people laos="people laos" Who has visited Laos and met tribal people there?
I would like to hear from anyone who has met with any of the amazing Lao tribes such as the Phu Thai ?
I spent an evening in the traditional long houses with the Iban Tribe, the only route to it was on a long boat, no roads, it was incredible! The long house was built on stilts and housed over 200 people in all, it was seperated into individual living spaces with a huge shared veranda. I was treated like a part of the family for the evening, taken around the village, introduced to the children in their classrooms. When I woke up in the morning there were four pairs of young eyes peering at me through the window in my room in the longhouse. Absolutley incredible!!!
lao people="lao people" Did the Us Government hire Thai people during Vietnam to work as tunnel rats?
Some guy came up to me and said he worked in NKP as a tunnel rat for the US Army in Vietnam. He was old enough and spoke some English but he seemed to be hitting the lao-lao pretty hard. Well you know NKP was a secret base.
The NVA and VC did construct a lot of tunnel networks and since they were "slightly smaller" than most US GI's the tunnels were a little narrow in some places. It would make sense to use the smallest guy to crawl in to investigate or set some charges.
I don't remember reading or personally seeing any Thai's in the US employ for this particular job. Thai troops were in Nam but my best guess that they did their own tunnel exploring and the US did their own exploring! There were always joint type missions, I guess it would be prudent to use what ever particular resources available to get the job done.
Interesting question, right up there with Air America, Nung Guards, Biet Hai, "Chu Hois" and various Montagnard/Hmong forces.
We floated for all of two minutes before reaching the first bar. Loud electronic music was blaring from speakers, people were jumping off the big rope swing which looked more like a trapeze. And everyone seemed to be drinking Beerlao or buckets (usually whiskey and Red Bull). Before I knew it, I was too. Nicholas, Thomas, and Sandrine (who we ran into there) all went off the big swing, but I skipped it. I know I could do it if I wanted. I wasn't particularly afraid.
An hour later, we hopped in the tubes again, Sandrine and a Scot now part of our group. We passed the second bar nearby and floated on. I used my flip flops as paddles which worked out far better than just hands I'm sure. The current moved quick in some places, and occasionally we hit little rapids.
The third bar had a zipline and a crowd (and loud contemporary music). We got off and I did the zipline which was fun. It was easier to hang on then I expected, and I released right before the end would've catapulted me into an unintentional backflip. Those who didn't release in time (and not by design) were flipped like ragdolls. It was amusing, though dangerous given you could hit the water any number of wrong ways.
A few sips from a whiskey bucket, a splash in the mud pits (aka volleyball court), and we were off. We were on the river longer at this point, passing the beautiful limestone karst.
We made our third stop at a quieter bar with a small fire by which people were huddled. After sitting and talking by it long enough to feel warm and dry, it was hard to get back in the water.
Our fourth and final bar also had the last rope swing, from which I jumped. Again, it was easier to hold on than I expected (by design, the swing gives you a comfortable amount of slack). The others jumped multiple times (and would later tube a few more days after I left).
We finished the trip with a 25-minute float back to the little river island. Facing upriver, you had stunning views of the cloud-topped mountains. Stunning! They felt like something out of a movie – Jurassic Park maybe. Aside from a few passing kayakers, we had the river to ourselves (not a likely scene in the high season). There were even a few Laos people fishing and tending to their daily life along the river. There was a consensus that they must think us tube-crazy tourists are retarded!
