Royal Laos and Evil Lao Lao
Sunday, February 17th, 2008I left the guesthouse around 6:00 am and took a tuk tuk to Vientiane’s Northern bus station. I got on the 6:30 am bus going to Phonsovan. The bus trip took 11 hours. The landscape was at first flat, but then quickly climbed into the mountains north of Van Vieng. I am sure the scenery would have been stunning, but it was so foggy that I couldn’t see anything. The weather turned very cold by the time the bus reached the high plateau (1200 meters, 4000 ft) on which Phonsovan sits. I exited the bus and sat shivering in a tuk tuk with other Lao people. I was charged 10000 kip for the 3km trip which is really expensive considering the number of people in the tuk tuk. The Lao people paid this as well so I couldn’t complain (the driver originally asked me to pay 20000 kip which I refused). Once in town, I quickly found a guesthouse and proceeded to throw everything out of my bag to reach my jacket, thermal top, and hat which had been languishing at the bottom of my bag since Nepal. As it was already late, I set about trying to find the best way to see the Plain of Jars. I finally settled on booking a 120,000 kip minivan tour that went to all the sights and included lunch. This accomplished, I found a Chinese restaurant to have supper. I sat with two Australian ladies, one of whom caused quite a bit of excitement by severely choking on a chicken bone. I thought I might have to try the Hiemlich manuever and was trying to remember how to do it when she managed to remove the bone. I then spent a little while at the MAG UXO office looking at all the pieces of bombs that they have found and dismantled. This area of Laos was the most heavily bombed during the 8 year American bombing campaign. On average a plane dropped bombs on Lao every 8 minutes for 8 years. I returned to my hotel room and finally went to sleep around midnight after the drunken singing from the wedding next door finally ended. [read on]
cjun