Vientiane Warnings Or Dangers

Pha That Luang is the main attraction in Vientiane but if you are lucky enough to visit it on a bright sunny day, be sure to wear sunglasses. There are so many gold surfaces in the compound that the reflection is blinding. It does make for great photos against crysal blue skies though. :)

Laos has the dubious distinction of being the most heavily bombed country in the history of warfare. During the war against North Vietnam, the U.S secretly (and illegally) conducted a massive bombing campaign of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in eastern Laos from 1964 until the ceasefire in 1973. Over this period more than 500,000 bombing missions were launched, dropping more than two million tonnes of ordnance. The bombing was concentrated in the north and southeastern provinces of the country.

Most of the aerial bombardment consisted of anti-personnel cluster bombs filled with bomblet sub-munitions. Each cluster bomb container was filled with up to 670 individual bomblets, each one about the size of a tennis ball and capable of killing and/or injuring a number of people. It is estimated that up to 30% of these bomblets did not explode.

Extensive ground battles also left a staggering amount of UXO including artillery and mortar shells, mines, rockets, grenades, and other devices from various countries of origin.

Even today, some 30 years after the end of the war, the Lao countryside remains littered with innumerable UXO. In Laos, there have been over 11,000 reported UXO related deaths or injuries since the end of the war. Various government and international agencies are working diligently to clear UXO from Laos, but it is a painfully slow process. The impact of UXO both in humanitarian and development terms, is a significant constraining factor on a country struggling to overcome poverty.

Note: The city of Vientiane does not pose a hazard from UXO. This warning is intended to alert travelers who are venturing out into the rural areas of the country.

On Highway 13, sometimes after long drive you will see a stetch of houses, around 6-7 of them built along the road.

These houses are in very basic structure.. using wood and leaves.. the bus can suddenly stop in front of a house and someone from the 'village' (6 houses can consider as a village?..) carrying a dead wolf or what run out, following by a group of children.. asking if the driver want to buy the animal.

After negotiating the price, the driver refused to buy and the man and those children disappeared at the other corner of the house..

Laos is pretty safe compared to other countries as long as you are in town/ village.. the most notorious National Highway 13 connecting Vientiane to Vang Vieng and Luang Prabang is well-known to be the worst you can expect, where the bus was in the middle of the highway, there can be no human being seen for hours of drive and robbers stop the bus .. probably shouting "hands-up, robbery".. .

This road is the reason making foreighners take planes through-fro vientiane and luang prabang instead of taking bus. Some local told us, the robbery is quite often to occur, there is just a case happened a week before I reach there! haha..

Most tuk-tuk drivers offer You drugs - usually Marihuana, if You are in that mode - start with a visit to a jail and realize that you don´t won´t to end there, It´s illegal and the punishment is .........

Apart from the town centre, there are spacious suburbs in Vientiane. In the map, the distances may seem short, but when you try to go walking it turns out to be more than 30-40 minutes.
So if you go to Victory Monument, That Luang or so, take a tukTuk, they are cheap and will avoid you a good walk under the sun!