Vientiane

While we were in Vientiane, we visited the COPE Museum at the Medical Rehabilitation Center.  COPE stands to Cooperative Orthotic, Prosthetic Enterprise. The center is donation based and helps benefit victims of unexploded ordinance such as cluster bombs, mines, and other explosive from the Secret War with the U.S. and Vietnam on Lao soil. Lao is meant to be the most heavily bombed country on the planet and many areas of the country are littered with unexploded ordinance and shrapnel. 

Unexploded ordinance (UXO)

Trained experts are still working, and will be for a long time to clear potentially deadly UXO from villages, fields ,and surrounding areas throughout Lao PDR.

It is common for Lao people to collect the remains of sometimes unexploded bombs found throughout the land to repurpose the metal or sell it for scrap.

Sadly many people are left maimed if not killed due to accidents from the left over explosives. We saw a plethora of prosthetics at the museum, most of which were homemade prosthetics made by people in poor villages without resources for proper prosthetics, care, or recovery. We saw prosthetics fashioned from bamboo, repurposed metal (even from the bombs themselves), solid wood, and a combination of several materials.

We saw pictures, watched documentaries and read stories about the locals. It's crazy and sad to know that our country caused so much devastation that is still affecting locals, when the Lao people weren't even involved in the conflict. 

We spent a couple days riding bikes around Vientiane and picked up our Cambodian visas as well (same day service!) before heading all the way south to the 4,000 Islands scattered in the Mekong in Southern Laos. 

Our night bus was a VIP 'sleeping bus'. We weren't sure what to expect, but we had an actual horizontal bed, pillows and blankets. We joked that it would be weird for two strangers to share the small space.. it was he first overnight bus ride where we actually slept. 

More to come from the river islands of Laos!

-MRP 

Vang Vieng

A few good monk shots from Luang Prabang before we hopped on a bus..

Vang Vieng

This riverside town is a backpacker hotspot, surrounded by mountains. We knew it would be pretty touristy, but we had to check out the climbing. It was great! We stayed here almost a week for climbing, caving and swimming. Strangely, the restaurants play more reruns of Family Guy and Friends than one could ever want to see, starting early in the morning until close. Here's our first sunset in town.

There are numerous sandwich vendors lined up on the street with identical menus. We went mainly to one woman who gave us free bananas with our breakfast baguettes and made us laugh- she fed us almost exclusively for the week. 

Our journey to the climbing wall was quite the adventure. We walked 2km out of town, turned down a dirt road, crossed an unnerving bamboo bridge (top left) & paid the guy who built it ¢.25, walked through a village, traversed countless rice paddies, and trekked through the jungle a few minutes to pop out at some completely shaded & bolted limestone cliffs next to a river.

Some routes had big Banyan tree roots grown down along the rock.

Nearby 'secret canyon'

Sweet bolted chimney.

Thorn vine, it was crazy sharp, and Matt belaying our friend Stefan in the chimney.

On our second day climbing, we went with some friends into a HUGE cave nearby. The owner of this bar told us there is an exit on the other side so we tried to find it. You can see the tubers in this picture, Vang Vieng is very popular for spring break-like booze cruises down the river. Matt & I opted not to join the madness..although it's a beautiful place for it.

Mouth of the cave! With our climbing friend Stefan and three very silly French guys.

We explored this cave for about 3 hours, without finding the exit. At times we were wading through ankle deep or waist high water, and once we had to swim under a space about a foot high! We only found spiders and dead ends, so eventually we turned around. Cave shots:

Big spider..

Big hole..

Waist deep & then swimming..

The sweet man at the bar was waiting for us and gave us ride across the river so we could walk back to town. His buddy was in the kitchen BBQ'ing a fish and a bat for dinner...

More climbing! This approach involved more bamboos bridges, rice paddies, and a dry riverbed as well as an uphill hike to the cliff.

4 leaf clovers!!

Matt's first-try-nailed-it whip clip. Who need a guidebook when the name of the climb is written on the cliff?

Next stop is the capital city, Vientiane. From there we're going to make our way towards Cambodia! 

xx Elm

Paddle Fest Lao

We just finished a 3 day kayak trip from Nong Kiaw to Luang Prabang, Lao PDR. Every morning was cool and overcast, and the sun would break through midday. We kayaked 6-7 hours a day, passing villages, crops, and beautiful mountains.

Water buffalo, chickens, and pigs along the Nam Ou River

It was always beautiful and sunny in the afternoon when the morning clouds and fog would break.

This section of the river we traveled on currently has 2 hydroelectric dams being built by a Chinese company.

Early afternoon we would stop for a lunch break on a sandy riverbank. We'd usually all sit around a pile of sticky rice and stir fried veggies on a mat of leaves. 

Then after having kayaked for a few more hours, we would stop at a village for a homestay with a local family. We'd get to dry off, have a meal, play with the kids, and maybe sit around a fire with a couple sips of Lao Lao, a local spirit made from sticky rice.

Boats docked at a village 

Sitting around the fire

Playing guitar in the kitchen

Dinner being prepared

Dinner!

Kicking around the ball with the kids

Liz teaching the kids how to play Dominos. Fortunately we can at least count in Laotian.

The kids got really psyched on the game, they played until we ate dinner and they came back later to play more. They even showed back up in the morning!

At one point we had at least 10 kids in the house, playing and/or watching. It was a lot of fun.

The kids' favorite part was probably taking silly photos. :)

They loved seeing the photos of themselves on the camera. It's possible they had never experienced that before. We would flip through the photos we took, and they would laugh and laugh.

On the last day, as we approached Luang Prabang we passed some beautiful limestone carsts, hundreds of feet high.

We stopped at the famous Buddha Cave outside of Luang Prabang.

It was a great 3 days, although we're a little sore now. We paddled through some beautiful country, as well as some class 2 and 3 rapids (and only flipped twice), made some friends and had a great time with some locals.

VICTORY!!

Next stop Vang Vieng, Lao PRD. Hopefully we will be doing some sport climbing on the beautiful limestone carsts down there! 

XO -Matt & Liz