Laos is a peaceful country. Since the Indochina wars, Laos has developed a stronger base in South East Asia and has opened itself more to tourism. The people are friendly and will be just as curious about you as you are about them. Laos is also a beautiful country which the outside world has yet to fully appreciate. The visitor will find many things that will be treasured not the least of which will be the unforgettable impressions of its people.
Capital: Vientiane
Population: 4,500,000
Area: 89,320 square miles
Language: Lao
Time: +11 hours from New York
Electricity: 220 volts AC / 50 Hz
Geography: Laos borders Cambodia (Khmer), Burma (Myanmar), Thailand and China. Most of the country is mountainous and is forested. The reminder is high plateau other than the Mekong River lowlands which runs through the length of the country and supplies transportation and fish.
Tipping: Tipping is not usually expected except in fashionable restaurants of which there are very few in Laos.
Shopping: Shops open at 8:30 in the morning and close by 5:30 pm. Items to look for are antiques, jewelry, woodcarving and fabrics. Bargaining is done and does not last very long. The price the seller will accept will be stated very quickly.
Food and Drink: Meals almost always include rice or noodles. White rice which is sticky is usually eaten with the hands. Food in Laos is very fresh and is reflected in the quality of the meal. Restaurants in Vientiane are fairly good but elsewhere close to being nonexistent. Best to drink bottles beverages. Beer, coffee, teas and soft drinks are available as well as very strong rice whisky.
Social: Handshaking is becoming more commonplace as the country develops, but you can still see a considerable amount of bowing with hands in prayer fashion. Displays of emotion are not well received. Anger is a bad public taboo. Touching someone's head should never be done.
Business: Free market business has yet to develop its own culture. Business suits are optional, however local expect westerners to dress that way. They do expect you to be neat. Be mindful that appointments may not come off at the appointed time and may tend to meander in direction. Business cards are essential and it is best if there is a Lao translation on the reverse of the card. Be prepared to hand out many cards. If there is a secretary, be sure that that person gets one - they will be the most important.
The equivalent of one plane load of bombs was dropped on Laos every eight minutes for nine years during the Vietnam War. But, more than 20 years later, people are still being killed or maimed by those bombs. Our report from Phonsavanh where unexploded bombs are still discovered in the town centre.
Somehow the opening line in the guide books — “Laos, the most bombed country in the history of warfare” — did not fully register until Laos passport control. A large sign, “show all weapons” warns tourists to leave ordinance well alone. From 1964 to 1973 Laos, a landlocked country sharing its borders with Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Burma, received the heaviest aerial bombardment in world history.
During this period 500,000 bombing missions were launched, the equivalent of one plane load of bombs every eight minutes, around the clock for nine years. During these nine years two million tons of ordnance fell and much of it remains unexploded.
Bombs and land mines are indiscriminate, they don’t know when a war is over. In the words of the Mines Advisory Group “when ordnance is struck by a farmer’s hoe or is otherwise disturbed, it often explodes, spreading a hail of metal fragments, which injure or kill anyone within close proximity. UXO’s can be found anywhere, and everywhere — in rice fields, on hillsides, in villages, along roads and in the centre of provincial towns.”
It isn’t just farmers who are at risk. Emerging as South-East Asia’s next tourist Shangri-La, the increasing number of tourists to Laos are naive about the seriousness of the UXO situation. There are grave concerns about the best way to inform and not glamorise bombs and war scrap. This is particularly the case in the Xieng Khouang province, which is littered with huge bomb craters.
As I flew in on a 15-seater plane the true obscenity of the nine-year bombing campaign sunk in. Everywhere you could see there were huge, brown sections of infertile land where ordnance had ripped massive sections out of paddy fields, mountains and, despite the war being over for 25 years, nothing grew in these areas.
Phonsavanh is 35 minutes from the capital Vientiane and is a major stopping off point for tourists, due to its intriguing magalithic jars. It is a strangely relaxing and friendly place, with one western style restaurant and five discos. You’ll find it hard not to meet the locals and partake in some Lau Lau, the local rice wine. Built in an area still covered with live ordnance, it is important not to take risks.
In the week I was there they found a 500 pound bomb outside the main hospital and 16 bomblets on the road from the airport into town. More than 20 years after the war people are still getting injured and killed by the increasing pressure to enlarge the town. With tourist numbers growing these incidents are likely to rise. Since the jars were re-opened to the public in 1991, travellers visiting the site have increased from a handful to more than 4000 this year.
The mystery of the jars and the dramatic setting could be out of an Indiana Jones film. With the recent discovery of 12 sealed caves and 10 more sites, it is a spectacular area. Some say the jars are 2000-years-old, but many believe they are 4000-years-old, if not older. There is constant debate about their possible uses, but the local people believe they were made for ceremonial offerings to the dead. Cut by hand out of sandstone rock and transported to 13 different sites by elephants they seem to create a definite trail, which is connected by guardian jars at the top of each hill. Sadly, tourists are only allowed access to the first three sites due to the huge number of unexploded bombs and land mines in the area. With so much lethal ordnance to clear it is not known when the other 10 sites will be opened.
To get to the Plain of Jars means hiring local transport for the day and for US$30-US$40 you can hire a driver and guide, which when split between six people is good value. Site One is called Ban Angnei and holds 298 jars of which the King Jar is the most famous due to its vast size compared to the smaller more rounded jars.
One jar gives a clue to its purpose — a person’s face and body is clearly engraved on the front of the jar, and bones scattered around it were recently discovered by a group of Japanese archaeologists. Further along the path is a hand-chiselled cave, where according to local myth the jars were created. The cave, although dank, smelly and filled with mosquitoes, was the perfect spot to view the bulk of the jars and escape the torrential rain.
Driving over pot holes and through the torrential rain I felt like I was in the film Journeys End and was relieved when we reached Salato mountain. Even in the heavy rain, site two has the more spectacular scenery. The pots were not as large nor were there as many, some had formed water gardens and in one case split in half by a tree growing through the middle of it, the roots cracking open the jar like an over ripe fruit.
As I explored further my eye caught sight of something metallic and shiny. At first I thought it was a piece of jewellery, perhaps a great archaeological find, but as I reached out to touch it the guide grabbed my hand; “It is a bomblet, don’t touch.” I froze to the spot and once I recovered from the shock looked for a stick to mark it, but the guide said this was a worse form of action, because there were probably more bomblets beneath the surface. Mr Viengxay said he would inform the Mines Advisory Group in Phonsavanh.
As the weather took another turn for the worse we made our way back along the road, which was now a cascading river. Water up to my knees and only the umbrella stick to keep my balance I made my way past thatched houses and a small Buddhist monastery.
Sloshing through the thick mud I clambered across a fence to where the paddy fields had been an hour ago. They had vanished and in their place was a river ripping down fences and dragging anything in its wake downstream. Sections had turned into whirl pools and small trees had been up-rooted. The guide had never seen it so bad, but with no way back to the vehicle we crossed it, swimming at times. At one point the current was so strong, that if the guide had not caught my arm I would have been swept down stream. Using the bamboo plants as hand holds I carried on, just as my dress ripped at the seams. I ran to the car for cover and sat dripping and shivering as we returned to town.
We stopped in the only western restaurant, The Sangah, to talk to the Mines Advisory team. Dripping, muddy, bedraggled and with badly torn clothes I reported the ordinance sighting, but another group of tourists had also reported it and a roving team had gone to check it out. Feeling sorry for me they asked me to join them for a beer so I could find out more about the UXO Laos programme.
Like its people the town lives life on the edge, dismantling bombs daily. Even with more than one million pounds a year it will take them at least 6792 years to fully clear the land. It was strange hearing the whirl of fans, crickets chirping and almost everywhere I looked war scrap had become used as household goods including house fences and ashtrays. Behind the Lao smiles I could see the gritty determination of its people to put things right. To them the war is not over until all the UXOs and land mines have been dismantled, defused and blown up.
FACT FILE
MAGS advice to backpackers is: “Stay on the tourist track and keep with your guide at all times, don’t touch the ordnance under any circumstance as you never know whether it is live or not and remember that hundreds of others may lurk beneath the surface just waiting to go off, particularly if it is a container of bomblets”.
If tourists come across any ordinance, big or small, while visiting The Plain of Jars at sites one, two or three they can do the following:
If you see a piece of ordinance don’t touch it, kick it or try and get a better look at it, because it may not only cost you your life, but also the lives of anyone nearby. In all cases report its general position to the MAG office and they will send a roving team to check it out.
Do not mark the spot with a stick or anything that will break the surface. Cluster bombs come in groups and at least 30 per cent did not blow up on impact. The likelihood of them being active is very high. Back away from the ordinance and try where possible to stay on the well marked paths. If you want to be helpful draw a general sketch map of the area, and leave the rest to the experts. Remember false citings costs the operation, because they will not be de-mining or dealing with the clearance of UXOs in another area.
Ordnance comes in all shapes and sizes including mortar and artillery shells, mines, sub munitions and other devices. It is easy to want to buy a bomb as a momento of your visit to the Plain of Jars. Don’t for any reason, because unless you are an arms expert you can’t be absolutely sure the object has been disarmed. If it is still live it could go off in your rucksack when flying home, taking you and the plane with it.
Buying ordnance encourages the locals to supply tourists with bombs, putting their lives at risk when they look for new supplies. At Nong Pet village there is now a shack selling all sorts of ordinance and wooden war mementoes. Hotels have started to do the same and the possibilities of a serious accident are increasing daily.
Under local provincal law you are liable to a penalty if caught handling ordnance and war scrap. This includes buying, transporting and handling it in any form. If caught you can be given between two and five years in prison.
A positive impact on the situation would be to give much needed funding to MAG direct so they can step up clearance and increase the community awareness programme.
| 