Hmong Village at Northeastern Laos-Unique Insight

Make sure you have a lot of vacancy in your camera or video. Hmong villages are a photographer's paradise with so much capture.

In this journal, you will see poppy fields (from which the raw material for heroin is produced), a villager converting unexploded ordinances from the Vietnam War to a sickle, bombs used as pots for plants and vegetables, American GI helmets used also as pot plants, etc.

Certainly at the end of the visit, there will be a lot to talk about with the rest of your party. For more information about the history and the past, read the free-form entry in this journal.

Quick Tips:

Please do bear in mind that you are a rich foreigner visiting/intruding on a village living a tranquil lifestyle and still trying to recover from a very painful past. As such, it would be prudent to behave in a discreet and respectful manner, especially when you use your camera or video camera.

Best Way To Get Around:

Excursions to Hmong villages can be organised by the Maly Hotel Management at Phonsavan. They will get a 4X4 van for you and an English-speaking guide. The villagers are familiar with the guides, and this will make your tour in and out of various parts of the village a lot easier.

The Hmongs fought on the American side during the Vietnam War era. At the end of the war, the Americans (to their credit) transferred approximately 2,000 Hmongs to French Guiana, where they live today preserving and continuing their cultural heritage.

The Americans bombed heavily northeastern Laos in an effort to destroy the Ho Chi Minh trail, the supply routes of the Northern Vietnamese. One estimate suggests that more bombs fell at Northeastern Laos by the Americans during the Vietnam War than in the whole of Europe in WWII by the Allies.

Evidence of that is the amount of unexploded ordinance (UXO) still present today, which is processed and used (see photos) as utensils, tools, pots, fences, and everything else the innovative Hmong mind can think of.

In addition, the second-largest export of Northern Laos (after heroin) is scrap metal from unexploded ordinance SOME 30 YEARS AFTER THE END OF THE VIETNAM WAR. The end of the war found the remaining 300,000 strong Hmong (except those few lucky ones who were whisked away by the Yanks) in a pretty unenviable position. The Communist government of Laos (allied to the Communist Vietnamese one) was ready to take on the Hmongs, who backed the "foreign imperialists". The Hmongs retreated to their jungle, fought back an armed rebel resistance whenever they could, without support or publicity from the West, and inevitably, they got involved with the opium/heroin trade, as other sources of income for support of their survival/resistance were nonexistent.

Today the Hmongs are gradually getting "rehabilitated" as the central Laotian government tries to emulate the Vietnamese "Moi Doi", a gradual shift towards a Capitalist model of economy.

When you visit a Hmong village, you cannot but admire these people. Surrounded by thick jungle with big cat wildlife in it, a tough climate with almost constant mountain mist and humidity, complete lack of electricity and modern amenities and lack of resources they try to make ends meet.

Needless to say, countless Laotian lives are lost every year in an effort to defuse the unexploded ordinance. Yet this proud people will always be ready to offer the kindest smile, the friendliest handshake, and the warmest welcome to you, the visitor to their land. An experience to remember and cherish forever.