The Sandspur

Issue date: 3/25/05 Section: Life & Times

Media Credit: Tom Trasente WAR RELICS: Tourists gaze in awe at the enormous craters that now litter the landscape of Laos reminding them of the horrors of bombs during the Vietnam War.

Media Credit: Tom Trasente SOAKING UP SUN: Opium plants.

Media Credit: COURTESY OF CIA.GOV

My trip to Laos began at the Lao embassy in Beijing. I had been living in China as an English teacher the last year and a half and it was time for the 2002 Spring Festival break. I was tired of living in China, I needed a vacation, so I thought I would go to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos for the several weeks I would have off.

And now here I am, waiting to cross the border into Laos. Since I already had my visa, my wait was shorter than those without, but I still had to go through the usual border rigaramor. I met a blonde American waiting behind me. After getting into downtown Vientiane, the capital, I wandered around looking for a place to stay. I met up with the blonde for dinner, but first she buys some pot. I wonder how smart this is to do such a thing out in the open, and how easy it is for this gentlemen to turn us into the local police for a reward. Thankfully, nothing happens, and she is leaving tomorrow anyway.

I spend my first few days just relaxing. I take long walks around the city simply enjoying what I saw with no destination in mind. Roads are unpaved, people are friendly, traffic is light, and the sky is blue.

After a few days of walking around, I decide it is time to take the flight to the Plain of Jars. The flight from Vientiane to Louang Phrabang, which is a city on the Plain of Jars, was uneventful. You are supposed to fly over, rather than bus through the intermediate area because it is active with Hmong rebels, our former allies, left from the Vietnam War. The only thing noteworthy about the Lao Air flight is the absolutely gorgeous stewardess.

The guesthouse I am staying at is decorated with unexploded ordinance, rusted helmets, defused mines, machine gun belts, and other war wreckage. It's a really nice looking place, the best place I've stayed on my trip.

The next day is our tour. Two Canadian girls teaching English in Korea, an older American farmer from Georgia who complains about carpetbaggers, some Europeans, and myself form our group. This hotel, hard to believe, owns two cars. The one I'm in is a 1950ish Soviet car, but it runs just fine. Our first stop is the market, which is very typical fare for a developing country's outdoor market. Dirty, cramped, and guys selling unwrapped beef swatting at flies with sticks. We grab our lunch and breakfast and go off to see the Jars.

The Plain of Jars is a mostly treeless, beautiful, and hilly landscape. The two things that stand out from the Plain of Jars are the jars and the craters. The history behind the jars on the Plain of Jars is murky; dating has been estimated anywhere from tenth century AD, to 500 BC. However, there is a consensus that they were used for burial purposes. I don't see any covers for the jars, so I wonder how practical they were.

The craters are from the Vietnam War. Our guide tells us that the greatest danger was, and is, from bomblets, which are hundreds of much smaller bombs that will be contained within one larger bomb and dispersed over a large area. Unexploded ordinance, or UXO, is a huge problem in Laos. Our guide explains that only in the last two or three years was vegetation able to grow in this particular area he has taken us. Looking at the dry, stubbly, uncolored, and half dead looking grass, I wonder what it was like before this "renaissance."

If you've ever watched documentaries of the Vietnam War then you've seen footage of B-52s dropping strings of bombs and watched them explode in a neat row with the shockwaves expanding in circles. The results of this are what you see on the Plain of Jars, dozens and dozens of strings of craters in every direction, as far as the eye can see. Looking back, I should have asked why the United States thought it was beneficial bombing this area because I don't see any railroads, factories, or even villages; but I didn't.

The last stop is an opium field and the village that tends to it. The opium plants are about a yard high, with a long thin green stem, and a round green ball on top, with a small purple flower atop that. Our guide tells us how the opium is cared for and harvested. This village is small, I'd say about 50 shacks, and dozens of unexploded US bombs lie everywhere. These unexploded bombs are everywhere in Laos. They even have rigged some equipment using jettisoned military hardware, such as drop tanks. My favorite is the bomb used as pottery for plants. The guide explains to our small group that at this village Westerners are welcome, but at another particular village, in a much more remote area, Westerners; Irish, Dutch, or American, all would be attacked. He also explains that near this village during the war American soldiers were building runways. He doesn't specify if the war, or the airstrips, or something else is the cause of this hatred, but I make a mental note of it. After a late lunch we head back to the guesthouse for the evening.

Time is a bit short so I take the next day's flight back to the capital. I'm sad because I know I have to go back to Beijing after this, and I've really enjoyed my trip to South East Asia. When I get back to Vientiane I'm running out of Larium, which is an anti-malaria pill. I stop at several pharmacies before I finally find one that sells it. I look at what the lady hands over and make an inspection for the usual signs of piracy that I've come to expect from living in Beijing; misaligned text, misspelled words, worn packaging, screwed up fonts, and other indicators. It looks good to me so I pay the $2 per pill that would cost twenty times as much back home and I know I'm good for several more weeks. The next morning I take a pedicab to the airport for my flight to China. The driver refuses one of my ratty dollar bills, so I have to give him some kip instead.

Fast forward one year. BBC headline: Reports from Laos say at least 10 people were killed after gunmen opened fire on a bus traveling between the tourist resort of Louang Prabang and the capital Vientiane.

Fast forward two years. I'm back in Jersey working part time selling jewelry where I mention in passing to the store manager that I'd been to Laos. "Oh, really?" he says to me. "I was there during the war, Marine reconnaissance, I spent a lot of time on the Ho Chi Min Trail." "What were you doing in Laos?" says I. "We were building airstrips in the middle of nowhere."

Fast forward three years. UPI writes, "A military doctor who linked brain damage in several soldiers to [Larium] now says he doesn't know whether the drug played any role in those disorders."

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