SLIDESHOW-Laos-Where Heaven and Earth Switched Places

CLICK HERE or on the image to watch slideshow (6.2 mb download).

It finally feels like we have arrived…
I sit here and and find it hard to descibe this place and the people. It has taken me in, with arms wide open. I can only hope that the photos and video will do her justice.
The pace of life is decidedly slower and more relaxed than the rest of Asia. People say here “Bangkok, fast fast, Laos, slow, slow.” The people have a certain recognizable manner, quiet voices and gentle rapt expressions. They are a conglomeration of tribes and languages of Thai, Hmong, Khemer, Tibetan, and Chinese.
Our days have been filled with writing music with some of the most awe-inspiring, “oh my god”, stop you in your tracks scenery that one only encounters rarely in their lives, some never. We have been exploring caves, both dry and wet, rafting and traveling on the extensive rivers here, teaching English to Monks, hiking to remote hill tribes, and meeting travelers from all over the globe. The country has been virtually isolated for 20 years and has only been open to tourists since 1989, meaning that it many parts of the country are untouched by western influence and tourism, which is very special to behold.
Orange and saffron robed monks seem to fill the streets with umbrellas resting on their shoulders protecting them from the penetration Laotion sun. 85% of the country is unmanaged vegetation, most of which is monsoon forest, and 25% of which is primary forest filled with one of the healthiest but still threatened population of fauna. This includes elephants, tigers, the Asiatic black bear, water buffalo, king cobras, and the lesser known raccoon dog, pygmy slow loris, leaf monkey, and panda. This is hard to believe as Laos has the distinction of being the most bombed country in the world. From 1964 to 1973, the United States bombed the country endlessly to prevent the Vietnamese from gaining a foothold there. They dropped an average of one plane load of bombs every eight minutes, 24 hours a day for nine years! This cost US tax payers $2.2 million a day and cost many Laotions their lives and livelihoods. There are still unexploded bombs all over the country that usually kill small children and have made farming and agriculture very difficult. Like George Bush says “We love Freedom.!”
Like Cambodia, Laos is governed by one of the last remaining Communist parties, the Lao Peoples Revolutionary Party(LPRP). Opium is one of the countries biggest exports, highly valued by the hill tribes of Burma and China for its medicinal qualities who brought the poppy with them to Laos and Thailand. The CIA infamously used air forces planes during the Vietnam war to run heroin from Laos to Vietnam to help fund various covert operations throughout Indochina.
So far, we have spent most our time in Vang Vieng, where mammoth limestone mountains hover over the town, and the Nam Song river hugs the town like a mother. We spent many hours floating down the river on intertubes, stopping every ten minutes to fly on zip lines or to jump off rope swings that line the river. There are many hikes and caves to explore so we set up home base to soak up the culture and see what came out of us. We are about to embark on a 5 day river trip on the Nam Sou and majestic Mekong river, which has provided Laos with her trade route with China for centuries. We have heard that this trip contains some of the most spectacular scenery in South East Asia, so we are really looking forward to it.
I am taking a lot of photos and video and will hopefully be able to upload them for you soon. Be Well.