Gorgeous & terrible in Nong Khiaw

We heard marvellous things about the natural beauty of Nong Khiaw. We had to pass by there on our way to our planned visit to Nam Nerm Park. The guide's office and materials looked legit. So, we paid a bit too much money to have our upcoming travel stops and outdoor adventure organized by someone else. Oy, this was a real mistake.

The day before we were planning to leave Luang Prabang, Aaron's bank card was swallowed by a bank machine. Unfortunately, it's very typical in that city. So, instead of waiting with the rest of the family for our bus, Aaron went to the bank and got the card recovery in motion. Susanna tried to communicate with the driver that we needed to pick up Aaron. Sadly, he didn't speak English and Google Translate was seriously messed up in Laos. After many challenging exchanges, including one where he stopped at a third ATM that was not the one where Aaron was waiting, the frustrated driver started driving away. No! yelled all the passengers together, as they by now understood the issue. We waited, and Aaron walked to where the van was parked.

The agency showed poor organization and greed at every step of our trip. There wasn't enough space for all the people and bags that they stuffed into our van. The pick up order seemed to be the order in which people booked, with nothing to do with the city's geography. The pick-up took so long that they rushed us to the museum and cave and lunch and hike start. They overbooked the trip so 1/3 of us went to a location that didn't have a toilet or hot dinner. (They other group didn't have enough sleeping bags!). The guides were adolescents, a good number of whom hadn't been to that destination before, and none of whom spoke English. The tents were flimsy and the sleeping bags insufficient for the altitude. The list goes on and on.

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Before the hike, we began to learn about the Secret War. The "Secret War" in Laos was a clandestine, CIA-led military campaign from 1961 to 1975 to disrupt communist supply lines during the Vietnam War, and prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia.

During this time, United States dropped bombs every 8 minutes in Laos. It is, still today, the most heaviest bombed country in history. And, the American public had no idea this was happening for the first 7 years of the war.

We also visited the Pha Thok Caves where locals hid from the bombings. During the day they lived in the caves. At night time the villagers came out of the caves to get food and work on the rice fields. This was a very dangerous situation because at night the unexploded bombs were difficult to see.

Sadly, the bombing campaign resulted in tens of thousands of civilian casualties and the displacement of a quarter of the Laos population. It also left a large amount of unexploded ordnances (UXO), which continue to maim and kill today, *fifty* years after this campaign ended. For example, between 2008 and 2017, one person was killed almost every two weeks by UXO in Laos. Shocking.

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Although we were dismayed at the travel company and shaken by the area's history, the views at the top were truly gorgeous. Stunningly beautiful. And, the boys successfully tackled the very steep hike by chatting with some of the other travellers. We're so glad we got to see those places.Read more