My Laos, My Lands!

The hammer and sickle displayed everywhere

We spent the new year celebrating in the sleepy capital city of Vientiane and exploring the city for a few days.  There isn't a whole lot to see here but the place that sticks out the most is the COPE center or Cooperative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise.  It was established to help and rehabilitate those who have been injured and lost limbs mostly due to UXOs (Unexploded Ordinance) that were dropped all throughout Laos during the Vietnam war. For us and many this is an unknown part of the war in Vietnam. Many U.S. bombers found their targets within Vietnam unidentifiable and were instructed to drop their ordnance over Laos rather than try a risky heavily overweight landing. There were also many strategic targets within the country of Laos due to the constantly relocating Ho Chi Minh Trail which was used by the NVA to move supplies south to the battle lines while remaining outside of Vietnam. Laos is the most bombed country per capita in history. After the Vietnam War the country was littered with over 80 million unexploded bombs and over 25% of the villages are contaminated.  Many of the bombs used to combat the NVA were cluster bombs. These litter the drop area with bomblets. Often some of these bomblets would not explode. Mix this with a commonly very wet soil and you have tons of buried bombs the size of baseballs. With the monsoons coming so regularly year in and year out these once buried bombs dont't sink further, rather the rising water tables push them slowly to the surface exposing them some 30, 40, or 50 years in the future. Many communities re-locate from time to time and houses are built in areas where bombs once dropped. These people are extremely poor and scrap metal is a very nice way to supplement a family's income. Children are taught that in their play if they spy something to aid the family welfare to bring it home or to someone's attention. So often it is children who stumble across these bomblets and so often they pay the bloody price.  Others will be cooking in their kitchen and the heat will activate a bomb that's under the house.  The center puts faces to the statistics.

*we forgot the camera the day we visited the center

Chao Anouvong statue in Mekong Riverside Park.  What you cannot see is a mass of 200 people aerobisizing behind the statue!  

Incredible Sunset

Happy New Year to the climbing crew!!

New Years Concert in the main plaza!

You can't really see but this sandwich is full of meat shredded so fine it has the texture of wool...WEIRD!

Going south to Tha Khek, known for the starting point for a 4 day motorbike loop.  Although our original plan was to start the motorbike loop, we heard from other travelers about a climbing lodge just outside of town where you can pitch a tent or rent a room and have hundreds of climbing routes just meters away.  After all the climbing in Vang Vieng, we decided more climbing was a must!We arrived in Tha Khek around 8pm and decided to head out to the lodge.  After haggling with a tuk tuk driver, he agreed to take us there.  Half way there, he received a call from the boss lady and gave us the phone.  The woman on the other end said that the place is closed because it burned down.  She wasn't very convincing and since we had corresponded with the owners of the lodge the day before we thought she was pulling the age old scam of, that hostel burned down so you should stay at my hostel.  We obviously weren't going to fall for that one so we asked the tuk tuk driver to take us there.  Unfortunately, she was right.  The ground glowed red and orange and it looked like only a few small structures remained.  Apparently, at 12am on New Years eve (the night before) someone had the brilliant idea to set of a firework from the roof.  I think you know where this goes but it went horribly wrong and the whole place burned down, climbing gear included.  The metal carabiners and quick draws melted together and the ropes were left as puddles of burned polyester. The rocks were still climbable but without gear we were out of luck.

Fire Damage:

 

Carabiners melted together

Former Bungalow

Puddle of rope

The original plan was back on with our Canadian buddies and twins, Darryl and David.  We rented our bikes from Mr. Ku and started the loop from Tha Khek equipped our trusty map and adventurous spirits! Everyday on the road there is a constant adrenaline rush.  Not only did we try to enjoy the incredible scenery but also avoid the other traffic, the sleeping dog in the road, the slower mode of transportation (i.e. the scooter carrying cargo 5 times the size of the bike), and Andy's snot rockets!  Here's a what a typical day on motorbikes is like...

• Wake up early, strap luggage to the bikes.
• Stop for noodle soup breakfast - None of us can speak more than 2 words in Laos so we order by smiling and raising 4 fingers meaning 4 plates or bowls foods (whatever it maybe)..This can be risky but its always interesting! Lucky for me Andy is always there eat my leftover mystery meats.
• Ride along paved or dirt roads in the country side - on day 2 the entire way was through the sand giving us all a nice and healthy bronzed look :)
• Break down or get a flat tire
• Mime to a local that a bike needs fixing.  They will point to the right or left
• Find a mechanic  (one is usually within a few hundred meters)
• brush off the dust from the moon pie cracker snack while bike gets fixed
• Fix bike for no more than $5
• 4 foods for lunch please!
• Digestive unrest
• Andy and David share a Laos strength Red Bull (reportedly anphetamine-full)
• Canoe through an enormous cave with a thick muggy smell like the Pirates of the Caribbean ride at Disneyland.  Two men manning the canoe, one guy in front guiding with a headlamp and the other driving from the back and occasionally bucketing out water the boat acquired from the last trip.
• Stop at swimming hole
• Take pictures of the incredible countryside *see below*
• Roll up to our destination for the evening. The town has one dirt road, one guesthouse, and one restaurant called The Only One restaurant. Very original!  The few places we stayed felt like traveling back in time to the wild west but instead of horses, guns, and bandanas, men mount motorbikes, always have a wrench available and use face masks to keep the dust out.
• Explore the town and the market that sells everything from toiletry supplies to butchered meats to the dead squirrel laying next to the unidentifiable caged rodents to hand made scarves. Darryl bought a maroon and white stripped scarf to finish off his Harry Potter ensemble.
• 4 foods for dinner...maybe this time we will get sticky rice
• Hearts tournament with a BeerLao
• Andy loses at Hearts

Our official map *not drawn to scale*

 Scenery on the loop:

Cave Temple

A Cave with a secret swimming hole on the other end

Town

Morning Noodle Soup

Tree Cemetery

Riding Bandit

Darryl "Daz" and David enjoying Vietnamese coffees.  Look at the poster in the background.

Good thing the text is also in roman alphabet

Rest Stop

Wow

The valley with power cords obstructing the view

Spinning Thread

A common mode of transportation. This is a rice paddy mucking machine with tires attached.

Pipe bridge behind our guesthouse

The  Konglor cave:

Cave Entrance

Pushing the canoes upriver! We traveled 7 kilometers underground through this river through caverns that were upwards of 100 meters high but it was the dry season so the low flowing river meant we had to get out and push sometimes.

Stalactites and Stalagmites. Do you know which is which?! A French company came in and laid cable (haha) in order to light some more impressive areas for our viewing pleasure.

Laos, you are an amazingly beautiful country with incredibly kind people and have more than exceeded my expectations!

Merry Christmas Laos

Side of the road. An organic farm.

The road from Luang Prabang was windy to say the least. We had a van full of new buddies and we were all in the mood for some adventure. The past couple of days in a boutiquy town like Luang Prabang had us itching to get our blood moving a bit. We had become 9 and were able to rent a private ride in a van that took us about 6 hours to get south. Along the way we saw stuff like this:

Karst Country

We also stopped three or four times on twisty mountain roads to let construction go and allow for lost vehicles with to be brought up the road.

Roadside attractions

Our new friends meant that our sizeable group had some interesting characters hailing from mostly the states but also a pair of Canadian twins. We had three from Arizona including a Robert Redford "Jeremiah Johnson" look-alike and his Kristen Stuart clone girlfriend.  We also had a very cool couple from DC that are very avid climbers and even had been traveling with shoes and harnesses. We all decided that some serious climbing was in order for a destination known for its limestone walls.

The gang is all here

VangVieng was previously a huge party town because of the river running through that makes its slow and leisurely way around some incredible scenery back to town. A course that is best run via inner tube. It used to be that along the way there were myriad bars and rest stops for drugs, ziplines, and music. As it goes the Laos government put a stop to this extracurricular activity after a number of young Aussies died while under the influence. Now you can still rent tubes and float but you bring your own beer. This had the possibility of ruining the small town and its tourist based economy but from what we saw it could only have improved the place. I think we all agreed that the tune this town now plays, while much more subdued, is many times more attractive that the party that the Lonely Planet promised. We found a hostel that charged $1.80/bed in a 16 bed dorm room that much resembled an orphanage.

Little orphan Kelly.

Stephen with the hostel owner and a borrowed Santa suit. Size: Asian.

The room was brand new and we even got to unwrap the plastic from our pillows. It is very seldom that you can feel so clean in a dorm room. We also had the addition of a well lit Christmas tree brought up by the owners to add to the festive feeling. The rooftop of this place proved a comfortable hang out with a killer view.

View from the roof.

 You always explore your new home when arriving in any new town and the most important thing is where will we find good food. The coolest little Lao lady name Pohn had a half outdoor restaurant/shop half a block away that we tried night one and never left. She seemed to be open at our behest and made all her food with the utmost care and love. It took a long time to get anything but once something left her kitchen you could count on it.

Our little hole in the wall.

And its view.

Day one had us taking 'push bikes' to a swimming hole/cave that was well worth the visit. With a beautiful blue lagoon and tree to jump off of we passed some good hours here on two separate occasions.

Leap of faith.

Buddha in the cave. Good timing.

We found a good shop that rented all the climbing gear we would need and took a day to have one of the better experiences of my life. This spot was so special words can barely describe how I felt. We crossed a river by local taxi boat, hiked through the jungle without knowing our ultimate destination and by happenstance came across a cave that needed exploring. As we entered we found ourselves speechless as we also found ourselves stoked to find this place. Three solid limestone walls. Tons of climbs to attempt and finally some good people to practice lead climbing and learn proper wall technique. I pretty much only boulder at home and there's this world at my fingertips that I had never fully bought in to. Whether it was my fear of heights, lack of equipment, or lack of know how, I just hadn't ever really gotten in to bigger walls. Well that all has changed now cause Kelly and I are hooked.

This is just looking up from the ground in the Secret Canyon. Two climbers back to back plus part of the third wall at the top of the page as well. Closed in by awesomeness.

Shane and Jessica.

We ended up going back three separate days.

Celebrating our Christmas haul!

Of course we also had Christmas day and this meant a gift exchange. We had a $2.50 limit but in Laos that's plenty. We wrapped our gifts in pink TP and placed them under the tree. Everyone ended up with something cool. We took our good spirits to the river later that day and rented inner tubes to float the river.

TOOOOBING!

This town was known for its hard partying but also its very relaxing bar/restaurants as well. Many of them feature lounge seating all facing towards a common wall adorned with plasma tv's. Sports you say?  News you think? Laotian soaps you query? "NO" says I. Friends, South Park, Simpsons, and Family Guy, all day long, every day.

"Friends" lounge. Tell me if you know what is going on in this episode!

Eventually our groups had to split, but while our Christmas vacation lasted it was pretty cool.

One of the ways out of town. Taxi!

Vang Vieng = Awesome.