Day 5 started by us being woken by a chap from the train nudging us to let us know that breakfast was ready. Despite being in a compartment which was not very wide and certainly not long enough for my full gangliness, I slept pretty well. Maybe the beers helped. Mrs Tom however says that she didn’t sleep so well. Swings and roundabouts eh. Breakfast, as we had opted for “western” rather than “Asian” was eggs, some funky sausage things cut into flower shapes, pineapple, ham and some bread, with coffee and some squash. Not too bad, but the sort of food I would normally shy away from. Having just began to regain my appetite I hoped for the best and knocked it back. Mrs Tom though ate relatively little.
The train pitched in to the station around 9 having been scheduled to arrive an hour earlier. Apparently it doesn’t go above around 50 km/h (actually) so it’s not quick, but it was quite fun. Also fun was the tuk tuk ride from the station to the boarder. The tuk tuk can comfotably seat 4, but not 4 with at least one massive bag each, but that’s what we did. One with Barry, Gaynor, Darren and Rafa, the other with Steven, Summer, Mrs Tom and myself. We watched with delight as Rafa climbed on the back of the tuk tuk in front and the whe thing tilted backwards, front wheel in the air. Having managed, somehow, to cram us all in and get going, the tuk tuk drivers decided we needed visas, which we already had, so stopped us at a roadside establshment where they apparently try to hard sell you visas. We quickly told them politely we were fine thank you very much and moved on to the boarder.
Immigration, it seems, is shit no matter where you go in the world. Things always seem to take far longer than they need to and this was no exception. Once through, we fill in some sort of “honest guv I’m not ill or nuffink” form which entitles us to a delightful little card stating as much, and we soon board our bus. Rafa fills us in with some facts along the way and I remember what he told us during our welcome meeting. More bombs were dropped on Laos during the Vietnam war (though Laos did not partake) than were dropped worldwide during the whole of the second world war. This turns out to be around one bombing run every 8 seconds. For 9 years.
Driving through Vientiane you wouldn’t think it was the capital city of the country, and with only around 134,000 people it’s obvious why. There is a relaxed, slow pace about the people and their movements. They are quiet and extremely polite, and staff in shops, cafes, bars and restaurants are eager to please. We go for lunch before check in as we are a little early and the food is great, and the coffee very good too.
After check in we meet with (again proununciation only) Tui who is our local guide for the small tour of Vientiane. A very enthusiastic man, Tui is a pleasure to be with. We start with tours of temples – Wat Si Saket, Wat Phra Kaew and Wat Si Muang (?). Tui talks us round the interesting artifacts and gives us all the information we need to be able to take in the history of the beautiful temples.
We move on to Pha That Kuang ‘World Precious Stupa’ which is an enourmous gold monument. Stupas are usually small and contain the remains of the cremated dead, but here they are on a different scale. The main piece of the monument is the largest, surrounded by 30 smaller Stupas. We walk around it having climbed around halfway up it, again Tui filling us in.
Patuxai is next, also known as the vertical runway. This looks a lot like the arc de triumphe in Paris, and has its nickname because it was built in 1969 with cement donated by the Americans which was supposed to be used to help build the new airport. Tui tells us there are 147 steps to the top (I started to count but got lost so I’m afraid this important fact goes unverified) and we climb every one of them for a fantastic view of Vientiane.
I’ve missed something. Yes, definitely. Oh yes, the singing, that’s it. On the way to Patuxai Tui asked if we would like to hear some traditional Lao singing. Silly question, of course we would. He began singing about Luang Prabang, but was interrupted by the untimely arrival of our final sightseeing destination, so he continued once we re-alighted the bus. Once the song had finished and we had given a deserved round of applause, he asked if we knew Michael Jackson. So he sang us some snippets from his favourite Michael Jackson tunes. It was a great end to a great little excursion.
Dinner was at Makphet. Makphet means chilli in Lao and is part of the Peuen Mit Street Children project. It is kind of like the Fifteen project started by Jamie Oliver. Children are educated and taken off the streets and taught to cook wonderful modern food in the restaurant. We had a great dinner here and left a tip which goes directly to the students. There is also a shop which sells gifts made by the parents of the children who work in the restaurant where a couple of our group, including Mrs Tom, bought gifts for folks back home.
After dinner Rafa took us to a bar which was close to the river. Aprehensive as we walked through the door, after climbing a few flights of steps we stepped out into quite a nice, but heavily westernised bar. The music was stuff that we recognised and the drinks and food menus reflected the western influence too, and as a result many of the people in the bar were non Lao folk, but we still had a good time. Rafa and I spoke about a number of topics including religion and football holiganism and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In Italy they don’t see hooligans as jus being troublemakers, the term also refers to those who organise the singing, banners and flags which are such an impressive feature of Italian football matches.
We meandered back to the hotel trying to follow Rafa’s directions (he had retired a little earlier). With myself and Darren up front we were doing our best to navigate the streets of Vientiane and get us back to our hotel. Thankfully at last everyone seemed to recognise where they were, though I wasn’t convinced as I didn’t recognise it at all, but we did managed to get back and retire safely.
Day 6 breakfast was a nice late start as today was essentially a free day. Rafa had asked if we would like to visit the COPE foundation (though this was not on the itinerary) and having all agreed we had decided to leave at 10:30, giving us all a nice lay in. I plumped for the traditional Asian breakfast of rice noodles with pork (very nice, though even the staff gave me funny looks for which I couldn’t work out why), and Mrs Tom took the safe option of omlette.
Though I slept ok, Mrs Tom didn’t. There is a construction site right next to our room, and our bathroom has windows which separate our room from the site only by mesh to keep out the flying nasties. They also start cleaning the rooms very early (around 6:30), and the site starts playing their radio at around 7. Seemingly everyone else doesn’t suffer the construction noise in the same way, so we’ve rather shat out there.
COPE is a palce where they make prosthetic limbs for people who have suffered the consequences of the disgusting and needless bombing campaign by the Americans during the Vietnam war. Close to 600,000 bombing runs were made by American planes to bomb Lao, each resulting in hundreds of “bombies” being dropped and several large scale destruction missiles. A bombie is a small bomb around the size of a cricket ball containing explosives and in some cases ball bearings.
Around 30% of bombs dropped failed to detenate, and remain live and armed all across Laos. Because of the nature of the climate and the rainy seasons, as well as the 30 years that have passed since the war, many are covered and hidden. Farmers trying to make honest work lose their lives and limbs, children find bombies and play with them and find the same ends. There is also the illegal scrap metal trade. People can earn good money for the trade of scrap metal, so adults risk their lives, in different cases both aware and ignorant of the dangers they face, digging up bombs for sale as scrap. Children do the same trying to earn money for their families. Sadly this causes the loss of many lives every year.
The economic result is that Laos cannot grow. In order for construction, farming, infrastructure building to all take place, people have to put their lives at risk because of the possibility of encountering bombs. Another fact which I did not know was that this bombing campaign was referred to as “the secret war” as it was hidden from western people for 6 years. Even then very little information about what was happening made it back to the west.
At the end of the film we watched a young boy says “the bombs do not belong to us, we want the Americans to take them back.”
It was also explained to us that although primarily COPE provides limbs (and specially customised wheelchairs) for bomb victims, they also assist those who need their help because of accident or illness. Please look them up, they sell merchandise and you can donate to them, they do an amazing job.
After lunch we took a walk of the markets to wear off our food before going for a traditional Lao massage. The markets, if I’m honest, were not my cup of tea. An indoor complex consisted of many many stalls where you can buy everything from household goods to food, clothing, jewellery, white goods etc. It was a bit smelly in places and there were plenty of flies around the meat stalls, so we finished up looking around and set off for our massage.
Rafa had recommended a particlar place, so after a bit of guesswork with the map we found it. They could only accomodate 3 at a time, so Summer and Mrs Tom went in whilst Darren, Steven and myself went for a drink. The girls gave good feedback so when it was our turn Steven (who had never had a massage before) and I went in, and Darren opted out (also never having had a massage before), deciding he could do with a sleep instead.
The massage itself was not quite what I expected, though still very enjoyable. It was a bit of a test of my body’s elasticity as there was a lot of twisting and stretching with some quite intense finger work on all the different muscle areas. I was convinced Steven had nodded off as there was a rather intense snoring noise coming from very nearby, but he assures me he heard it too, so someone else was clearly very relaxed. We left with enough time back at the hotel to have a little nap before dinner.
We gathered in the lobby and set off for a short walk to our dinner destination. Most of us found the menu system awkward but we eventually all chose something. Mostly the food was enjoyable, and Mrs Tom and I had a lovely time chatting to Gaynor and Brian. We all drank a little more than we intended to, including some laulau whiskey, a very smooth but exceptional tasting clear whiskey which though it doesn’t taste so was apparently around 40-50%.
Thankfully Rafa was able to lead us back to digs to avoid any recurrences of our unplanned travels from the night before.