Laos-The most heavily bombed country in the World

Who knew?
http://www.mag.org.uk/page.php?s=4&p=684
The Geneva Conference 1954 declared Laos as a neutral country and that no outside forces should be acting there. Even so northern Vietnamese forces were remained present supporting the Pathet Lao and keeping their supply lines open to the south. This was enough validation for the US as they had not even signed the accord, to start training Laos troops and pilots and intensively bombing areas under PL control. Laos also became the dumping grounds for munitions in planes returning from bombing missions in Vietnam. Over a 10 year period 2 million tons of bombs were indiscriminately dropped on Laos. Many were cluster bombs, of which an estimated 10% to 30% did not detonate upon impact. Check out the link below for a movie about the current situation on the ground with all of this unexploded ordinance.
http://www.bullfrogfilms.com/catalog/bombie.html


On a lighter note, don't walk off of the Mine Action Group cleared walking paths while visiting the Plain of Jars. These sites contain thousands of stone carved jars some as large as 6 tons. The locals believe that they are rice whiskey making jars from a party after a military victory, while the archaeologist hypothesize they were burial containers. Both theories date the containers from 2000-1500 years ago.


Title of Photo: Tread Lightly Laos Style
Although we were just outside of the largest town in the province, where people have been farming continuously for the past 30 years, one must still tread lightly due to the treat of discovering live ordinance. We were just taking a short cut through some rice patties and the walking paths were the closest thing available to single track in the entire country. But once they clear the entire country there will be some nice mountain biking, I give it a hundred plus years.