Destination Laos: Part 11 Phonsavanh

Phonsavanh was a classic small town, with few independent travellers headed this way, given the long journey from Vang Vieng/Luang Prabang. The shops were mostly scrap metal dealers and auto repair shops, lending the town a very industrial, 1950s feel to it, along with the sandy streets and the cold. There really wasn't, as i had expected, a lot of war scrap lying around - just the few scrap metal dealers, the bomb casings on display outside areas where backpackers frequent, and the uber light spoons that felt like, and supposedly were, fashioned from aluminium from downed American aircraft. Most of the main shops/services in Phonsavanh are located along a T-junction of streets, wander any further and the street goes completely dark.

So having arrived at a decent hour, i think it was near 6 in the evening, and having found a roof for the night, I set about exploring the town. Very authentic, the town, going about its business, unromantically and unapolagetically so, it being what i felt was a town booming of scrap metal wealth, the silver lining, i guess, in America's bombing campaign that made Xieng Khouang Province the most densely bombed place in the world. More bombs were dropped here than the total tonnage for the second World War in Europe, it is said.

The MAG (Mines Advisory Group) headquarters, right beside Crater's Bar where you'll find the entire backpacker population of Phonsavanh after 7, screens videos and provides pamphlets and brochures about the bombing campaign in Laos that has claimed many casualties. They also have shelves and shelves of the deadly cargo American bombers used to unload over the area. Donations to help with the finding and destroying of UXO (unexploded ordnance), and to aid local communities affected by them are very welcome and volunteers can contact the headquarters in Vientiane.

Had dinner at Simmaly's. Great, authentic and cheap Lao food, and in my humble opinion, the best place to graze in Phonsavanh, and one of the best food, matched with great friendly service (bananas and hot Chinese tea on the house) I've sampled in my travels. The atmosphere was great. Not al fresco dining under the stars, but a boisterous, honest, working class atmosphere where the locals relax over hot tea, beer Lao, cigarettes and a good meal after a hard days work.

Bumped into a few people i met on the road here, really surprising how often our paths cross really. What i love about solo backpacking partly is the many interesting characters you meet on the road, like the 60 something year old Malaysian guy in the Luang Prabang marketplace who sailed from Penang to Madras before making it overland to Italy, working on the way (he acted in Italy!), over a period of 4-5 years, in the 1960s. First batch of hippie backpackers. And from Malaysia no less. I think he probably saw in me himself 50 years back, and i was thinking, maybe that's where I'll be in 2048. Maybe.