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Post Info TOPIC: Laos Opens Secret Caves To Tourists...
Anonymous

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Laos Opens Secret Caves To Tourists...
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With more than 1.6 million visitors in 2007 alone, Laos is no longer a country where tourists go just to see the pagodas. The country is now allowing tourists to go inside forbidden caves that once served as secret shelters.

The caves underneath and around the limestone mountains of Vieng Xay province used to be the homes of Laos' top communist guerrilla leaders.

For more than 30 years after the war ended, Laos kept these caves off limits. Now, they are open to visitors.

The cave complex has various rooms serving different purposes, including an emergency room built to withstand gas bombs.

The room was airtight, so an oxygen machine has to be used to pump in air from the outside. But the room was never used. The gas bombs never came.

The largest cave, nicknamed the "elephant" cave, was used as a theater, where everything from musical and dance performances to rallies and m

source: CCTV.COM



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Anonymous

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sad....from now on.... no more secret in Laos

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Laos2beLaos

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I wonder where this cave is? and is it open to everyone? including Lao people from abroad?

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SeeHarHed


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sounds interesting!!!  i have to go check it out myself..  i'll be there in Dec. and i'll take some pictures to show you guys..

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Anonymous

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I wished they would of bombed all them communist leaders. Dammit why didnt it happened!

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Rocker

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I think those communist leaders are the best that is why they didnt get hit by any bombed. I must called them the heroes of laos. hehehehehehe
Without the communist i wouldnt make it to american.

Bravo!!!!!!

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Laos2beLaos

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Rocker wrote:

I think those communist leaders are the best that is why they didnt get hit by any bombed. I must called them the heroes of laos. hehehehehehe
Without the communist i wouldnt make it to american.

Bravo!!!!!!



Cheer Rocker.  I've heard that alot.  Communist or not .  They are Lao,  they fought for Laos.  Not like Vang Pao and his gang..  They want to destroy Laos and change us  to Hmong.



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TSP


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As Laos has opened up since the 1990s, the occasional backpacker has strayed to Viengxay, two days' drive from the capital Vientiane, in northeastern Houapanh province, and 55 kilometres (34 miles) from the Vietnamese border.

Laos is hoping to change this and, with the help of foreign development groups, turn the historic site into a war-theme tourist stop, similar to the Cu Chi tunnels of southern Vietnam and Cambodia's horrific Killing Fields.

Laos has so far opened only seven caves, most of them the former homes of communist leaders, where busts of Lenin, kerosene lamps and weathered communist tracts are among the few historical artefacts on display.

But the mountains hide more secrets to be opened and discovered by outsiders as more funding and tourist dollars arrive, including an underground sewing factory, bank, bakery, fuel depot and a radio station.

"Not many foreign tourists have come to Viengxay over the years because it's so remote. We call it a hidden city," said Janet Pontin, a heritage expert with the UN World Tourism Organisation working here.

"What Viengxay needs is economic development because Houapanh is the poorest province in Laos. The great thing about what happens when tourists come to visit Viengxay is that their visit benefits local people."

As part of the project, run by Dutch development agency SNV, historians are now recording oral histories of people who survived the war years, such as garlic farmer Bounthong, who lives near the Cuban hospital cave.

"During the war, US planes flew intense bombing missions," said Bounthong, who like many Lao people has only one name. "Many soldiers and villagers died, 300 in my district alone. If not for the caves, many more would have died."

Despite the war's deadly legacy, he said he now welcomes foreign visitors.

"I am not angry with the foreigners who visit here because now our country is open," he said. "In the past I knew only foreigners who were armed to make war in Laos. My ideas have changed since the war ended."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080428/lf_afp/laosusmilitarycavecitytourism_080428035128


-- Edited by TSP at 14:52, 2008-04-28

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Anonymous

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we welcome everyone to visit lao no matter you are lao people or foreigner,also we would like to show you the truth is happening,lao is very safety place ,very kind people even nowaday we still developing

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Anonymous

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Hate to say this, but the Lao communists deserve to rule Laos.



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Lao Guy

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Lao Girls Open Her Secret Caves To Tourists...biggrin

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