Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
in the end Laos's socialist friends could not be convinced to foot the bill to turn a backwater
into a gleaming new capital, and so the Pathet Lao leadership decamped to Vientiane. With
time, Vieng Xai couldn't even compete with nearby Sam Neua as a provincial hub. People
moved out and many buildings fell into a state of crumbling decay. These days, the town has
a slow, dusty charm, complemented by its stunning backdrop of limestone karsts.
Very few travellers stay in Vieng Xai, most preferring to see the
caves
as a
day-trip
from
Sam Neua, which has much better food and accommodation. However, if you can afford
the time, the scenic countryside and ambience around Vieng Xai reward further exploration,
evoking Guilin in China.
The Pathet Lao caves
When American air force Chief of Staff General Curtis LeMay jested that the US would
bomb the enemy “back to the Stone Age”, he hadn't realized that living like cavemen would
prove to be the key to the survival of the North Vietnamese Army and Pathet Lao during the
heaviest aerial bombardment in history. Like Vang Vieng in central Laos and Mahaxai in the
south, the limestone karst formations in the valleys east of Sam Neua are pockmarked with
caves
and crevices - which proved a perfect hideout for the Pathet Lao's parallel govern-
ment.
Viet Minh
army units began using the caves and enlarging them in the early 1950s
while fighting the French in the days before Dien Bien Phu. Soon, the Lao leftists had joined
the Vietnamese underground, and by the middle of the 1960s, Vieng Xai and the surrounding
area had become a troglodyte city of thousands living in the more than one hundred caves.
The caves - some at the foot of hills, others high up, hidden by surrounding escarpments and
accessible only by scaling steps cut into sheer rock faces - were an impregnable fortress, but
even poking your head outside could prove deadly as craters near the caves attest.
The inhabitants of the caves followed a routine of sleeping by day and working at night in
the fields outside (animals had to be dark-coloured in order to remain undetected by the en-
emy) or in the caves themselves: caverns held weaving mills, printing presses and workshops
where American bombs and worn-out trucks were upgraded into farming tools and appli-
ances. On Saturdays, adults would take a break and attend
classes
consisting of professional,
cultural and political courses as well as lessons in algebra, geometry and geography.
The conclusion of the war didn't bring the hardships experienced in the caves to an end:
what changed were the inhabitants. After 1975, the caves became a “
re-education camp
”
for functionaries of the Royal Lao government - from the lowliest foot soldier to the former
king.
