2425 km (pakse).

i try to avoid writing long posts, because i don't read them, and don't expect you to, but this is sort of the culmination of what i've learned during my time in laos, and although it goes against a consistent positive/optimistic energy i think i've done well to maintain thus far, i wanted to get this all down before i head into cambodia (if this sentence exhausted you, it might be better to wait for my next post).

traveling always makes me (sometimes painfully) aware of how ignorant i remain of much of the world's political/social/cultural history. that's a big statement, and unrealistic, but i'm a cynic and expect too much of myself. being in laos has been really difficult at times, because i've learned so much about the enormous impact the united states had (and continues to have) on this country that is simply not taught in schools. sadly, se asia is not the only region this is true of.

i was hesitant to talk too much about my plans for the past week, because i really didn't know what to expect. on the 16th, i headed east from savannakhet, despite it being out of the way, because i wanted to see a part of laos that was and continues to be heavily impacted by the second indochina war (the vietnam war in the us, the american war in vietnam - actually occurred in vietnam, laos and cambodia for much longer than the us involvement, from 1959 to 1975). two days out of savannakhet i reached the small village of muang pinh, intending to head south on route 23 to the town of salavan. i wanted to take this road, originally built in the 1940s, because it at one time served as part of the ho chi minh trail (much of the trail didn't go through vietnam at all, but ran through eastern laos and northeast cambodia) until the us bombed the two major bridges along the road in 1966, forcing the vietnamese to find a new road, which they did. without bridges, the road quickly fell into disrepair. with this much in mind, i knew the road would be in very very bad shape, but that was when i was still operating under the assumption that i'd be dealing with a road. no one in town could give me any information on the road, but they did laugh at me when i said i wanted to take it. not a good sign.

the road ended up being 140 km, 55 km of which was on a treking trail. in the place of the two bombed out bridges (mind blowing to see these huge bridges in pieces in the river) i paid people to take me in small boats. the first and last thirds of the trip were on bumpy dirt tracks, but still pretty usable. after crossing the first river at the village of tad hay (after 35 km) i lost the road, and took off on a trail into the forest. although i was never, distance-wise, that far from larger towns, this 55 km leg of my journey was the most out there i've ever felt. the impact of the bombing was most obvious from the way people responded to me. multiple times, teenage girls ran from the road and hid in their fields as i approached, parents scowled at me and grabbed their children, and at one point, as i asked at a laos home for directions, a young child sobbed and rocked in the corner until i left.

needless to say, these interactions (in contrast to the incredibly warm reception i've received elsewhere in laos) left me shaken and confused. the reason, i, as a foreigner, am still viewed with fear and suspicion, has to do with the fact that almost all of the bombs dropped on laos during the indochina war were by american planes trying to stop the transfer of goods from north vietnam to south vietnam along the ho chi minh trail (pause: despite being largely a neutral force during the second indochina war, laos was the victim of the largest bombing campaign in the history of the world (1964-1973). of the 260 million cluster bombs dropped over laos during this period, it is estimated that 30%, or 78 million, failed to explode. these uxos (unexploded ordnances) still present a real and devastating risk for a large majority of the laos population. it's estimated that the 2 million dollars a day the us spent on 'the secret war,' or the bombing of the ho chi minh trail in laos, only affected about 15% of the cargo being transfered. the us army contributes nothing to the seriously underfunded clean up efforts.)

20 km into this 55 km leg i met buela, an english teacher (being an english teacher in laos doesn't mean you speak much english) who joined me for the next 35 km, intent on visiting his family he hadn't seen in a year. despite their being separated by only 35 km he rarely takes this journey due to the quality of the path (with at least 15 river crossings, it took us 7 hours). that night, after i had covered 90 km in 13 hours, buela and i stayed with his family in their small village. they were, as always, incredibly hospitable, and it was great to have buela serving as translator. at this point, clifford was a mess, and i spent much of the next morning trying to get him working again. with the bike vaguely in working order, i said goodbye to buela and his family and completed the rest of the trip, arriving in salavan around noon.

some photos:

the (still good) road passes through tad hay.

the morning light made this hard to take, but gives you an idea of bombed out bridge #1.

river crossing #7?

buela waits for me on the other side of river crossing #12.

it always takes a group to get clifford back on the road.

from salavan i headed into the bolavan plateau, a mountainous region famous for its coffee (plants originally imported from costa rica and colombia). i spent two nights in the plateau at, you guessed it, two more waterfalls (tad lo and tad fane) before heading down to pakse. one highlight was a stop in paksong at 1200 m (clifford needed some more work) where i spent the hottest part of the day with a dutch man who taught me how to 'wok-roast' coffee. he didn't let me leave until i got it down.

i apologize, that's a lot to handle all at once. i've learned so much since i've arrived, and since i know (and many of you know) i have a habit of getting a little obsessed, i'm going to stop there. it's going to be hard to leave laos. despite the persistent shadow of the second indochina war, i've had such a wonderful time in the past five weeks and have met so many accommodating, warm and friendly people. i've gotten attached to more than the sticky rice in a way that sort of snuck up on me.

clifford is in pretty good shape now. i can only use my top 16 of 24 gears, and i still have a back spoke that can't (for now) be fixed, but i'm hoping we'll limp along to phnom penh, where we might be able to get him back up to 100%. in my last few days in laos, i plan on visiting wat phu champasak (a famous temple south of paxse) and the 4000 islands, an area just north of the cambodian border where the mekong fans out and is filled with (during the dry season) 4000 sandbar islands. and then (both sadly and happily) it's on to cambodia.