Laos Part 2; Vientiane, Vang Vieng and Phonsavan

We ended up spending 3 weeks in Vientiane whilst I had my incredible painful physio sessions. We joined the Hash House Harriers on 5 of their runs and really enjoyed meeting new people and seeing new places. We spent Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve with them and had a blast. The hangovers were pretty bad!!!


This is the 'circle', which is carried out after every run. The ice (on the piccie below) is sat on with naked bottoms by those who have committed some offence.


During our stay we visited the COPE centre, an organisation dedicated to supporting victims of UXO (unexploded ordinance). Since the end of the war over 12,000 people have fallen prey to UXO. Around 260 million 'bombies' were dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973 and 78 million failed to explode. COPE is an amazing organisation and the visitor's centre was really informative and not as depressing as you'd think due to all the amazing work that they are doing and all the lives that they've improved.



Here's the replica Arc de Triomphe which was built in 1969 and commemorates the Lao who died in pre-revolutionery wars. It was built with cement donated by the USA for a new airport; hence the expats call it "the vertical runway".

This is Nic sitting on the ice for some forgotten reason at another hash:


We were invited to join the dancing at an engagement party whilst on our last hash. I was totally sober and had a great time.


After being told by the physio that I could eventually leave, we headed to Vang Vieng. VV is famous among a certain type of backpacker for drugs, including opium, alcohol and wild partying. Two young male Aussies died there in the past 2 weeks. We did not participate in such activities but had a lovely time none the less.

We got a cheap room with this amazing view of the river and the mountains:

We went on a 7km walk to the Blue Lagoon and then enjoyed swimming in the crystal clear water:


Nic also took a walk up to the cave:


When we got back to our hotel Mother Nature gave us this amazing sunset:



The following day we went on a full day kayaking trip which was great fun. We enjoyed the mountain views and survived the rapids without capsizing. Here's our guide:

Nice bridge:



After VV we went on a 7 hour mini bus ride to Phosnavan. The road climbs and twists around the mountains and we saw lots of accidents, including this truck in the ditch:


Phonsavan is 1500 metres above sea level and is freezing at night. We only spent 2 nights there and went on a guided day trip to see the surrounding sights, the most famous of which is the Plain of Jars. There are hundreds of jars at dozens of separate sites. The jars are over 2000 years old and they think they were used as burial vessels. We went to 3 different sites to see the jars and some of them are massive:


Xieng Khuang province was one of Laos' worst hit during the 9 year US air assault and it's full of craters and dead ground because of agent orange. Sadly, many of the jars were destroyed or damaged.

As part of the trip we also saw this lady making rice noodles:


We also went to a village where the children were really shy of westerners. These cute kids took about 10 minutes to get close to us and when Nic went to shake hands, one of them fell over backwards! It was interesting seeing a Lao child with blond hair.


More jars:

This is the shop where we booked our trip:


Whilst in Phonsavan we visited MAG (Mines Advisory Group). This organisation started clearance work of UXO in 1994 but only a tiny percentage of the quarter of a million pieces have been removed. At the current rate it may take over 100 years to make the country safe. The people here live in poverty and fear because of the UXO.