Phonsavan and the Secret War
Posted by Anita Fri, 27 Jul 2007 02:36:00 GMT
Location: Phonsavan, Laos
We caught a public bus to Phonsavan and ran into Reto the swiss guy again. The road between Phonsavan and Luang Prabang is really really windy (I think 1/2 the country is steep hills) but in better condition than other roads we’ve seen so far.
After the 8 hour ride we arrived and were greeted by a whole bunch of reps for different guest houses all trying to get us to come with them, something you get a lot in Thailand but not so much in Laos. Reto recognized one of the guest houses as one he had heard good things about so we went with him and a few other people from our bus to see the place.
The owner of the guest house was a really cool guy who knew a lot about local (fairly recent) history including quite a lot of detail about the secret war that went on in Laos during the Vietnam war.
Laos was a neutral country in the Vietnam war and so the Geneva convention made it illegal for the US to have any military presence in Laos at this time - and they were definitely not allowed to attack Laos because of its neutrality. However Laos is currently the most heavily bombed country in Asia. I think the statistics were something like 2 tonnes of ordinance was dropped for every person living in Laos.
The American government initially denied ever having bombed Laos, but later admitted that they had. Their reasoning was; first they bombed and defoliated the Ho Chi Minh trail that the North Vietnamese were using to get into south Vietnam. Secondly, sometimes the planes would get low on fuel and as it was too dangerous to land with the bombs they had to drop them somewhere.
The upshot is now the landscape around the province that Phonsavan is the capital of is littered with huge craters from the bombs, and there is a huge amount of unexploded cluster bombs littering the farmland and all through the jungle. Apparently they are no longer just on the ground as they may have landed on the branches of a small bamboo plant that has grown up and they can still be in the branches.
The bombies (cluster bombs) need to spin a certain number of times to arm and some of them haven’t done that which is why they don’t explode but they are about the size of a tennis ball so you can imagine what happens when children find them and start throwing them around. It really is quite horrific.
Anyway the guest house owner told us all about it and showed us a documentary about the war and the UXO organisation that are helping to clear the unexploded ordinances from local villages and farmland.
The next day Jack Reto and I and a bunch of other people met at the guest house went on one of the tours that the guest house organises.
The first stop was the local markets to buy some food for lunch.
The next stop was at a farm not far out of town where there are huge craters and they had left some of the UXO for tourists to see. It was a bit freaky because they were just lying on the ground with no markings or safety barriers or anything. However the guide had told us that the area hadn’t been properly cleared so we were all being extremely vigilant and watching our feet all the time (luckily there was no 30 year old bamboo around or we would have been totally paranoid).
Then we went to a neat little waterfall for lunch and swimming. It was about a 20 minute walk into the bush and we came out a slightly different way that had us crossing the river and back again several times, so it took a little longer, but was much more scenic.
The next stop was a village where the people had been collecting metal from all the bombs that were no longer live and used them in the construction of their grain storage huts and as planters for their little herb gardens that they have to keep off the ground so the chickens and pigs don’t get into them. Apparently quite a lot of the metal gets used for making knives and farm equipment as well. One place had 20 odd 2 meter long shell casings lined up, being kept for the next use.
The last stop was the Pain of Jars, which was something I particularly wanted to see. There are several sites around Phonsavan that have these huge stone jars that quite enigmatic. Like the stone henge they don’t know who built them or why, although they have some theories. At the site that we went to there is a big man-made cave with chimneys that archaeologists have found ashes and human remains in so there is a theory that they were used as burial jars after cremation. Our guide told us that there was a local legend about a huge warrior who killed an evil king and the stone jars were made to hold the local whiskey at a celebration.
Even in this incredibly important historical site there were huge craters in the ground and there were markings on the paths and around the perimeter of the jars warning that the area outside the markings hadn’t been properly cleared of UXO.
That night the owner put on a big barbecue for everyone who went on the tour which was really cool and we all sat around talking until quite late. Some of us were coming to Vang Vieng the next day (Reto, Sylvia and Azhara - 2 spanish girls and Azhara’s Irish boyfriend) So we all decided to catch the bus together the next day.
