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Sam Neua & Vieng Xai - Up in the north

After 17 hours of bussing, with a numb bum & some great mountainous scenery on the way too.. we arrive at Sam Neua - to a collective cheer from the bus occupants as we catch sight from the mountain road into the town!

According to the guide book, theres not much to see here, but we had a walk around the town & visited the temple & two war memorials - one for the Vietnamise & Lao. Its very quiet here and we seem to be the only westerners - at least we only saw one other couple here..

After visiting the local tourism office, we have much more information about the province & Laos, many leaflets and have even filled in a questionnaire about how helpful the toursit office was to us... its difficult to answer questions like 'list 5 things you liked about this province' and '5 things you dislike about this province' when you've only just arrived here though!!

We caught a 'tuk-tuk' to Vieng Xai, further North East & about 50km from the Vietnam border. Upon arrival at the bus station, we are thrown into a state of confusion though as there is no sign of any guesthouses or restaurants or even a tourist office...we end up asking someone and being pointed in the right direction - after 1km walking we find a guesthouse and take a room for 20,000kip ($2). After settling in our room we go for something to eat at the guesthouse - since it was 3:30pm and we had not eaten yet (we had decided to get something on arrival), only to be told that we can't have anything until 7pm... so back-up food of biscuits and sweets come into play.... Later that evening Linda, a 60yr old UK Australian turns up and we eat  together - hearing about her amazing overland trip from Spain to Australia through Europe, Iran, India, Thailand, Laos, on a motorbike! Also deciding to head to the caves together tomorrow.

The tour of the caves, where the Communist leaders hid during the non stop American bombing between 1964 & 1973, was interesting - especially since I knew little to nothing about the secret war the Americans had here in Laos. There are several caves each with fortified walls outside and living areas inside - this is where the leaders lived with their families and had meetings etc throughout the 9 years of continuous bombing. There was a working oxygen machine donated by Russia at the time) in one of the emergency rooms which was something to see - our guide showed us how it worked too! It could have been slightly better if there was more personal effects in the caves to give you more of an idea how it was at the time - maybe some sound effects too and an anti-aircraft gun outside with a model of a crashed American Plane - they shot down 2519 & some 10,000 Americans died during that time too.

That evening Linda, Gustav & I took a walk around the town and lakes, tried some spicy chewy barbecued meat at a local restaurant on the lake before heading back to the guesthouse before dark. We all headed off the next moring, Linda on her bike heading to Phonsovan and then on down to Vietienne and us on the bus to Phonsovan.

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