Ray's Travels

Here are some additional pictures from our Laos trip.

A unique way to prepare eggs at the market. The top of the shell is opened, the eggs are mixed with some salt and spices. The shells are refilled and then cooked. A better boiled egg!

A photo of a photo. This is a picture of the temple in Vientiane taken around 1980. Compare it to the current picture of it elsewhere in the blog. Note how the surrounding area looks almost rural. Today the area is completely citified with pavement, traffic and businesses.

Children walking through a rice paddy.

We are proud to have tigers! (Because it draws tourists.) Laos used to have many elephants. While [we are told] a few still survive in the wild they are almost all gone. We didn’t see any elephants or tigers.

A couple of Laotian village women. They were quite amused by my bike helmet. To them I looked quite silly.

In another village I saw a woman walking proudly down the street with her bra worn on the outside of her dress. I guess she wanted to show it off. Sorry, I didn’t get a photo.

A Laotian woman in a remote village weaving fabric on a very basic loom.

Visiting Laos was a great experience. However, we’re three for three. In May we went to France and learned that our beloved dog, Sparty, died. In September we went to the UK and four days from the finish we learned that my father had died. This year we went to Laos and on our last night in Laos we learned that Marie’s mother had died. We can only pray that things like this come in three’s and this is the end.

– Laos is a beautiful country. It is landlocked which puts it at a huge disadvantage. After reading Brett Dakin’s book “Another Quiet American” and having visited the country I have to say that the book is a good read and quite insightful. The Lao’s are beautiful, quiet people but their culture is suffering. The Thai culture is what the Lao’s see in the media. All popular culture comes from Thailand. The Thai’s see Laos as a backwater while the Loa’s absorb Thai culture while seeing themselves as morally superior, which they may be. I’ve traveled in many foreign countries but it’s my estimation that the Lao’s treat visitors with more forthrightness, honesty and respect than probably anywhere else I’ve been. The “norm” isn’t that they are going to steal from you or cheat you. That’s not the case in a lot of places.

– There are a lot of foreign interests operating in Laos. The Chinese probably have the greatest presence while the Japanese and the Vietnamese have their interests. Again, a landlocked country is going to be exploited and overrun by some interest that is trying to get from one place to another.

– The Chinese are becoming the “Ugly Americans” of the 21st century. Just biking down a road and having a caravan of Chinese pass you somehow leaves you with a sense that these guys are really a bunch of arrogant bastards. That observation can’t be defined in fact, it is a sense that can’t be readily defined. On one had it indicates that they are about to become the #1 power in the world yet they will be admired and detested as much or more than the Americans. The trouble is, the Chinese have nothing like the American Constitution to keep the power of the government in check.

– Our guides made the best noodle soup that we had the entire trip. They made it on the side of the road on a propane stove. It was wonderful!

Maybe I’ll have more points to offer so check back.

Last night we learned that Marie’s mother passed away. The group decided to go directly to Hanoi instead of continuing with more biking.

We crossed the border from Laos to Vietnam this morning. We have never had our passports and visas so scrutinized. Probably very few people with visas cross at that point so the government officials give their full attention to people like us.

It was about an 8 hour drive in the van to Hanoi. The first 3 hours the road was terrible. Then we got on the new road that follows the Ho Chi Minh Trail. The road was improved but the traffic got worse and worse the closer we got to Hanoi.

Interestingly, things seemed to really change after crossing the border. The weather in Laos was clear and dry the entire time we were there. There was a limited amount of rice farming and it was only done in areas that could be irrigated. It was cool at night but then the morning fog would burn off and it would be hot (but not oppressive).

In Vietnam it was cool, rainy and wet. The vegetation obviously had been getting more moisture. The bamboo was humungous and a lot was being harvested. After getting out of the highlands there were endless rice paddies that were covered with water. We saw many workers in the paddies planting the crop. (Talk about difficult, dirty, back-breaking work. . .)

It seemed really strange to see such a change. I’d like to know more about it. Maybe it’s something like Oregon when you get out of the mountains and it immediately changes to desert.

Tonight we are in Hanoi and I am trying to see if we can get out a day earlier than planned. Right now it’s not looking good. Maybe if I can talk to a human being in the morning I can get something done.

Our hotel, the Silk Path, in Hanoi. It’s heartwarming to see that the billions of dollars and 58,000+ American lives wasted on the “American War” saved Vietnam from “Communism” and made it safe for luxury hotels and karaoke. Who knows what would have happened if the Americans had won? Hint: There would still be guerilla attacks and the place would be unsafe for Westerners to travel (kind of like Iraq).

In the interest of full disclosure:

We are not riding our bikes every inch, mile or kilometer on our route across Laos. While it can be done, it would take extremely strong and fast bikers to do it. In the rural areas the distance between suitable accommodations is too great. The terrain is very hilly so there is a lot of climbing. We are all biking as much as we can according to our ability. When we have exceeded out limit we ride in the van. Today, I road only about 30 miles but 20 of it was uphill and much of it was between 10 and 14 degrees. That is a lot of climbing and is a serious workout. There is also the time consideration. You certainly want to arrive at your destination before dark. So, we are spending more time in the van than we anticipated but we are certainly seeing and experiencing the country of Laos.

The terrain is challenging and I’m not just talking about bicycling. We see mountains everywhere that are overgrown with vegetation. While Laos is very lush with vegetation it is obvious that farming is a difficult and labor intensive task. There is the “slash & burn” method I mentioned earlier. Sides of the mountain that are scalable are cleared and burned, then farmed. We ride through mountain villages and see “peasants” in the literal sense of the word. For them it is a short life and a brutal life. These are the “hill people” and I’m guessing they are from the Hmong ethnicity or some group similar to it.

We see a lot of children. They are friendly, shout to us and wave. We are a curiosity when we ride through the villages. The more prominent villages have a school and it looks to be the best maintained building in the village. They do value education. We see the children in transit to the school. On the other hand, in the very remote villages it looks like there is no formal education. We see children of all ages on the road at any hour when they should typically be in school. Who knows what kind of life they can look forward to. We are told that some parents don’t want their children to go to school because there are not enough jobs and then they become unwilling to work at farming or other menial tasks.

Children from a rural village that were walking along the road. Notice that the one boy has a slingshot around his neck and another one has a slingshot on his head.

It was tough to leave Nongkhiew Village. It is such a slice of paradise. Today we are back on the bikes. We are off the main road but we are on a road that is paved and has very little traffic. It passes through highland villages that are on the side of the road. It is very, very rural. It seems that many of the people are Hmongs. Some woman still had the traditional headdress. The major industry seems to be the cutting and slicing of bamboo. For the most part, these are very poor people although you will see houses interspersed with the huts that are quite nice.

When we ride through the children greet us and wave. Laos is very laid-back. It’s my personal theory that landlocked countries tend to be that way. The lack of a port makes it extremely difficult to overcome impoverishment so they accept their fate. Meanwhile, landlocked countries seem to have a history of being overrun by neighboring countries that are on their way to somewhere else.

Tonight we are in a village that only has electricity for a few hours a day. We waited for the electricity to go on so that we could get a hot show and dinner. The hotel is actually quite nice except for the lack of electricity. Our understanding is that the electricity is provided generators in an up-river dam. The amount of time that the generators are run is dependent on the water level at the dam and how much water can be released. Now is the dry season, which is very apparent by looking at the level of the rivers and the vegetation, therefore the village only gets about 2 hours electricity at night and an hour our two in the morning. Durning the rainy season the hours of service are extended. We do see though that new power lines are being constructed so in a couple of years there should be full time electricity.

Of course there is no internet so I am typing this using the battery of my laptop and it will not be posted for a few days.

Today was our “trekking” day. After breakfast we boarded a boat to take us 1 1/2 hours up Nam Ou River to the village of Muang Ngoi. This morning the area was covered with a heavy fog. The nights are cool then the sun come up and burns the fog away. After leaving the boat we hiked to see the caves where the villagers lived during the time of the American bombing.

As I said earlier, little, landlocked Laos has the distinction of being the most bombed country in the history of the world. The US dropped 270 million cluster bombs on the country as well as hitting it with conventional bombs such as the standard 500 lb bomb designed to destroy airfields and factories. In this case they were being dropped on bamboo huts. You can still see bomb craters in the fields. It was all part of the “Secret War” that was being conducted during the time of the Vietnam War. The leaders of the Laotian “Communists” were in this area so the US just bombed the area at will along with the bombing campaign on the portion of the Ho Che Minh trail that passed through Laos.

The people fled to the caves and lived there during the bombing campaign. The one cave we visited was shelter to over 20 families for over 4 years. Other caves housed other families. The people had very little understanding as to why they were being bombed by a country that was half way around the world. They had no argument with the US. There was absolutely no way that they were going to impose their politics or way of life on the USA. The bombing of the Ho Che Minh trail was a total failure. The US dropped about 300 bombs for every person they killed. Over 90% of the supplies transported over the trail made it to their planned destination. How could the leaders of the most advanced and powerful country in the world have gotten it so wrong?

It is sobering and humbling to visit such an area. Yet, you don’t get a sense of animosity. It seems that people in our own country can’t get over the Civil War yet these people seem to have moved on.

Inside a cave in which over 20 families lived for over 4 years while the US military was relentlessly bombing the area. Other families lived in other caves in the area or hid in the jungle. The Air Force bombed anything where they saw any sign of life. White chicken were killed because they were too easily spotted as a sign of life.

After visiting the caves we hiked to an isolated village and had lunch. There are no motorized vehicles in the village. Some electricity is available from generators in the river. Some of the wires that transport the electricity aren’t even insulated. The kids walk to school over a dirt trail. Yet, there are satellite TV dishes. Go figure!

We hiked back to the boat and went back down the river. According to my recall, the Nam Ou River is the most beautiful river I have ever seen in my life. I though the Pacuare River in Cost Rica was beautiful but the Nam Ou puts it to shame. It is calm, peaceful, there is dramatic scenery on both sides, the water is clean, and the whole experience is just breathtaking.

Some pictures:

Water buffaloes lazing by the river.

A beautiful river.

A “UXO” boat. UXO stands for “unexploded ordinance”. There are teams and boats that go out to remote areas to find and disarm bombs left over from the American bombing during the Vietnam War years. The unexploded bombs are still dangerous for two reason. One, they can be unwittingly set off because they are hidden. Two, there are metal scavengers that will try to salvage them (at their peril) for the metal content which can be sold. When the average income is so low there are too many people that will take the risk to earn a few dollars.

Especially after seeing the caves, I ask again, whoever thought it was a good idea to go half way around the world to an area like this and start killing people?