30 June – 1 July 2011
A small town slowly trying to establish itself as a tourist destination. Still a small town with all the wee quirks and nice to walk around. Probably the most gardened town in Laos. All along the roads there were wee coloured shrubs and most people made an effort on a garden. After the war the people decided to make a big effort to rebuild the town with a good quality of life feel about it.
My guesthouse was perched out over a small lake. Got the end room – great view. Restaurant attached with great food. Had a big steamed fish with a spicy lemon sauce – soooo good! And meet another friendly worker there. Some beers and a challenge at Petanque that I thrashed at. Every bar had a Petanque pit(?) so they are probably all semi professional.
This town is known as the hidden city of caves. It is surrounded by massive krast landscape containing lots of caves. These caves were used to live in during the war from 1964 – 1973, 9 long years of a life in a cave. The caves were heavily modified to create rooms for all their needs – sleeping, teaching, entertaining, working, artillery storage, even hospital wards were created. The network of caves was just so incredible and so much bigger than what I thought.
The Laos people were very on to it they had emergency rooms in all caves that could be sealed were equipped with air pumps so they could shelter from chemical bombs when needed, they would work their rice fields and farms during the night, not wear any bright clothes (usually only black), wouldn’t breed or keep bright coloured animals (white or coloured chickens would be killed and eaten as they were bomb targets) and there loads more sneaky tricks they had it was really just amazing what you learnt walking around them. You have to do it as a tour with a guide (ours didn’t speak english) but it didn’t really matter as you are given an audio set which gave detailed information about all the caves, stories of the people who lived in along with some of their memories of the times. I was a bit sceptical of the tour to start (being 60,00kip) but it was well worth it even in the rain and squeezing three people on to one motorbike.
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| Air pump for the emergency room |
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| Study within one the caves |
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| A bomb crater turned into a swimming pool! The best of a bad situation. |
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| Entertainment Theatre - movies, games, weddings, plays. It was massive - the photo doesn't really do it justice. |
A small town slowly trying to establish itself as a tourist destination. Still a small town with all the wee quirks and nice to walk around. Probably the most gardened town in Laos. All along the roads there were wee coloured shrubs and most people made an effort on a garden. After the war the people decided to make a big effort to rebuild the town with a good quality of life feel about it.
This town is known as the hidden city of caves. It is surrounded by massive krast landscape containing lots of caves. These caves were used to live in during the war from 1964 – 1973, 9 long years of a life in a cave. The caves were heavily modified to create rooms for all their needs – sleeping, teaching, entertaining, working, artillery storage, even hospital wards were created. The network of caves was just so incredible and so much bigger than what I thought. 
The Laos people were very on to it they had emergency rooms in all caves that could be sealed were equipped with air pumps so they could shelter from chemical bombs when needed, they would work their rice fields and farms during the night, not wear any bright clothes (usually only black), wouldn’t breed or keep bright coloured animals (white or coloured chickens would be killed and eaten as they were bomb targets) and there loads more sneaky tricks they had it was really just amazing what you learnt walking around them. You have to do it as a tour with a guide (ours didn’t speak english) but it didn’t really matter as you are given an audio set which gave detailed information about all the caves, stories of the people who lived in along with some of their memories of the times. I was a bit sceptical of the tour to start (being 60,00kip) but it was well worth it even in the rain and squeezing three people on to one motorbike.
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