Dinosaur museum

Savannakhet is the birthplace of the first Prime Minster of Lao PDR (1975-1991) and subsequent President (1991-1992), Kaysone Phomvihan, and the home he grew up in is now a national monument.  However there’s really only one tourist attraction in town: the Dinosaur Museum.  It took me four years to get here, and it did not disappoint.

The Science and Technology Department in Savannakhet Province: the museum is the small building in the centre

The French discovered dinosaur fossils around Savannakhet early in the C20th and they excavated on an off through the rest of the century – the last dig was in the 1990s.  It appears they took all the ‘good’ fossils (or at least, all the ones they wanted) back to France from each dig, and left the dregs for the Dinosaur Museum.

The tail and back legs (including some actual fossil bones!) of an iguanodon 

The body (including one rib fossil!) of the iguanodon

And the (fossil free) head of the iguanodon

I was very warmly welcomed on my visit (I don’t think they get a lot of visitors) and given free rein: I think if the curator could have unlocked the display cases for me he would have.  As it was, he insisted on taking various fossils out from where they were stored on shelves and giving them to me to play with (they are surprisingly dense and heavy).  My favourite moment was holding a T Rex’s elbow!

Yup.  I'm holding a T Rex fossil

J

There is a small display of dinosaur remains – it probably looked pretty good twenty years ago, but hasn’t been maintained, and ‘skeletons’ are missing large chunks of the bones which were left after the French took off with the best bones.  My guide told me that the fossils are too heavy for the glue on the walls to continue to hold them up so they are creating fakes out of styrene out the back.  Hopefully the display will look much more coherent soon!

Around Savannakhet

Vegetable gardens on the Mekong in Savannakhet, looking towards Thailand

Savannakhet is a former outpost of French Indochina – I’ve joked that it’s where you got sent as a diplomat if you’d blotted your copybook badly, but not so badly that they sent you home in disgrace.  Laos was the buffer of Indochina – largely protecting French interests in the more asset-rich states of Cambodia and Vietnam from the (dastardly, of course) Thais.  Now, it’s a sleepy town, quite probably the largest south of Vientiane, which primarily exists to serve the agricultural communities around it.  There’s also a Friendship Bridge into north east Thailand – it’s possible to get from Savannakhet to Bangkok in a (long) day.

Many urban people still grow their own vegetables, if they have the land.  It’s not so much a hobby as to ensure food security – much the same way that my government-employed (job for life!) colleagues still grow rice each wet season: they’re not sure they’ll receive all their salary.

Down near the Mekong there is a large and beautiful old tree outside a wat.  Many people who can’t afford a stupa to house the ashes of a loved one put the ashes in or near a revered tree, to keep the dead person’s spirit safe.  As well as homing a lot of spirits this tree also has its own spirit house to keep its own spirits safe J

In the old part of Savannakhet there’s an elegant old square, surrounded by older, decaying French style buildings.  At one end of the square is the church – there is a small Catholic congregation still using the building today.  I’ve heard hymns (I recognise the tune but not the words!) on Saturday nights.

I think there are at least six different tiles on this staircase...you should see the hallway!

My guesthouse displays an eclectic array of tiles – it feels like it’s a matter of how many job ends could they introduce into one room!  My favourite is the faux wood tile – it was so bad it took me years to figure out that it was meant to be wood.

My room at the guesthouse...faux wooden tiles are along the walls, faux linoleum (!) on the floor

At one farm I visited a few years ago the farmer had brought back some dyed chickens from Thailand for his kids...apparently the young chicks are dipped in permanent dye (it doesn’t hurt them, he assured me!) and the feathers stay coloured until they grow out, when the fowls return to normal chicken-colours.

4,000 islands

We spent a couple of nights in the 4,000 Islands (no one seems quite sure how many islands there are...it depends where you draw the line between 'island' and 'sandbar,' and whether you're counting in the wet or the dry season).  Just before we left the mainland R got a quick haircut. 

We rode in a lot of small boats in the Islands – it was very relaxing, if a little noisy at times.  We also went on the bumpiest bike ride I have ever been on; fortunately the bikes were so old that it didn’t actually matter what how you rode them (as long as you stayed out of other people’s way!).  Getting anywhere in one piece certainly felt like an achievement!!

We rode to our sixth waterfall: a long, wide and impressive fall with several viewing decks.

Our final waterfall visit was to the largest in South East Asia (Khone Pha Pheng): it’s 1km wide and very impressive. 

As well as being a dramatic natural site the area is now home to a shrine to a sacred Manikhot tree.  The tree used to live on a small island at the heart of the waterfall, and was the subject of a local myth that if you could eat its fruit you’d live forever.  Due to the ferocity of the water it was impossible to get to the Manikhot’s island to get to the fruit.

The Manikhot tree use to live on the islands in the centre of the photo

There are information boards about the Manikhot tree’s story, which tell it much better than I can:

The Manikhot Tree collapsed with no doubts on March 19^th 2012.  On June 10^th, 2012 the first mission to rescue the tree with helicopter was started; however, the mission was failed.  They couldn’t pull the tree up from an island because of the water flew too strong.  Therefore, they tied it with ropes to keep it not to flow away.

 The 2^nd rescued of the Manikhot “The Sacred Tree” finally was completed with undertake of government officers and pilots, they are big heroes after all, lots of appreciation and happiness of Lao People Democratic Republic.  The completed restoration date: January 13^th, 2013

Unfortunately, despite the immense effort put into rescuing the tree it’s now housed in a glass case which seems to have trouble with mould: fans run constantly to air the tree out.

The waterfall complex serves decent coffee, complete with champa (frangipani) decoration and also has a very comfortable viewing platform with for-lazing chairs.

Wats

We visited two wats in Champassak: one was notable for being at the top of a flight of very steep steps (we definitely worked off lunch on that climb!), and giving spectacular views over the Mekong and the start of 4,000 Islands.

Up, up, up!!!

The second wat, Wat Phu, was originally (it is now a Buddhist shrine) a Khmer Hindu temple which is slightly (give or take a century or two) older than Angkor Wat. Wat Phu was built in the C5th and, while much has crumbled away, I found it awe inspiring that I could walk round it 16 centuries later!!  I have visited a few things older than Wat Phu, but probably none of them have had as little intervention, preservation or management as this wat complex.

View from the top of Wat Phu, looking down over the complex to the bathing pools in the background

 At the bottom section of the complex are a series of pools for men, women and the royal family.  Coming through the pools devotees would walk, still segregated, through some ante chambers, where they would prepare offerings. 

Window decorations

Remains of one of the areas where devotees would prepare offerings

Inside one of the corridors for different groups of devotees

Most people would worship at a relatively low level, while the king would climb a frangipani-lined (I assume the originals have been replaced J) staircase to a shrine near the top of the hill.  Apparently the actual shrine was to have been placed considerably higher but it was thought too difficult to get the stone blocks any higher, so they stopped and put the shrine near a watercourse which springs out of the rock face and which never runs dry (I can see the attraction in this course of action!).

Up, up, up again!  This time with added paving stone challenges

The kings' shrine at the top of Wat Phu

Channelling the water from the rock face

As well as the official shrine - now devoted to Buddha - there are a few additional 'found' shrines imagined or cut into rocks.  People also build small cairns to house their prayers near the summit.

Wat Phu is a very beautiful, ancient and awe inspiring monument

Bolavan plateau

The Bolavan plateau lies outside Pakse to the east, along the way to Vietnam.  It’s known for its scenery, its excellent tea and coffee growing conditions, and the still prevalent UXO.  It’s definitely not an area to leave the beaten track without a guide!

Waterfalls 1 and 2

We started our day on the plateau by viewing two waterfalls – they were impressively noisy and powerful in the dry season; in the in the wet season they merge into one and water roars over the cliff and down the 120m drop!

There were some very tempting (and incredibly comfortable) hammocks well set up for viewing the falls, but R, A and I resolutely turned our backs on them and went on a short (3km) but very steep bushwalk – it took us about 90minutes to complete, and we were working hard (to not fall off the plateau!) most of the way!  Along the way we saw an amazing pompom beetle!

Check out those antennas!!
(thanks to A for the photo)

We finished our bushwalk, and met up with L, at our third waterfall for the day.  This one we voted overall the most scenic – but we had a few more to go through yet today!

Waterfall 3

Our fourth waterfall was much wider, and looked like it would be most impressive in the wet season with much greater amounts of water cascading over it.

Waterfall 4

At waterfall 4 we also achieved a four-person selfie!  Not an easy thing to do - partly because it's just hard to fit everyone in and partly because of the kind people who mean to be helpful and offer to take the photo for us.  Don't they know we are being trendy!! ;-)

My arms aren't long enough!

The last waterfall for today was small and tight.  We were there at the same time as a happy party of university students from Vientiane, who were having a ball taking photos and seemingly ignoring any educational element, and some monks who fed fish.

Waterfall 5

We visited a tea plantation: the mature but stunted trees (kept short so that the tender leaves are easy to pick) look so strange, like overgrown bonsai trees.  This plantation also dries and processes its leaves in two ways – green or oolong style – and offers its visitors samples before they leave (a great marketing ploy!).

Tee trees, interspersed with fruit trees to shade the tender new tea leaves

The appropriately-shaped leaf cutter - to me it looks like a cup and saucer!!

Arabica and Robusta beans are grown on the Bolavan plateau, as well as a wild tree.  Most of the crop had been harvested and was drying in the sun – as we drove past villages we often also saw a small crop drying out.  It’s significantly better for growers to process (dry and hull) the beans before selling them to traders, but most small growers don’t have the capacity to do so and sell the whole dried cherry instead.

Native coffee cherries to be harvested shortly

Coffee air drying before being sold to traders

Lao villages

  

A new house in the traditional Lao style

House with small veggie garden in a trough 

We visited villages in both Luang Prabang and Champassak – villagers seem to be largely welcoming of visitors and keen to find ways to supplement their incomes from our interactions.  In the wet season most people in rural Laos are primarily occupied with producing rice but during the dry season they look for ways to bring in cash income.  Many times a whole village seems to have specialised in a trade, and is known throughout the area as the place to go for knives, pots, etc.

Many houses in Lao villages are built in the traditional style, out of wood, with a large communal room above and underneath perhaps a woven couch or a table and some hammocks.  Traditionally the rooves are thatched; now they are mostly corrugated iron, which must be incredibly noisy in the wet season and hot most of the year, as well as being much easier to maintain and repair.  Large rainwater jars and possessions (motorbikes, hand tractors, valuable farm equipment) are also stored underneath the house.  Most houses have a satellite dish and TV inside.  Cooking is traditionally done outside over an open fire; in some houses, particularly the more modern ones made out of concrete breezeblocks gas is used indoors.

Chicken coops, Asian style

In some villages cassava was being chipped and dried: it will be used as an animal feed for the rest of the dry season and into the beginning of the wet season, or sold for use as tapioca or starch in commercial food production.

Cassava chips drying 

In the pottery-making village river soil is carefully sifted and then mixed with just enough water to make clay.  Villagers make pots on a wheel, which they turn with one foot while manipulating the clay with their hands.  Small pots are made by one person; larger pots are made in teams of two, usually a wife assisting her husband. 

Sieving river soil to make clay

Husband and wife team making a large pot

Pots air drying before firing

Once hundreds of pots have been produced, and air dried for a few days, they are fired in the huge village kiln, which is run about once a month.  The finished pots are sold to towns and villages across a wide area.

Entrance to the village kiln

Finished pots ready for market

In the knife-making village villagers heat pieces of steel (now from old cars, I suspect previously from UXO) in small forges and hammer them into blades for all uses – hoes, axes, scythes, sickles, cleavers, machetes and daggers.  The anvils on which they worked were shell casings, “presents from the Americans.”  The blades were then sharpened on an angle grinder before being attached to bamboo handles and sold in the village or nearby markets.

Hammering a knife blade on an old munitions casing

Knives ready for sale

Arrr!!

Many women weave: in one village women had draped the windows of a house near the highway with their scarves and shawls for sale.  Each woman paid a small commission from a sale to the owner of the house in return for displaying her wares.

One of the weavers, with her scarf which I bought

In the woodworking village villagers produce small carvings for sale in situ as well as bespoke pieces for hotels and businesses all over Laos and in Thailand.  

A roughed-out elephant ready for working up.  Its mate will be carved out of the large block in the bottom left

Detail of a panel for a hotel, showing scenes from traditional life

Farmer harvesting tubers