Phonsavan is what we like to call a ‘brown town’. No, there are not sexy tan South American or Israeli men here, the streets are just brown and so are the buildings. Phonsavan is undergoing some extensive road construction in order to become yet another Unesco World Heritage sight in the near future. In fact, the city is so muddy that at the entrance to the minibus station, we were asked to push the vehicle over the mud where it had gotten stuck. Welcome to Phonsavan!
Although dull in color, the highway strip of a city, boasts 70’s style Soviet architecture with an interesting twist. Many restaurants, homes and guest houses use abandoned military remnants as decorations and everyday use. At every turn taken we saw silverware, walkways and other miscellaneous applications of metal originating from bomb capsules, overtaken tanks and crashed planes.
Phonsavan is fortunate to host a Mines Advisory Group (MAG) office (www.maginternational.org), a unique NGO dedicated to identifying and safely deactivating bombs, left behind from the U.S. in ‘our’ effort to smoke out Vietnamese dissenters during the war. The effects of the bombs, even today, are devastating. Throughout the country, and especially in this region, Lao people witness unexpected explosions in the rural countryside fatalistically and/or disabling their families. During the U.S. ‘Secret War’ in Laos, 30% of missiles dropped have not yet detonated and continue to pose a threat. Learning this statistic we wonder how many people in the U.S. even know where Laos is geographically and what type of impact the U.S. continues to have on their livelihoods and safety. The MAG identifies UXO sights and labels those with red or white painted blocks, signifying threatening or safe areas, respectively.
Moving on to a more positive discovery, we were fortunate to visit the Plain of Jars, consisting of thousands of scattered limestone jars over 160 archaeological sights. While the use and origin remain a mystery, experts suggest that the jars date back to 2,000 years and were used as funerary urns, due to bones found within some, or rice whisky or rice containers. The largest jar weighs six tons. The jars, a source of historic pride for Laos, where extremely threatened by the Vietnam War. We both were shocked to see numerous bomb craters and fighting trenches surrounding the archaeological sights. We entered a cave which was used by the Lao president to hide out during the war against the U.S. which was never formally declared or publicized by our country.
In between archaeological sights, our guide enthusiastically led us through a tour of how Lao Lao is made, the local rice whisky, in an elderly woman's home. The guide explained how the flavorless drik was made from fermented stick rice as he filtered clear liquid from a yellow plastic car oil container. He then had fun observing us both finish off the bottle throughout the remainder of our tour.
Exhausted and hungry, we returned to the brown town for a quick snack before heading out to Vang Vieng. Our tour guide generously offered us a visit to the local dog bbq. We and a new friend from Ireland enjoyed higher quality meat than previously tasted in Hanoi. The only disappointment was our visit after eating to the dog cages in the backyard. Here two dogs (we assume street dogs) are killed, bbq’d and served daily… you do the math. Despite the tastiness, seeing the live animals preparing for their demise, Lisa especially was disheartened by this experience and vowed never to eat dog again. She also sends extended apologies to Coco. Gabi’s heart remains black as she looks forward to her next puppy kebab.
Having done all the damage possible, we continued on our trek to central Laos. Walking past street dogs whose future we could now easily predict, we headed to the bus station for Vang Vieng. We’ve now adopted a habit of calling dogs lunch or dinner.
