Coming from the countryside of Kasi, we were delighted to be on a local bus, rather than the usual Laos touristy ones. That is until we pulled up at a local market right in line with a stall which had captured some kind of poor racoon which was strung up and on sale. I assume my face was a picture as I realised what I was looking at!
Vientiane is possibly the craziest place we have been so far. There were SO many cars, parked all over the place. There were SO many scooters and motorbikes. When the lights changed the scooters get bored waiting and drive on the wrong side of the road instead, or all over the pavement. (Edit; I have since been to Vietnam and Vientiane seems pretty calm now!)
Whilst in Vientiane we went to the COPE Museum, where we learnt about the huge number of unexploded bombs still leftover in Laos after the Vietnam War (which they refer to here as the American War). I think there are 250,000 bombs left today, which is just crazy. The museum was a real eye-opener because although we have already seen bridges, gates and even souvenirs made from these bombs shells, we didn’t appreciate that the bombs were still live in so many villages throughout Laos today. Due to lack of education, and the need for money from the scrap metal, villagers still go looking for these bombs with metal detectors. We read about one man who heard the gunpowder attracted fish, so was trying to open a bomb for fishing and had blown all of his limbs of. There are also complete accidents; Laos people cook on the floor which will cause the bombs to explode if one is nearby, or of course if you accidentally step in the wrong place.
The COPE charity is working to clear the bombs and also educate the people on safety surrounding the bombs. They provide prosthetic limbs for all the people who require them, who until now had been making their own…. from metal found on the bombs! It is a crazy and sad situation, especially considering that it’s still going to take until 2030 for the bombs to be cleared completely. What amazing work this place is doing.
In Vientiane we also visited Buddha Park; a local place of worship which is turning in to a quirky tourist destination. Hundreds of huge Buddha and Buddhist concrete statues all congregated in one area. It’s an odd place, but was completely beautiful to me. I am currently researching where I can get some massive concrete statues to decorate my own garden. I’m sure my tenants will love it when those turn up! I have written a separate post about Buddha Park. Please check it out here.)
Our sleeper bus out of Vientiane headed to the border town of Savannahket and was the craziest experience we have had in the entire nine months of travel. We left our station and everything was fine; the bus was half full, everything was normal. At the next station though, a LOT of people got on. The bus conductor managed to seat them all (the beds were now all full and some even had three people on). Suddenly a load more people got on! The beds now had up to five people on! The bus conductor tried to seat them all but gave up and sat on the parcels at the back, laughing. The guy next to me explained that the bus companies often did this. Despite national efforts to stop them overselling tickets for the bus, they just sell tickets to as many people who want them! With each wave of people who got on we were more and more speechless. It was ABSOLUTELY CRAZY and so dangerous!
I must admit that being English our first reaction to this was “oh please don’t let anyone sit with me… I want to sleep!“, whilst the Laos people around us made room for the fifth person on their beds and didn’t complain! Being foreigners meant that no one did actually want to sit with us but we were absolutely astounded by the amount of people on the other beds. To top it all off they then bundled in a huge amount of parcels, which all sat on top of each other in the aisles like a big bouncy castle bus stopping us accessing the toilet.
So, remember what I said at the beginning of this blog about loving local buses? I take that back!
VISIT | COPE Museum; walkable from city centre, despite tuk-tuks offering you lifts. Free entry.
Buddha Park; check out my blog on Buddha Park for price and transport info.
