Dodging UXOs in Phonsavanh

Vientiane was great and so much traveling has been on the way to here in Saigon that it's hard to remember all the places we've been. For the past few days, staying still and concentrating on the writing has been difficult as here's so much to do and so much places to visit. The actual story goes as back as Vientiane where we took a bus, a sleeper night bus that was for the first time an actual sleeper bus with horizontal beds, to Phonsavanh.

Phonsavanh was a place not so well known in the travel books since there's nothing to do in there. For me, the main inspiration to go there was the history of war which was still present, maybe most in the whole Laos. Phonsavanh was among the most heavily bombed areas by the Americans during the war and it's said that a planeload of bombs was dropped there every eight minutes for the total of nine years between 1964-1973. There's still a huge amount of UXO in the area and while the most of them was targeted in flat areas suiting best for agriculture and farming the local people are the most poor in the whole country and unable to develop or expand their fields. Most live in self sustainable economies and have food for only eight months in a year without even talking about selling some and getting income.

The local vibe was very peaceful and quiet and the urban area consisted only of one main road with some shops and restaurants on the side. A big market located a little off from the main road and the rest was pretty rural. The first day we arrived in the morning and grabbed some coffee and breakfast. It shook us by a surprise that the temperature was freezing at six a.m. because of the altitude of the place and wearing only shorts and t-shirts we were not well prepared for that. Some locals wearing two jackets gave us weird looks. After getting a cheap room we freshed up and decided to blend in to the local people. That was actually easier done than said!

After finding a proper shop to buy some Asian style breathing masks with images of teddy bears we were ready to go. We rented a dirt bike and headed to the Plain of jars. We actually never found the place but still had an amazing adventure. Driving was so much fun for a long time and with a proper bike! We ended up in this local family's house where they also had a kiosk and saw this old man looking some weird sport from the tv. The game is called katò or something like that and it's a combination of soccer and badminton. Very fascinating and typical in Southeast Asia.

Then, driving a little farther and getting lost on the deserted dirt roads in the middle of nowhere we finally headed back to the city. I went to drive a little more in the more interesting nature after the lunch but didn't had the courage to exit the known paths because of the numerus UXO warnings.

The next day we booked the tickets to Vinh in Vietnam and enjoyed some French wine in a park in the middle of an intersection, the custom well known in Finland also. Then, after visiting the MAG and other information centers about UXO and donating some money to the victims the city was pretty much seen. It was time to head to the fascinating Vietnam!