Lao Landscape

Here are a couple landscape panoramas of rural Laos.

Waterfall

On the same day trip that took a few of us out to Plain of Jars Site 2 we drove even farther out across the horrible dirt roads that are rural Laos and visited a waterfall. No, I don't know the name and even if I did I would probably spell it wrong anyway.



The waterfall is a series of cascading chutes, drop-offs, and pools. At least during the dry season. Through our linguist we were assured by some local farmers that during the rainy season the waterfall is a raging torrent. But we were fortunate. We got to climb amongst the multiple channels and find nice precipices upon which to enjoy the view.

Plain of Jars, Site 2

Two years ago on my first trip to northern Laos I visited the Plain of Jars, Site 1. Site one has the most jars as well as the largest one ever made. As you would expect it is the most heavily touristed. This last trip to Laos I was in the same part of the country, but had the good fortune to get to go to Site 2.


Located much farther (down very bad dirt roads) from Phonsavan, Site 2 receives far fewer visitors. There are only about two dozen jars split between two hilltops. The first is a small cluster of jars beneath a giant tree. It is a very picturesque spot. The second hill is much more open and has numerous smaller jars.


The jars being on the hilltops is a marked difference from Site 1 where the vast majority of the jars are on a large flat area. At site 2 the very large and heavy stone jars had to have been dragged, pushed, pulled to the top of the hill.

The shape of the jars is very consistent at Site 2. They all tend to be tall a narrow with small opening. Like Site 1 it is thought that these jars were used in some form of burial practice. Recent work by Australian archaeologists has concluded that remains were not actually put into the jars, but rather buried around the jar and that the jar would have held offerings.

A 41 Hour Birthday

A 41 hour birthday is a neat concept...

The reality of it was not as nice as you might think...

Let me start at the beginning. I woke up on April 7th at about 7 in the morning in Phonsavan, Laos. I took a shower, got dressed, and had breakfast at the hotel dining room just like every other morning for the previous month. We were scheduled to fly from Phonsavan to Vietntaine at 9. Unfortuunately the weather was bad, so we waited around until about noon when we boarded the helicopters and made the 1 hour flight. Shortly after we arrived in Vientiane the C-130 cargo plane left for Utapao, Thailand with all of our gear. It was supposed to make a quick turn around and return to pick up all of us (The plane is not beg enough for the gear and 50 people at the same time. The plane should have been back by 4:30 or 5:00 at the latest. This of course did not occur. The plane broke down in Utapao.

The detachment staff in Laos immediately got to work. Eventually they arranged for us to board buses and drive to Utapao. We ended up boarding a 45 seat bus (there were 50 total personnel on our trip) in Vientiane at about 7 pm for the one hour drive to the border with Thailand. Crossing the border took about an hour. On the Thailand side we acquired another bus, split the people between the two buses and headed out into the night at 9:00 pm. My birthday started at midnight. I had already been up for 17 hours. After a 10 hour ride we arrived in Utapao at about 7 in the morning. While I can sleep on a bus, it is not good sleep. I think I got about 4 hours total. Please note that at this point we have been traveling for 24 hours.

When we arrived in Utapao, the terminal was open but none of the shops were, which meant that we were unable to get any water. We waited in the airport in Utapao for about 3 hours until we could board the C-17 cargo aircraft. This plane is big enough to accommodate the gear and the people at the same time. Unfortunately, the C-17 was extremely loaded down with gear so there was very little room to lay down on the floor like usual. It was a six hour flight to Guam where we got off of the plain and waited in the Anderson AFB terminal for two hours while the plane was refueled. More gear was put on the plane so there was even less room on the next leg of the journey which was an 8 hour flight to Honolulu. Due to all of the time/day change of going from west to east across the international date line our plane landed at about 9 am Hawaii time. Yes, after fourteen hours of flying a a two hour layover between legs we had gone backwards in time.

Upon return to Hickam AFB, my first stop was work. I had to turn in my evidence. Then I was finally free! I drove home and discovered that my kitchen and downstairs bathroom are half way through a massive remodeling project that is expected to take another three weeks. This is of course exactly how long I have until I go out on my next mission...

If you have been paying close attention you will notice that no where in the narrative is there anything about sleeping in a bed or taking a shower until getting back to Hawaii. It ended up being about two days (48 continuous hours) of straight travel without decent sleep or a chance to clean ourselves... Eeeww...

Ok, so I am sure that you are saying: "But it must have been about noon, you still had 12 hours of your birthday left". If you are saying that you have clearly never pulled a two day non-stop travel haul. I was barely able to put coherent sentences together, much less go out and party it up. Fortunately there were presents waiting from my family and a special someone here in Hawaii who took that day off of work so that she could spend my birthday with me.

Ten out of Thirteen...

...is how many weeks I am going to be gone starting this week. I am headed out on two back to back missions to Laos. The first one is to the northern part of the country where I will be returning to the very first site I excavated for work. Another team went to the site since I was there in 2007, and I am hoping that my team this time is going to be able to be able to finish it up. The second trip is going to be back to southern Laos, where I have been twice now, but to a province that I have never been to before. More info on that trip later.

Take care. Be good. And look for pictures some time in the second week of April.

Youngest Cousins

One of the best parts about going back to California is getting to visit my extended family, Olivia and Ella in particular. They are my aunt Rowan's (not pictured) daughters and I was lucky enough to get to go to the San Francisco Zoo with them.

I gave six year old Olivia a ride on my shoulders first.


This of course led to Ella insisting that she also get to ride on my shoulders. For some reason she would not let a photo be taken of her sitting up straight. But hey, you can't really fault a kid who is this cute.

One More Bug!

Sorry I didn't get this picture in with the original post. I knew I had it somewhere. It just took me a while to find it.

Walking stick.

Too Cute

With all of the baby blogs out there these days I decided to put up something in the cute category. I think it is a pretty solid entry.

The locals brought him out when we were doing recon work. They wanted us to buy him. We politely declined.

Helo Photos

Sometimes when you go out on reconnaissance trips you have to land the helo in some strange places...

Just a cool photo from the ground.

Rural Housing

I sifted through the several thousand photos taken by a bunch of us this last mission and found a few that do a good job of showing what rural houses look like in Laos. The are above ground wood houses constructed atop stilts. Nicer ones will have single panel wooden walls, but many will simply have woven walls. The houses are raised because is allows for out of the rain storage without having to build an additional structure. Animals are also frequently stored under the house. Many have thatch roofs, but wealthier families with have corrugated metal.

Kids on a log!

It torrentially rained on us one day while we were waiting for the helo to come get us so we hid under a house near the LZ. The pigs, chickens, and goats were in their with us trying to stay dry, but the rain did not deter the kids in the area from coming out hoping we had candy. I am glad that we did that day.

Random odds and ends...

Building the supply shack.

The doctor treating local patients.

A village elder.

Just some of the gear...

Shaggy or Shaved

It is time to vote folks. Which do you like better, shaggy or shaved? Leave your answer in the comments.

The Team

The team with the Mi-17 in the background. The locals refer to it as the flying elephant. The smaller helicopter we use is the flying water buffalo.

Tough digging under the sun.

Excavation in progress.

Wet screening.

Recording the stratigraphy.

Hangin' in the break area.

Bugs!

These are just a couple of the creepy crawlies that I encountered on my last trip out.



I had seen a few of these before in Laos, but this was the first time I had my camera handy.

Ridge Top HLZ

We used a variety of helicopter landing zones this last go around, but this one was definitely the most scenic.



Sorry about the marks on the pictures. The lens got dirty. It was a rough day.

Sabai dee

After a relaxing 10 weeks here in Hawaii it is time to for me to get back out there on another mission. I am headed to Laos for the third time and due my not having been there for a year, the only word I can remember serves as the title for this post. It means hello.

Due to a late heavy rainy season in the part of Laos I am going to there is still water, and rice, in the rice paddies. As such I am headed down early to take a look at a couple of sites to decide which one my team is going to be excavating. I have thrown together a specialized, and streamlined set of equipment to allow me to get the job done. There is a metal detector in the plastic bag. I hope I can get it through customs without too much hassle...

And for the peanut gallery...

...some photos of people.

Getting started in the impact crater.

Close to the bottom...

Completion of the crash crater.

Because my Mom asked...

...I am posting a couple new pictures. These two pictures are of my second site from this last trip to Vietnam. They show the excavation area at the conclusion of the excavation.

Second Site

This is the view from my second site.

First Site

Here is a panoramic photo showing our base camp (left) and the excavation (right). The photo is taken from the HLZ.