Laos, the Land of a million bomb craters

Laos was once called the Land of a million Elephants. Sadly, this is no longer true.
The elephants are long gone, there are only about 1,600 of them left in the country. What you can say about Laos today though, is that it is full of UXO (unexploded ordnance, eg. bombs, landmines, etc). Travelling through the northeastern parts of Laos, the scenery is often so beautiful that it almost makes you forget to breathe. The Lao people are among the friendliest and open we have encountered. This is why our visit to MAG's (Mine Advisory Group) visitors center in Phonesavanh was so emotional. On display are dismantled bombs, bombies and landmines, as well as pictures of land mine and bomb victims. If you want to, you can watch the documentary Bombies, covering the aftermath of the US bombings of Laos during the secret war.
This film is very well done, it certainly gives you goose bumps and makes you feel sick to the stomach.

During nine years, more than 2 million tons of bombs were dropped over Laos. The reason? One was that parts of the Ho Chi Minh trail went through the jungle of Laos, close to the Vietnamese border. The worst thing however, was that when the bombers did not find their targets in Vietnam, they would just get rid of their bomb loads over Laos instead of landing fully loaded with explosives back at the base in Thailand. About 30% of these bombs did not explode and are still hidden in the soil of Laos, making it very dangerous for farmers to farm their land and for the authorities to build new roads, schools, etc.
Before anything can be built, the land has to be cleared of UXO, which is very expensive and time consuming.

Our souvenirs from Phonesavanh, one MAG T-shirt each, are certainly the most worthwhile thing we have bought so far.

But we did not go to Phonesavanh because of the bombs and mines, the reason we went there was to see The Plain of Jars. Lots and lots of large stone jars spread out on the fields of the Xieng Khouang Plateau. Nobody knows what they were used for and who made them.
There are many sites, but as only four have been cleared of UXO, only these are open for tourists.

Stay on the white side of these markings, since the land on the grey sides has not been cleared yet.

The old parts of cluster bombs are used in very creative ways in Laos

The owner of our hotel had his own collection of stuff from the war. In the breakfast room...