Laos

After a short flight from Chiang Mai, Thailand, we arrived in Luang Prabang, Laos.

Luang Prabang is the largest city in Northern Laos, known for its many temples and colonial-style downtown. Also, it was once the capital when Laos was still a kingdom before the communists took over in 1975.

The downtown area is easily walk-able. Old colonial houses with tasty restaurants and all kinds of shops line the streets.

But of course most of the locals do not live in downtown. Instead they live in the surrounding neighborhoods, many of which are very poor. 

The picture shows a typical local "house", which is more a combination of hut and open-air shop. In the front is the shop where you can buy just about everything from groceries, household items and even mechanical stuff.
In the back is the living and kitchen area.

Since it was our first night in the country, we decided to try some real Laotian food.
We can highly recommend the "Tamarind" restaurant!

Laotian food is meant to be eaten with your hand - just grab some sticky rice, roll it into a ball, and use it to pick up one of the other items from the sampling platter (veggies or meat). Easy, right? ;)

The next morning it was time to get up at 5:30am (yes, that is early these days!) to see a daily ritual - the monks collecting alms.

Locals line the streets in downtown and hand out rice, fruits, and other snacks to the monks.
Monks carry pans with them and the locals drop the food inside.

The alms are in the form of food since monks are not allowed to touch or possess any money.

After a fortifying breakfast at "Le Banneton" cafe - best croissants in all of Laos! - we decide to tackle the big one: climbing up the hill Phou Si. 

The hill is home to Wat Chom Si, one of the most famous temples in Luang Prabang.

On the way up, the hill is lined with countless buddha statues. Here just a few:

Nope, still not there yet...

During one of our breaks on the way up we met Monk Kiphon. 

He just finished his time as a novice monk and graduated from secondary school. Going forward he wants to be a monk full-time. His English was great (self-taught!) and he had lots of questions for us about the US and Germany! 

Finally arrived at the temple on the top. Great view of the city!

While the temple was pretty similar to others we've seen, it was really the great golden stupa on the highest point of the hill that was the highlight.

After some rest it was time to visit the night market.
The night market in Luang Prabang did not only have the typical stands selling souvenirs, clothes and electronics. They also had tons of food stands with great local grub. Yum!

Alas, our time in beautiful Luang Prabang was short-lived and it was time to move on south to the capital Vientiane. But we'll be back Luang Prabang!

We decided to rough it despite our tight schedule and do a bus ride to Vientiane. Depending on who you asked, it was going to take between 8-13 hours. Hmmm...

Within the first hour of leaving Luang Prabang we hit a little snag - mud slides blocking the road. Luckily the excavators were already on site and working hard. Half an hour later we were good to move on.

We drove mostly through the mountains, interspersed with rice fields and small remote villages. 

Let's just say that the mountainous terrain made the Road to Hana in Hawaii look like child's play...

12 hours later we arrived in Vientiane! Welcome to the capital of Laos.

Haw Phra Kaew, the temple of the Emerald Buddha. Sound familiar? Yes, this is the same Emerald Buddha we saw in Bangkok, Thailand.











It was relocated from Northern Thailand to Laos during the 16th century. When the Siamese empire took over the city in the 18th century they moved the Buddha back to Thailand and destroyed the temple. It's been rebuilt and is now used as a museum.




Right across the street is Wat Si Saket, one of the few temples in this area that wasn't completely destroyed in the wars with Siam (now Thailand).

One of the main reasons could be that it was built in the Siamese style of architecture and hence spared by the invading armies.

Just down the street is the president's palace. We didn't get an audience - maybe next time...

And now to a more serious topic. We also visited the COPE center in Vientiane.
The COPE center is a non-profit that provides access to prosthetic devices and rehabilitation services.
Most of its patients are victims from UXO's (unexploded ordinance).

During the Vietnam War, the US approved a covert air operation to drop bombs on Laos to disrupt the North Vietnamese war supplies running through the territory.

Unfortunately the bombing did endless damage to the civilian population in Laos. Not just along the supply route named "Ho Chi Minh trail", but throughout the entire country (see areas in red for heaviest bombing).










This photo shows a typical bomb dropped during the Secret War. After firing, the rocket casing splits open and discharges a large number of "bombies". Each little bombie is a fully functioning bomb.

According to US records, over 580,000 bombing missions were conducted over Laos with over 270 million (!) bombies dropped.
Around 30% failed to detonate, leaving about 80 million bombies throughout the country to this day.











Specially-equipped teams are slowly combing  the country-side to locate and safely destroy these bombies. But as you can imagine, it is slow and tedious work that is underfunded.

Hence over hundreds of lives are lost each year to UXO-related incidents and many more injured. Most of the bombies are set off through farming or through handling of UXO for its scrap-metal value. 40% of the victims are children.

The COPE center provides free artificial limbs and OT/PT therapy to anyone needing it, whether from UXO or other kinds of accidents.

We also got to talk with one patient, Peter Kim,  who lost both hands and his eye sight. It was inspiring to see how positive his outlook on life was. His hobby is performing break-dance routines in front of audiences!






Despite those last grim impressions, we really enjoyed our trip to Laos. Beautiful country and very friendly people. We'll definitely be back!














Coming up next - Cambodia!