) for $16/person including lunch, so we figured, what the heck. We reconnected with Henning (german guy) and Everett (dutch guy that I’ve nicknamed Junior since he’s only 19). Friends we made on the busride Suzanne (Kiwi working in London), Cathy (London) and Johan (German), Ed (London) and Simon (London) joined the tour as well. Ed couldn’t figure out how to flush the toilets and was using a bucket. I quickly nicknamed him Bucket Boy in my head. His friend Simon took a liking to it and I think the name has stuck. Simon’s a cheeky fellow who reminds me of The Joker.

[As many of you may know, what we call the Vietnam War is called the "American War" or "American Aggression" here. Interestingly enough, there almost zero hatred of Americans here now. In fact, the U.S. is now a key trading partner with Vietnam. People are very friendly to us.]

Each of us climbed onto a motorbike with a driver. We first went to the Rubberplant Jungle. The guide told us all about how the area used to be a real Jungle, but a Napalm bomb was droopped onto the site and everything was devastated. About 20 years ago the governement started a program for reconstruction and planted rubber trees. What a strange sap texture it had! The locals took to calling it the Condom Jungle, since the rubber was used to make free condoms to prevent AIDS.

We also saw a concrete bunker for high ranking US officials. Here’s where Cathy and I decided to bless some plants (boy, I’ve sunk low, but I really had to go. Honestly!) only to come back onto the trail and find a mine sweeping truck combing the area. Lovely.

Next up we rode over to the North Vietnamese martyr cemetary. It was really sobering to see row after row of grey headstones. Over 3.5 million people died during the war- 2 million of them were North Vietnamese. Unlike southern Vietnamese who were drafted at 18 years old, northern Vietnamese girls and boys were prompted to join the ranks as young as 9 years old by way of Communist propoganda. Also, unlike the Southerners who received dogtags for identification, the Northerners carried bottles that contained personal handwritten identification. Many bottles were destroyed during the battles prompting an entire section of the semmitary to be devoted to the unknown soldiers.

We rode off to see the bridge that now connected the North and South over the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Once the US discovered the trail using radar devices, they dropped thousands of bombs and sprayed Agent Orange to destroy the Jungle covering the route. The VietCong made a “Noodle Trails” of it and went into Cambodia and Laos, wrapping around and reentering the South. In answer to that, the US bombed the hell out of there as well.

We saw a few other things along the way but the last stop was the best. We went to the civilian refuge tunnels. Our guide took us all through thte tunnels with torches and we saw the cramped living quarters for families, the kitchen, bathroom pit for 500 people, well for drinking water and a maternity ward where 17 babies were born. Could you ever imagine being born in a dark, damp, cramped tunnel during bombing raids??

The whole adventure was totally worth the money. Riding on the bikes was a blast- my driver would lay on his horn so that the village kids and minority children would come out and wave to us. I felt like a celebrity!