Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Tours
Amazing Lao Travel
( 020 2234 0005;
www.amazinglao.com
; Rte 7)
Runs treks to the jar sites and two-day treks in
the mountains, including a homestay in a Hmong village. As ever, the more the merrier,
with prices falling for larger groups.
HIKING
Sousath Travel
GUIDED TOUR
( 061-312031; Rte 7)
Sousath offers reliable tours to the Plain of Jars and the Ho Chi Minh
Trail as well as homestays in Hmong villages. It also rents motorbikes (100,000K per
day). Films are shown nightly at their little office-cum-cafe.
AN ENDURING LEGACY
Between 1964 and 1973, the USA conducted one of the largest sustained aerial bombardments in his-
tory, flying 580,344 missions over Laos and dropping two million tonnes of bombs, costing US$2.2
million a day. Around 30% of the bombs dropped on Laos failed to detonate, leaving the country
littered with unexploded ordnance (UXO).
For people all over eastern Laos (the most contaminated provinces being Xieng Khuang, Salavan
and Savannakhet), living with this appalling legacy has become an intrinsic part of daily life. Since the
4-8pm) began clearance work in 1994, only a tiny percentage of the quarter of a million pieces in
Xieng Khuang and Salavan has been removed. At the current rate of clearance it will take more than
100 years to make the country safe. Visit their UXO Information Centre (
Click here
) to watch a num-
ber of late afternoon documentaries including Bomb Harvest (4.30pm), Surviving the Peace (5.50pm)
and Bombies (6.30pm).
Sleeping
Kong Keo Guesthouse
( 061 211 354;
www.kongkeojar.com
; r 50,000-80,000K; )
The most backpacker- friendly
spot in town offers cabins with en suites, as well as a newer block of more comfortable
GUESTHOUSE
$
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