Thursday 3 April 2014

Vientiane

Laos has been growing on me, steadily, for the last week or so. Luang Prabang started off slowly. Then I    realised that the attraction of the place is the laid back way of life. At first, I was worried that I was wasting time, just lazing about, people watching. Then, I realised that it's not wasted time if you enjoyed doing it.

If anyone does find themselves in Luang Prabang, make sure to check out Kuang Si waterfall. It is like heaven on Earth - you'll see for yourself when you get there. The waterfalls flow down on top of limestone rock, and this makes the colour of the water a very bright blue. It is really magical and to top it all off, you can go swimming there - guaranteed to cool you down. It was a much needed swim, especially in the 40 degree heat.

Vientiane was my next port of call, after Luang Prabang. This is the capital city of Laos and like the rest of the country, I hadn't done a whole lot of research on this city. The road to Vientiane was an interesting one. It was one hair pin turn after another, for most of the journey. This was in a double decker coach, so we were crawling for most of the 12 hour road trip. At some points during the journey, we were looking down sheer cliff edges, as our 20 metre long coach took these turns that were, at times, more acute than right angles. It was pretty impressive driving. The rugged countryside of Laos is very beautiful and it seems very peaceful. We were so high up, it could be seen as far as my eyesight could stretch.

Getting off the bus in Vientiane at 4.30a.m, I was really looking forward to getting to my hostel and putting my head down for a few hours. A short tuk-tuk journey turned into a nightmare, when the driver couldn't find the hostel. Driving around in circles for more than 2 hours, eventually ending up in a really run down part of Vientiane, I feared for my own safety, for the first time on this trip. The feeling of being completely helpless was hard to take, as being robbed seemed like a very real threat, at that moment in time. Asking the driver to bring me somewhere central, he kept making excuses to drive a little longer. Hence, my fear. Luckily, the tuk-tuk driver admitted that he had no idea where he was going and all my initial fears amounted to, was a half hour walk. The sun was starting to come up as well, so I felt a little safer.

Having little research done on Laos, I went to the COPE Foundation headquarters to spend a morning learning about one of the most significant occurrences in the country's short existence. The COPE Foundation builds prosthetic limbs and rehabilitates people that have lost limbs, as a result of unexploded bombs going off in their vicinity. Laos was the victim of a US attack in the 1960s, that saw them drop 260 million bombs on this passive, neutral nation. 30% of these bombs never detonated and the repercussions of this, still result in people losing limbs, eyesight and even their lives, to this day. If you take the ratio of bombs:people, Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the World. It was very upsetting to see the documentaries on the subject. Seeing people still risking their lives, out of necessity, to farm the land, was disturbing. Hearing the stories of the survivors, some completely blind and with no limbs, really hit home the point, that no matter where you are in life, there is always someone worse off than you.

Staying on the subject of people being worse off than you, I bumped into a guy at the Laos/Thailand border, who had just been released from prison in Laos, for overstaying his visa. He spent 6 weeks in jail for outstaying his welcome. I'm just throwing that in there as a heads up for anyone intending to travel to Laos. This guy looked worn out, hungry and tired, but he was very positive about his experience. It really takes an open minded individual to see the bright side of the ordeal he had been through. He commended the camaraderie of his fellow inmates, all of whom were foreign and behind bars for similar offences.

The idea of incarcerating someone, for staying too long in a country, seems alien to me. Being honest, and at the risk of being criticized for my idealism, the idea of borders & the ownership of land seems alien to me as well. Going back, who gave anyone the right to say 'I own that piece of land and you can't walk on it'? It doesn't make sense at all. Surely we should all be free to go wherever we want, whenever we want, as no one really owns the Earth. Wishful thinking out of me, I know!

3 comments:

  1. Nice one again, Mike, doing much for my history and sense of geography; you also make me wonder about Communism, and the ethics of war. I thought the Cope Foundation was in Cork, Ireland, and I wonder if there is any connection. By the way, when you come home you can check out the 'heavens on earth' around here!
    I hope you won't outstay your visa: it's too far to visit you in prison!

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  3. Totally agree mick on the ownership of land...its all greed and power for the elite.When will people we don't own this planet, we simply live here because there simply is nowhere else. I watched a show on the astronauts up in ISS and they said the view up there is so beautiful and amazing but what struck me about their comments is that up there you can see no borders or flags. stay safe

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