Sam Neua - Visit to Vieng Xai Caves

2 - 3 February 2015

The off the beaten path tour of Laos continues with a grueling 8 hour van ride up and down mountain roads similar to the roads we drove on to Phonsavan.  The only difference now is that instead of having only 6 people in the van, this time the van was full with people actually sharing seats for most of the ride.  Tim and I held our ground and refused to allow a third person to share our 2-person bench seat, but eventually the guy sitting next to me had one cheek on my seat and another on his seat that he shared with another guy.  No worries...it is only a 10 hour ride.  In some weird way the trip didn't seem as bad as it could have been.  People got off the van giving us some room but then someone else would board squeezing us tight again.  This went on and on and on until we were finally in Sam Neua around 4:00 PM.  

We checked into our hotel where we were the only guests the first night, and then went for a walk before dinner. We came across the market so decided to walk around it.  It seemed like a really nice market:

As we walked around we started seeing some weird stuff that I couldn't even bring myself to take pictures of.  Put it this way...this is the least disturbing food that I managed to take a picture of:

The most disturbing was rats both alive and dead with the dead ones split opened showing the organs...no picture necessary.  After a pretty fast exit we made it to the one restaurant in town with an English menu, had dinner, and called it a night.

The next morning we rented a couple of motorbikes and headed to Vieng Xai Caves...about a 1 hour ride through the mountains.  These caves is the reason we made the trip all the way out here.  These caves aren't the kind with stalagmite and stalactites...these are the kind of caves that people lived and hid in.  Specifically, the founders of the Laos communist party lived and hid in these caves during the US Secret War that brought almost 10 years of bombing.  The tour consisted of a tour guide taking you around town from cave to cave along with listening to an audio tour that details the story of the communist uprising in Laos, the way life was in the caves for almost 10 years, and the ultimate victory against the US when the Secret War ended and the communists taking over political power in Laos.

Before we got to the cave we noticed a monument so pulled over:

While we were looking at it, a guy across the street asked us where we were from.  I pointed to the statue and said USA and he said, "That's OK."

Here are some highlights of the Vieng Xai Caves tour:

Cave used to house army. The largest of the caves.

The end of the tour.

The war room cave.

Beautiful scenery.

Bomb crater.

Cave used for entertainment.

After the tour we hurried to hit the road to ensure we get back before dark.  We made it to Sam Neua just at sunset and went back to the one restaurant in town that speaks English.  I noticed they sold a plum wine for $7 US, so I ordered a bottle and really enjoyed it.  Definitely something I would drink again.

Tomorrow we board a van for another 10 hour trip to Nong Khiaw.  It is a logical stop on the way to Luang Prabang and is supposed to be beautiful.  I guess we will see tomorrow.