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| Cave Tham Ting near Luang Prabang- a huge cave with a huge buddha figure and lots of miniature buddha statues as well. supposedly, everytime a local goes there, he brings a statue to place it there. it used to be a royal patronage place so the villagers taking care of this temple-cave had a rather good life and had good terms with the royal family. |
Pls dun go for the ridiculous Lao elephant camps that cater to tourists... not sure about the reputation of all these camps but when i was there, i saw 2 handlers ill-treating an elephant. they were using the elephant to drag 2 huge logs and when the elephant stopped to rest, the handlers started beating the elephant and the elephant had no choice but to continue on. when they saw me taking a photo of them, they stopped beating the elephant and kinda said sth to each other but i could tell it was about me. they then went away into some private area though this time without any beating and rushing...
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| elephant camp near the cave |
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| hmmmm... Unexploded Ordnance in the vicinity? guess i better take care when cycling thru then! |
Saw a UXOLao vehicle and a team huddled under a huge military style command post tent, resting and having lunch when i cycled thru this part. when i cycled a little bit further, i saw an obvious area marked out with signposts and strings on the floor with obvious "Do not enter unless you wanna die" feel. stopped to look around the area and suddenly the UXOLao vehicle that i saw previously came over!
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| the marked out area with signposts spread out every 50m or so... |
They started unloading all their equipment and its obvious that they are looking for UXO from the equipment that they carry (metal detectors, some kits...) stayed around to look and some dude suddenly asked me to follow him and said "photo, bombie, photo". errr ok... if the expert says its safe to follow him in, i guess its safe then!
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| 2 of the seniors/team leaders waiting here while the rest went in with all their equipment |
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| thats a bombie (left) beside a mortar (right)! the mortar was inside the ground and he was carrying the bombie but jus dropped it inside so that i could take a photo of both of it LOL. this mortar was under a tree and the tree was marked "53" in red, and he said it was the 53rd bomb in the area. wow... |
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| the marked out area that i was talking about and the sign reads "Detector Balancing Area" no idea what it means though... but i think it translates into Do Not Enter |
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| decided to stop at 2pm for an early rest at this beautiful place beside the river... |
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