Where they listen to the rice grow

Trip Start Aug 28, 2006
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Trip End Ongoing


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Flag of Lao Peoples Dem Rep  ,
Thursday, November 23, 2006

They say in Vietnam they plant the rice, in Thailand they watch it grow, and in Laos, they listen to it grow. I think that says alot for the incredible peacefulness of this country. Laos has the lowest population per sq/km, and you can feel it when you are there. It's quiet. Luang Prabang is a beautiful small city on the Mekong full of old French colonial buildings and lovely Lao style wooden houses, and a lot of temples full of monks. It was great just to stroll the streets, sit and watch the river, roam through the temples and sample all the great food. Very early in the morning the monks collect food for the day from the locals along the main street (alot of tourists do this too)It is beautiful to see them all walking in a line down the street with their alms bowls and orange robes in the misty dawn.
I took a trip out to the east, to the Plain of Jars. A place full of huge stone jars that are thought to be ancient burial jars 01-mountains over Laos
01-mountains over Laos
 . It is mysterious and cool to see. But even eerier is the fact that this area was very heavily bombed during the "secret war" of vietnam. This place had a plane load of bombs dropped on it averaging one load every eight minutes for two years. The most heavily bombed place in the world and nobody really knows about it. You can still see craters everywhere and pieces of old bombs incorporated into people's houses. That was disturbing and hard to comprehend. During the vietnam war, the US had the biggest air base in all of asia on this plain, and I had never even heard of it.
I ended the trip with a great trip up the Mekong on a traditional boat. It took two days and we spent the night a really nice hotel with Lao style bungalows on the way.
I will upload the pictures later!
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