A Step Off The Beaten Path

Huang Si waterfall in Luang Prabang

We’re falling a little behind in travel updates! Here’s a quick photo blog update.

So Luang Prabang is a little gem of a town in Laos. All the travelers we met sang its praises for its natural beauty at the convergence of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers, its heavily French influenced architecture, worldly cuisine, and laid back lifestyle. Our favorite word to describe it is quaint. Take our cute little guesthouse. We booked a “room” with 5 beds:

Our cozi room at the Nocknoy Guest House. We just kept telling ourselves that it was bringing our family closer together 🙂

Perhaps the best attraction in Luang Prabang is the Huang Si Waterfall. The water from the largest falls (see below) cascade down a series of other falls to form beautiful swimming holes (see topmost photo)

Huang Si Falls

We took some time to visit the UXO Museum (UXO stands for unexploded ordinances, or bombs) to learn about the “secret” war. We learned about this very dark piece of American history in which US conducted a massive bombing campaign during the Vietnam War in an effort to cut off the supply lines of the North Vietnamese as they traveled through Laos toward South Vietnam. A few facts:

• Over 260 million bombies (little ball-shaped explosives that are released by the hundreds from a cluster bomb) were dropped over Laos between 1964 and 1973.
• Bombies have a 30% failure rate. So approx. 78 million failed to explode and are presently a major blight on land all over the country.
• Laos has more UXOs than any other country in the world, so much so that approx 300 people a year are killed. And they didn’t even take a side in this conflict!

The effects of the bombing campaign are chilling even to this day, esp. to the poorer communities. The fear of UXOs stiffles economic development and the injuries/deaths have a tendency to maim/kill the primary breadwinner of the family. Only slowly are the bombs removed from Lao communities. Very moving museum for all of us and a source of some deep family discussions about American history and our country’s role and responsibility in these events.

On a more fun note, we enjoyed a morning at the Living Land organic rice farm, where we learned the steps in planting and cultivating rice. The kids had a great time seeing how unique a process this really is: from plowing the field with a water buffalo named Rudolph, transplanting rice plants, transporting it using traditional methods, and even pounding, sifting, and grinding it.

Gage and Lori plow the fields with Rudolph the water buffalo (FYI, he did all the work)

Transplanting rice plants in the rice fields. What a goof!

A couple of traditional methods for transporting rice. Not as easy as it looks.

Finally, we had to say our goodbyes to Luang Prabang. Next stop, Siem Reap, Cambodia, location of Angkor Wat – the heart and soul of the nation.

Boarding the Lao Airlines plane to Siem Reap, Cambodia