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Sam Neua is another fairly small town in Northern Laos. It's at a higher altitude making it very cold! well, for Laos anyway. When I walked down the main street (freezing in my only sweater) it was lit at various points with small bonfires surrounded by people talking or playing checkers. I guess they know how to stay warm.
From Sam Neua I took a day trip to visit the nearby Vieng Xai caves where Pathet Lao leaders hid while being bombarded by American bombs in the 60's and 70s. The leaders and their families had lived in these caves for years making some quite elaborate with concrete bedrooms, offices, and meeting rooms. I joined a tour that had just started with an Australian boy and British girl (both on their gap year before university) and a Lao teacher visiting from Vientienne, who was nice enough to translate everything the Laos speaking tour guide was saying into English. We visited 3 caves. Each had a huge house outside where the leader had moved from his cave after 1975 when the bombings ceased.
It is so strange to think that this beautiful area was so heavily bombed, not to mention that so many of the bombs are still around. Two million bombs were dropped by the US and something like 30% failed to detonate- leaving the country littered with unexploded bombs.
previous travel blog entry
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