Who needs a license anyways?

Just a quick, photo-less note this evening (9:42pm local time) to let y'all know my whereabouts and the happenings of the last couple days here in Laos....

As promised, our crew rounded up some "motorbikes" as they call them in SE Asia yesterday (Monday) morning, and we set off on the 30 km journey from Sam Neua to Vieng Xai. Keep in mind, in SE Asia, not only is renting a bike cheap....it's easy. After handing over 60,000 Kip (between $7 and $8 US) and a passport number, you are handed the keys to the motorized two-wheeler. No license, no previous experience necessary. Dare I mention I have never driven a motorcycle/scooter before? No worries, Mother....I had a helmet and I didn't crash. In fact, I felt pretty comfortable on the thing (I think I hit 80km/hr on the way home?). It was a windy, hilly road to Vieng Xai, much like the terrain seen along the river in previous days' trips. All along the way, we passed through local villages, where again it felt like foreigners were not a common sight in these parts....older men and women staring at our white skin, kids running to the road with waves and hellos. A common obstacle on the road was a combination of water buffalo and cattle, lazily strolling down the middle of the road, barely bothered by a honk of our horn.

The city of Vieng Xai is home to more than 200 caves used for housing nearly 20,000 people during the "American War", as they call it here, rather than the Vietnam War. We were able to see 6 of the caves....the rest are not yet available to the public. I didn't realize how much Laos was impacted by the war. Apparently more bombs were dropped in this country by Americans over the course of 9 years than were dropped over all of Europe in WWII. I guess there's no better place than ground zero to get brushed up on your history.....quite an interesting place to visit to say the least!

Today....well....today was back to the bus. However, only 12 hours for this trip from Sam Nuea to Phongsavon. Our bus trip today was quite uneventful in comparison to that of Saturday/Sunday's. We did manage one little adventure--a blocked road. The rain has continued to fall in Laos, and several landslides/rockslides were seen along the winding course. We screeched to halt around 3pm today with full view of a crane on the road ahead. Dirt/rocks covered the road, and we waited for about 30 minutes while the road was cleared for our bus and several others that had gotten to the dead end prior to us. Other than that, just another day on the bus (today with seats, at least).

Tomorrow, we will rent motorbikes again and tour around the Plain of Jars, essentially fields full of large, mysterious rock "jars" presumably used as ancient burial sites centuries ago. However, no one really knows where the hell they came from. It also was the most bombed portion of Laos during the war, and there is apparently still UXO (unexploded ordinances) scattered across the countryside. Needless to say, we WON'T be wandering aimlessly off the beaten path in this part of the country. I like excitement, but not land mine-level excitement.....

Anywho, I'll be back to full-fledge tourist areas soon. We will be in Vang Viene (a backpacker's mecca) by Thursday night, so hopefully I can get some more pics up then or shortly thereafter.

Good evening!

P.S. So the Olympics are over already? I gotta get my hands around some news, for the love of him...