TravellingStrom

Mayan Prophecy Countdown

I had an early breakfast this morning as I had to go see the cops. I got there before 8am and had to wait of course, they all rocked in slowly because most were nursing hangovers!! The interview went over pretty easily, in fact no actual interview took place. Once they had me seated, they then asked for the receipt back, for my things and handed them back to me. That was it, they said maybe take a bit more care where I was going, they certainly came across to me as embarrassed that I found myself in that situation, the main reason being, there were no guards and no signs in English at the base entrance. So I was out of there real soon and although I had promised myself to do some more blogging to catch up, I decided instead to go and look for the MIG fighters, but this time I would try the other way point, inside the airport 🙂

Needless to say it was a fruitless mission, I was a bit more circumspect with the camera, but the road ended at a guard house, with an open man gate. I was just thinking about riding through it, because the sign said cargo delivery, when the gate was opened by a hidden guard and a van full of uniforms were let out. The guard spoke to me and I understood clearly the message, piss off, so I did, bugger the MIGs, they are too difficult and not worth the effort!!

So, instead, I decided the tank was the easiest to go look at. Now, yesterday, Reuben and co had gone to see this tank and said it was in better condition than the other out near the Plain of Jars, so that was all good. I took a backpack with water and a Geocache and rode my trusty Chinese rental bike at 70km to the west for 21km, the road was better now than when I came in during the wet the other day, and it was well paved all the way to the site. I was soon inspecting the tank and trying to work out a placement for a cache, a magnetic one would have been better, but maybe I can send a replacement from home, whenever I get back there.

As you can see it is situated in a table drain near a small village. I looked around the area on both sides of the road, and eventually picked a location, placed the cache and hid it and it was later posted on the Geocache.com website and available to those who are interested 🙂 T72 Russian Tank Remains

By the time I got back to town and posted the cache I was hungry, so I decided to try the Indian place I had seen just up the road a few doors away. The place is called Nisha Indian Restaurant [ N19.45009 E103.22013 ]and I have to say it has good service and good food, well worth a try on your way to my cache 🙂

I had chicken masala, very nice 🙂 After lunch I packed another cache in my pack and headed east about 32km along a pretty boring road until I came to the bomb crater fields, there was a bit of dirt here, but nothing too hard and being able to touch the ground helped 🙂 This area has been checked by the MAG team and deemed safe. Basically it is a small hill that was heavily bombed, and it has been left the way it was. nature is slowly returning as the smashed bamboo fragments litter the ground, the craters hold water and trees and shrubs are becoming evident. The only issue for me was where to place a cache where the people going there cannot be seen? There were dwellings at the bottom of the hill on one side and across the creek on one other. I eventually located a suitable place and seeded the 2nd cache 🙂

I was actually hoping for an elevated view of the craters, but I checked later and there is nothing like that in this area, well, not that my camera could do anything with anyway, it would need a big lens. Anyway, the cache was seeded and published within a day, great stuff by the moderator 🙂 [ all caches need to be moderated by someone who decides whether it can be listed and does not violate the website rules.] Bomb Crater Field

I headed back after this and did a bit of blog work, I was so far behind, my memory was playing tricks 🙂 The evening went a bit different, I finally got to see the beginning of the movie being shown at the Lau Falang Bar, but getting to see it all at once was good. It still had the same effect the third time and it made me wonder, how come the Laos people are so friendly? Their outlook on life just seems to be forget the past, get on with it, it is so amazing! The trouble is, a lot of people who are now 30 have never known anything different, they have always had bombies going off and their friends dying because of them is just a normal part of life, that is so tragic 😦 This tragedy will still be here in another 30 years, with 20 million bombies still hanging around!!

I hope my little bit helps in some way, every tourist that comes here to do a cache will be spending money in the community, and maybe I can put in a few more, there is plenty to see and do around this area and by taking a few days to see it can make it more relaxing.

Cheers from
TravellingStrom