Vieng Xai

Our second day in Xam Neua we rented moto's from the only guy in town who spoke fluent English. He owned a restaurant around the corner from our guesthouse and when we asked him about where we could rent two motorcycles he told us he would lend us his bikes as long as we brought them back before dark. We had read that there should be a moto rental shop somewhere in town but they only had low quality, unreliable, cheap moto's that were prone to breaking down, so even though the price was a little higher then we were expecting (100,000kip for the automatic and 80,000kip for the semi-automatic vs. 60,000kip each for the crappy motos), we happily accepted and started off on the two hour long journey.

Sam leading the way!

A quick stop for a selfie on the top of the mountain pass

The road to Vieng Xai was paved but narrow and winding. Being so close to the Vietnamese border, the topography was much the same; huge karst mountains covered in jungle and expansive valleys of rice paddies. Though on the Laos side, instead of the emerald-green, lush fields we had grown accustomed to seeing, they were brown, dead and overgrown with weeds (occasionally there would be a bunch of kids using them as a multi-level football field). 

Dead rice paddies just 40km from the Vietnamese boarder

We wondered if it was because of the climate/weather...we did pass over a mountain range, after all? Or maybe Vietnam's government had invested money into building the infrastructure needed to irrigate its countryside in the off season, a luxury that Laos can scarce afford. Whatever the reason, it didn't take away from the magnificence of the landscape and it was nice to have something new to look at. Plus the weather was warm-ish (we actually saw the sun!) and we were riding free in the most rural province in Laos, so we were happy :)

Around 12:40 we arrived in Vieng Xai, a city comprised of only two main roads, a few side streets and a large pond/small lake in the middle. Even though the town was tiny, it took us 20 minutes to figure out exactly where to start the cave tour because the signs that were supposed to point you there were the size of your hand, hidden and often facing in the wrong direction. After driving around in circles for half an hour or so we finally found the main tour office and saw that the English speaking tour would start in 30 minutes, so we went in search of some Indian food! We had seen a restaurant that claimed to serve authentic Indian and since we had been craving Indian food since we left Phnom Penh we were extremely excited to get our fix. We sat down at the restaurant only to find out that the owner “wasn't serving Indian food today”... though he did say we could come back tomorrow and he'd be make us some. LOL. So instead we got some fried rice, jumped back on our moto's and headed back to the cave office.

At the cave office!

The tour cost 60,000kip ($7.50) per person. We were each given a headset to wear and we were accompanied by a local English speaking guide. The tour started at the main office where we were instructed to put on our headsets, press 1 and play. To our surprise, the voice of a well spoken English man came on over our headphones and gave us the background information for what we were about to see;

“When the French Indochinese empire was formally dissolved in 1954, America began pouring money into Laos. The US and other western democracies did not want countries to establish communist or socialist governments. They feared this would increase the power of the Soviet Union, their Cold War enemy. The US wanted Laos to act as a buffer between communist North Vietnam and other countries in the region. Their goal was to influence Laos' internal politics.

“At the time there were just 1 million people in the country, most of them subsistence farmers. The influx of US dollars never reached them. Corruption kept the money concentrated in the cities, and a few well-placed officials became very, very rich. There was much political instability: America was also spending a lot of money undermining local elections. The increasing impact of this US influence demonstrated to many patriots that the Laos people were still not in control of their own destiny. Laos essentially became a victim of its own geography, and was caught between the escalating military conflict between the United States and Vietnam.

“In the early days America's support was purely financial, but slowly that shifted. They secretly built an airstrip at Long Tieng [often called “The Most Secret Place on Earth”], a high plateau to the southwest of here, protected and hidden by the mountains. They stationed fighter planes there, as well as at Udon Thani, a huge air base in Thailand. But unlike the war they were waging in Vietnam, which everyone saw on their TV screens, the battle for Laos was a well-kept secret.

“Some of the secrets of the war are hidden in the mountains around us. The Pathet Laos and some neutralist politicians made their headquarters in the caves in and around Vieng Xai. The people who came to join the command center of the resistance took shelter here from American bombs. For 9 years, from 1964 'til 1973, they lived in the caves, and took cover in the forests. In one way or another, this conflict touched the lives of every person living in Laos, and continues to do so to this day.”

We rode our moto's from cave to cave, seeing where each of the 7 members of the Politburo lived, including the eventual President of Laos PDR. We saw the army headquarters where officials and 2000+ infantrymen were stationed, the cave they converted into a movie theater/reception hall, the hospital and mortuary, and the cremation cave (its roof blackened with ash), among others. 

The first stop on our tour; the cave complex of Kaysone Phomvihane the General Secretary of the Lao PDR. We had seen many caves up to this point and expected this to be more of the same. Boy were we wrong.

His dinning hall

The Politburo meeting room inside his cave where all of the members met on a regular basis during the war

The room that the Politburo members would sleep in if the bombardment was too intense for them to travel 0.5km back to their own caves.

Entrance to the military cave

The great hall where 2000+ infantry men slept and lived

Where the military commanders slept and lived

Entrance to the theater cave

Theater/reception hall where movies were shown, theater production were put on and many people celebrated weddings and holidays...which continues to this day

Our guide would give us some context as we arrived at a new place, then instruct us to “press ## and play” on our headsets. We were able to hear interviews with people who lived in the caves, giving detailed descriptions of what day-to-day life was like living in and around Vieng Xai;

“We cooked only in the early mornings, and would make the meals for the whole day. We had to wake up before 5am because the planes would come as soon as the sun came up and would continue until the sun went down.”

A typical kitchen outside of the caves

“Farming was extremely difficult. We worked in two shifts, at night, by the moon light. Though sometimes we could only work one shift because the planes would come with spot lights and bomb any sign of life.”

A view of the valley from one of the caves. Though no rice paddies remain, this is where they attempted to grow food for their families

When the bombings stopped and the peace treaties were signed, instead of returning to the capital of Laos, Vientiane, the Pathet Laos leaders built houses just outside the caves in which they had lived for the past 9 years. Although we were not allowed to go inside, we were able to see the houses they and their families lived in until their deaths.

One of the many houses that greeted us as we walked to the caves

As we traveled to the different caves we began to realize the scale of the complex: it was truly a city. We also gradually became more aware of the scale of civilian suffering caused by the “Secret War”. In their blind effort to root out the Pathet Laos leadership, the American bombers (many of them actually privately contracted mercenaries) were simply ordered to kill anything that moved. Many of the villagers who took refuge in the caves had no idea who was dropping bombs on them, or why.

“One afternoon a plane flew over head and we ran for cover. I hid behind a large tree. The bomb exploded by my house but the tree saved my life. My younger sister and brother were not hurt by the blast, but had been thrown many yards so I gathered them up and we went to find my grandfather. We found him beside the house with shrapnel in his stomach. He told us he was dying and that we must run.

So we left our home for the caves..we lived in the dormitory cave and studied at the school.”

Nevertheless, the Laotian people succeeded in creating a fully functional society in the caves, while the only success that the bombers enjoyed was in killing innocent people. We were awe-struck both at the dogged ingenuity of the peoples of SE Asia and at the mindless brutality of the war.

In addition to the caves that we saw, there were also caves for baking, the dormitory cave for students and a school cave, a printing press cave, a Womens' Union cave, many small caves that supporters lived in with their families, among many, many others. All of the caves had concrete-bound emergency rooms hidden deep within the rock; they were built to withstand chemical warfare as well as old-fashioned bombing, and all were equipped with a manual hand-crank air pump to bring fresh air deep within the cave. These rooms sheltered 20+ people for days and some times weeks on end. We also learned that the lake in the middle of Vieng Xai had once been a hundred bomb craters that they dug out and filled with water and populated with fish so instead of a ruined landscape they had something that was beautiful and prosperous.

The lake that the modern town of Vieng Xai is situated around

“Once, we questioned an American pilot about his orders and he told us they were to drop bombs on any domesticated animals, particularly white birds [chickens, ducks, pigeons, etc.] because they were easily visible from the air and meant people were living in the area. So we had to kill all our white birds. Many of our cows and water buffalo were killed. Food was scarce, we often went to bed hungry but no one starved.”

By the time the war ended, Laos had the dubious honor of being the most heavily bombed country, per capita, in the world. The final chapter of our audio book informed us that because of its massive inheritance of unexploded ordinance, Laos has become a world leader in campaigning against the use of cluster bombs. In 2008, most of the countries in the world signed a treaty banning the use of cluster bombs and pledging money to help the clean-up of UXO-ridden countries. The U.S.A. did not sign the treaty. 

We would highly recommend that anyone traveling to Laos visit Vieng Xai, especially if you're American or care at all about world history. Despite being very rural and out of the way from most of the tourist destinations, it's an experience all people should have. It truly brought tears to our eyes and gave us a new appreciation for the resolve and determination of the people of SE Asia. We had seen a little of it in Vietnam (the Hospital Cave in Cat Ba, the War Museum in Hanoi and our many conversations with Vietnamese people) but the scope of Vieng Xai gave us a whole new perspective. The people here are not only generous and welcoming but the most forgiving people alive. At times we wondered how these atrocities could ever be forgiven and how the people of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam could ever look at an American without contempt and hatred in their heart.

We walked away humbled and embarrassed to say we were from the U.S.A.

We rode our motos back to Xam Neua in silence, reflecting on what we had just seen and contemplating how we could make a difference.