day 44 - Vieng Xai and the caves

Saturday, 7 December 2013

After a good dinner at the local Indian restaurant, we returned for a breakfast of chai tea, banana pancakes and Aloo Parathi, a potato based pancake cooked with herbs and spices. Tim and Tina joined us shortly after we arrived and we talked a bit more about the past week where we had taken a more northern route and they a more southerly route to get here.

After breakfast, the four of us rode our bikes to the cave information office where we were given an audio guide to listen to. Shortly afterwards, we were met by our tour guide, Vieng, and we rode together to the first cave. The tour took about two and a half hours and covered five different caves where we were given some commentary from Vieng and also listened to the audio guide at various points.

The caves were used for nine years during the Secret War and once the War ended in 1975, they lay abandoned until more recently when the Government began a restoration project. During the war, the caves housed the leaders of the Pathet Laos, the revolutionary group who established Communism in Laos, as well as sheltering up to 23,000 people from the endless bombing the area endured. For every person in Laos, it's estimated that two tonnes of bombs were dropped - Laos being the most heavily bombed country in the world. The affects of the bombing are still felt today as one person per day is killed by an unexploded bomb that lies hidden in a field, a back garden or a school playground.

(The entrance to one of the main caves)

(The bedroom of one of the party leaders within the caves)

(A door used to seal a room during an emergency, 

ensuring the occupant was protected from poisonous gases and explosions)

(A Soviet built machine used to pump fresh oxygen into the cave)

During the war, the caves provided shelter but also became the command centre for the army, the communications centre, the hospital and even the theatre. When the bombing began, many Laotian people had not even heard of America and did not know why they were being attacked. As we learnt on the tour, their geographical position resulted in them being caught in the cross fire between Vietnam and the U.S. as the Ho Chi Minh trail, which connected North and South Vietnam, snaked through parts of eastern Laos. The war conducted in Laos went by largely unknown, unlike the well documented Vietnam War.

(Communist literature read by the Pathet Laos leaders)

(The meeting room in the caves in which the Politburo met)

At one point, while in one of the caves, the Prime Minister of Laos who was due to visit Vieng Xai today, arrived in by plane and we were struck by the sound of the engines echoing around the cave and what it must have felt like to hear that sound and to know that it was the enemy approaching.

(After the War was over, many of the leaders chose to build houses for themselves 

right outside the caves that had sheltered them during the War.)

(An old Soviet jeep belonging to one of the Pathet Laos leaders)

The lives of the people around Vieng Xai changed dramatically during the War. We were told about how colour took on a new meaning to them; that shirts that were once white, were rolled in mud and dirt so as to enable people to blend in with the landscape so that spotter planes could not see them. Having captured an English speaking pilot, the Laos people found out that pilots had been told to target areas where they could see chickens and ducks. Following that, any poultry with white or red feathers were killed and eaten or sold. Farming became a night time activity and women learnt to plough fields with babies strapped to their front and back.

(The red flowers planted in the grounds outside the cave symbolises the blood that flowed during the War)

(A crater left by a 230kg bomb was turned into a heart shaped hole 

to represent the broken hearts of the people of Laos)

(A memorial erected in the memory of Prince Souphanouvong's eldest son who was killed during the War)

There is still so much that we don't know or understand about what went on here and we have only heard one side of the story but it was an emotional experience to listen to some of the survivors on the audio guide and what they endured. Their capacity for forgiveness is astounding. We have since passed a few elderly people in the town and have wondered what their experience was like during those nine years.

At lunch, Paul and I met a Laotian family who were from America. We had a brief chat with the father and wondered later why he called himself American instead of Laotian and what brought them to America. It is currently the Hmong New Year and we thought that perhaps they were Hmong people who had escaped to America after the War to avoid any possible retribution they might receive in Laos for fighting alongside the Americans.

In the evening, we went out for dinner and were later joined by Tim and Tina. We spent a few hours there over food and drinks discussing what we had seen at the caves and chatting about what the roads would be like ahead in Vietnam and Cambodia. We exchanged contact details and hope we'll get to see them again somewhere in Vietnam.