There are many words that I can use to describe this trip. But the one sentence that plays over and over in my mind is that this trip is the most humbling experience I have ever had. Third world travelling can be viewed by some as dangerous but it has opened my eyes to how privileged we are to live in North America. There is such a huge disparity in classes out here, and many people do not have access to even the most basic things we take for granted every single day.
These photos are taken at the Patuxay monument which is modelled after the Arc de Triumph in France. It is a must see there because it boasts the most beautiful view of the city.
Our final tourist attraction was Vat Xieng Khuan more commonly known as Buddha Park. This is a lush green park filled with concrete statues. There is one statue of a reclining Buddha which is more than 50 Km long. It was started in 1958’s when Luang Pu who was a yogi/priest/shaman built several huge statues depicting both Buddhist and Hindu figures in an attempt to unite the two religions.
One of the coolest things about the park is the beehive shaped building that depicts the 7 levels from hell to heaven. The stairs are steep, heaven of course is beautiful but some of the statues show dark torture scenes from the afterlife which are truly creepy.
Today we headed into the Xieng Khuang province where every town and village has been bombed between 1964 and 1973. I can’t even describe the feeling of arriving here. Most tourists come through here to see the mysterious Plain of Jars where approximately 2000 year old antique jars are spread across a large geographical area. They range from Khorat Plateau in Thailand in the South through Laos and to the North Cachar Hills in Northern India. The jars appear to be laid in a linear path that was probably a trade route, but their real nature is a mystery… It’s a sharp contrast to Vang Vieng as there are only a handful of tourists here and there’s not much to do in town.
We visited a couple of the UXO centres. UXO stands for unexploded ordnance. They basically explain that between 1964 and 1973, two million tonnes of bombs were dropped on Laos. Around 30% of them had failed to detonate leaving Laos littered with UXO. Seeing the visitor centres was an eye opening experience. When you see how these people live and the atrocities they face everyday, it makes our problems back home seem really trivial.
We read stories of how children find these florescent colored balls, and play with them only to have them explode. Or the farmer who sees something that looks valuable like gold in his paddy field, picks it up and loses both hands. The people are so poor that they even risk their lives taking apart bombs to trade in the scrap metal for about $0.20 a piece. The farmers under produce their crops because they are afraid of having bombs go off in their fields. And this is what keeps Laos one of the least developed countries in the world.
Of all the jars, this is the on jar that has a decoration of a man carved on to it. It is mind blowing to think how the people got these jars here, as they are crazy heavy and in really hilly spots.
The sad part is a lot of the jars have been destroyed in the war, and as you walk through the park you see war trenches that are dug in super deep. There’s not much to see in Phonsavan other than the plain of jars and it was quite out of the way but definitely worth seeing.
The trip out in itself was quite an adventure. It was a whirlwhind tour as our bus broke down and was cancelled at 7 AM in the morning. This was the direct bus to Hanoi which only came once a week, and some of the other travellers waited extra days just to catch this one. We ended up travelling for 24 hours on a regabonde bus which was hounded and had to pay off a motorcycle gang (who was threatening with hand signals they were going to kill the driver if he didn’t pay) and made hardly any stops. However, we met some amazing people who we introduced our drinking games to and bonded with over $0.20 cent beer.
Which brings us to Vietnaam. More on that later!
