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Whether in war-torn Ukraine, Laos or Spain, kids have felt compelled to pick up crayons and put their experiences to paper

“They still draw pictures!” So wrote the editors of an influential collection of children’s art that was <a href="https://www.afsc.org/document/they-still-draw-pictures-1938">compiled in 1938</a> during <a href="https://theconversation.com/ukraines-foreign-fighters-have-little-in-common-with-those-who-signed-up-to-fight-in-the-spanish-civil-war-178976">the Spanish Civil War</a>. Eighty years later, war continues to upend children’s lives in Ukraine, Yemen and elsewhere. In January, UNICEF <a href="https://www.unicef.org/globalinsight/reports/prospects-children-2022-global-outlook">projected</a> that 177 million children worldwide would require assistance due to war and political instability in 2022. This included <a href="https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/yemen-crisis">12 million children in Yemen</a>, <a href="https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/syrian-crisis">6.5 million in Syria</a> and <a href="https://www.unicef.org/appeals/myanmar">5 million in Myanmar</a>. The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 added 7 million more children to this number. To date, more than half of Ukraine’s children <a href="https://www.unicef.org/emergencies/war-ukraine-pose-immediate-threat-children">have been internally or externally displaced</a>. Many more have faced disruptions to education, health care and home life. And yet they, too, still draw pictures. In March, a charity called <a href="https://www.uakids.today/en">UA Kids Today</a>launched, offering a digital platform for kids to respond with art to Russia’s invasion and raise money for aid to Ukrainian families with children. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7bfZyk8AAAAJ&hl=en">As a scholar who studies</a> the ways wars affect societies’ most vulnerable members, I see much that can be learned from the art created by kids living in war-torn regions across place and time. <h2>A century of children’s art</h2> During <a href="https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/boer-war">the Boer War</a> – a conflict waged from 1899 to 1902 between British troops and South African guerrilla forces – relief workers sought to teach orphaned girls the art of <a href="https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/archivesandmanuscripts/2017/08/24/the-archive-of-emily-hobhouse-now-available/">lace-making</a>. During World War I, displaced children in Greece and Turkey learned to weave textiles and decorate pottery <a href="https://neareastmuseum.com/2015/08/13/every-stitch-a-story-near-east-industries/">as a means of making a living</a>. Over time, expression has replaced subsistence as the driver of children’s wartime artwork. No longer pressed to sell their productions, children are instead urged to put their emotions and experiences on display for the world to see. Novelist <a href="https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/novemberdecember/feature/the-talented-mr-huxley">Aldous Huxley</a> hinted at this goal in his introduction to the 1938 collection of Spanish Civil War art. Whether showing “explosions, the panic rush to shelter, [or] the bodies of victims,” <a href="https://library.ucsd.edu/speccoll/tsdp/frame.html">Huxley wrote</a>, these drawings revealed “a power of expression that evokes our admiration for the childish artists and our horror at the elaborate bestiality of modern war.” <a href="https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/herbert-read">Herbert Read</a>, a World War I veteran and educational theorist, organized another show of children’s art during World War II. Unlike Huxley, Read found that scenes of war did not dominate the drawings he collected from British schoolchildren, even those exposed to the London Blitz. In a pamphlet for the exhibition, he highlighted “the sense of beauty and the enjoyment of life which they have expressed.” While the shows discussed by Read and Huxley differed in many ways, both men emphasized the form and composition of children’s artwork as much as their pictorial contents. Both also expressed the view that the creators of these drawings would play a critical role in the rebuilding of their war-torn communities. <h2>A political tool</h2> As with the children’s war art made during Huxley and Read’s time, the images coming out of Ukraine express a mix of horror, fear, hope and beauty. While planes, rockets and explosions appear in many of the pictures uploaded by <a href="https://www.uakids.today/en">UA Kids Today</a>, so do flowers, angels, Easter bunnies and peace signs. The managers of this platform – who are refugees themselves – have not been able to mount a physical exhibition of these works. But artists and curators elsewhere are beginning to do so. In Sarasota, Florida, artist Wojtek Sawa <a href="https://www.fox13news.com/news/new-sarasota-exhibit-features-artwork-of-ukrainian-children-coping-with-war">has opened a show</a> of Ukrainian children’s art that will be used to collect donations and messages from visitors. These will later be distributed to displaced children in Poland. <a href="https://warchildhood.org/">The War Childhood Museum</a>, based in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, had recently concluded traveling exhibitions in Kyiv and Kherson when the Russian invasion started. The museum’s managing director, who has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/russia-ukraine-war-crimes-schools-d1e52368aced8b3359f4436ca7180811">spoken</a> out strongly about the need for cultural heritage protection in war, was able to retrieve several dozen artifacts from these shows a few days before the fighting commenced. Those toys and drawings, which tell the story of children’s experience during Russia’s previous effort to gain control of the Donbas region in 2014, <a href="https://warchildhood.org/2022/02/24/updates-from-ukraine/">will be featured</a> in shows opening elsewhere in Europe in 2022. By capturing the attention of journalists and the public, these exhibitions have been used to raise awareness, solicit funds and inspire commentary. However, children’s art from Ukraine has not yet played a role in political deliberations, as it did when peace activist Fred Branfman shared his collection of drawings by Laotian children and adults <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/us/fred-branfman-laos-activist-dies-at-72.html">during his 1971 testimony</a> before Congress on the “<a href="https://legaciesofwar.org/about-laos/secret-war-laos/">Secret War</a>” the U.S. had been conducting in Laos since 1964. Nor is it yet clear whether this art will play a part in future war crimes trials, as the art of Auschwitz-Birkenau internee Yahuda Bacon <a href="https://www.economist.com/books-and-arts/2020/01/25/for-child-survivors-drawing-is-therapy-and-a-tool-of-justice">did during</a> the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann. <h2>Windows into different worlds</h2> Art historians <a href="https://www.massey.ac.nz/%7Ealock/hbook/bremner.htm">once thought</a> children’s drawings, no matter where they lived, revealed the world in a way that was unshaped by cultural conventions. But I don’t believe that children in all countries and conflicts represent their experiences in the same way. The drawings of children imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps during World War II are not formally or symbolically interchangeable with drawings made by children exposed to America’s bombing campaign in Laos. Nor can these be interpreted in the same way as images produced by Ukrainian, Yemeni, Syrian or Sudanese children today. To me, one of the most valuable features of children’s art is its power to highlight unique aspects of everyday life in distant places, while conveying a sense of what can be upended, lost or destroyed. A Laotian child’s <a href="https://legaciesofwar.org/programs/national-traveling-exhibition/illustrations-narratives/">drawing</a> of a horse that “ran back to the village” from the rice field after its owner was killed by a bomb offers a small window into the lives of subsistence rice farmers. The desert landscapes and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-09-30/yemen-s-historic-tower-houses-are-under-threat">urban architecture</a> of Yemen are equally distinctive, and Yemeni children’s drawings highlight those differences even as they express aspirations that viewers around the world may share. <h2>The challenges of preservation</h2> As an academic who has also worked in museums, I am always thinking about how artifacts from today’s conflicts will be preserved for exhibition in the future. There are significant challenges to preserving the drawings and paintings young people produce. First, children’s art is materially unstable. It is often made on paper, with crayons, markers and other ephemeral media. This makes it dangerous to display originals and demands care in the production of facsimiles. Second, children’s art is often hard to contextualize. The first-person commentaries that accompanied some of the Spanish Civil War drawings and most of the Laotian images <a href="https://library.ucsd.edu/speccoll/tsdp/frame.html">often provide</a> details about children’s localized experience but rarely about the timing of events, geographic locations or other crucial facts. Finally, much children’s war art suffers from uncertain authorship. With few full names recorded, it is hard to trace the fates of most child artists, nor is it generally possible to gather their adult reflections on their childhood creations. By noting these complications, I don’t want to detract from the remarkable fact that children still draw pictures during war. Their expressions are invaluable for documenting war and its impact, and it’s important to study them. Nevertheless, in researching children’s art, it is necessary to reflect that scholars and curators are – like the child artists themselves – often working at the limits of their knowledge. Image credits: Instagram This article originally appeared on <a href="https://theconversation.com/whether-in-war-torn-ukraine-laos-or-spain-kids-have-felt-compelled-to-pick-up-crayons-and-put-their-experiences-to-paper-181458" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Conversation</a>.

Art

Vientiane, Laos - the city of charm

Laos is not one of the new, bright young things to take the international travel scene by storm: It has made its move by stealthily edging its way into a few traveller’s itineraries and, more so, into their hearts. Flying in from Vietnam via Cambodia, we landed in the capital city of Laos, Vientiane, a modest and charming little city that resembles a sprawling collection of villages. Vientiane (translated as ‘sandalwood city’) dates from the 10th century. Vientiane is a small city that oozes charm; it’s a laid-back capital that is clean, inviting and a little bit fancy. It’s not what you expect of a capital city; it is quiet, with ordered lanes and tree-lined boulevards, majestic Buddhist temples, loved but shabby monasteries, unhurried traffic and smiling, shy people. The Laotian temples have their own characteristics and even though some appear ‘shabby chic’ on the outside, it’s an inside job with a wealth of spiritual atmosphere. One of the oldest sights of the capital is Wat Sisaket with 10,136 miniature Buddha statues in the walls of the city’s oldest surviving monastery. The temple complex was built in 1818 and when the Thais sacked the city in the 1820s they left it alone. After Wat Sisaket, wander around town for a coffee – Laotian coffee is brilliant – enjoyed with a delicate pastry, a legacy of French colonialism. Then off to absorb the beauty of Luang Stupa, the gold-tipped national monument representing both the Buddhist religion in Cambodia and the Laos sovereignty. It was while I was mooching around the sweeping entrance that I noticed an odd, local phenomenon. There were lots of men walking around asking foreign visitors if they wanted their pictures taken. In this digital age, it surprised me and I thought the guys wouldn’t get any business at all. But they were one ( with well-shod with cowboy boots) step ahead of me. Strapped to their waists were portable printers. So, click for the picture, and click for an image and voila, nice picture, good background and ‘only one US dollar please’. Bargain! The urban cowboys were out in force wearing faux foreign correspondent vests and cowboy hats as they strutted around the gorgeous Patuxay Monument known as Vientiane’s Arc de Triomphe. It’s so decorative, a sight to behold with its Lao friezes from Buddhist mythology. The structure is at the end of the grand Lang Xang Avenue. Stroll around the laid-back city and pass crumbling colonial mansions, immaculate shopfronts, hidden gardens and bamboo thatched beer gardens on the riverbank. Explore the hidden lanes running off the main streets and discover French-style bakeries and noodle and sticky rice vendors. Most of the main attractions of town are concentrated in the tightknit commercial district where you’ll find the museums and squares with a variety of fine restaurants. Fountain Square has the charm of an old-fashioned village green and is surrounded by compact eateries including Italian and Thai restaurants and a Scandinavian bakery. Vientiane is a lovely little city that invites you to turn up and stay for a few days. There’s much to uncover and enjoy here, and who knows, those urban cowboys could win your heart – for ‘only one US dollar’. The writer flew to Laos with Vietnam Airlines. This story first appeared in <a href="http://getupandgo.com.au/">Get Up & Go Magazine</a> and has been edited. Writtenby Bev Malzard. Republished with permission of <a href="https://www.wyza.com.au/articles/travel/vientiane,-laos-the-city-of-charm.aspx">Wyza.com.au.</a>

Cruising

Exploring the ancient Plain of Jars in Laos

Justine Tyerman learns about ‘bombies’ and sticks to the path as she explores the ancient Plain of Jars in Laos… We stood in Tham Thonghai Neung cave in the Xieng Khuang province of Laos, once home to many families. They sheltered there during the Vietnam war from 1964-1973, and 20 of them died there when US bombs struck their hiding place. A shaft of light shining through an opening in the roof of the cave illuminated a Buddhist shrine erected in memory of those whose lives were lost in the attack. The Kiwis in our small tour party stood in stunned silence as our Innovative Travel guide Fhan explained that Laos had the unenviable distinction of being the most heavily-bombed country in the world, per capita. Our knowledge of Lao history was sketchy at best and most were shocked and moved at what he told us. For nearly a decade, Laos was subjected to intensive bombing by the United States as part of the wider war in Indochina. Xieng Khuang province, being close to the Vietnam border and the headquarters of the Pathet Lao (the Lao communist movement), was one of the prime targets. Bombs fell every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, “like rain from the sky,” said Fhan. <img width="500" height="375" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/45059/image-5_500x375.jpg" alt="Image 5"/> Justine at the Plain of Jars, a vast archaeological site in Xieng Khuang province, Laos, dotted with mysterious 2000-year-old stone urns. In another cave, Tham Piew, about 50km away, 374 people died in a US rocket attack. Based on US bombing records, at least two million metric tonnes of ordnance was dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973. Included in this figure were 270 million submunitions — the bomblets dispersed by cluster munitions — known in Laos as “bombies”. An estimated 80 million, 30 percent, failed to detonate and remained potentially dangerous after the end of the war. Some were dropped at so low an altitude, the fuse didn’t have time to arm, and some simply malfunctioned. These are called UXO (unexploded ordnance.) As a result of extensive ground fighting during the war, some parts of Laos are also littered with other types of UXO such as artillery shells, anti-tank rockets, mortar rounds and grenades. More than 40 years after the bombing ended, UXO continue to kill and maim people as they go about their everyday work. There have been more than 20,000 casualties since 1974. <img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/45060/image__500x333.jpg" alt="Image_ (14)"/> The green countryside is littered with bomb craters, a reminder of the pounding the area suffered from 1964-1973. UXO incidents Most UXO incidents in Laos are caused by impact — farmers who hit an UXO beneath the soil’s surface while digging, ploughing or planting. Other causes of accidents include lighting fires over hidden UXO, building houses, collecting food from the forest or breaking open bombies in order to sell the scrap metal or explosives inside. Bombies are sometimes trapped in bamboo plants as they grow and explode if disturbed. Children are highly at risk. In recent years, more than 40 percent of casualties have been children. Bombies are the same size and shape as tennis balls, and sometimes bright yellow in colour so they are tempting to play with. Tragically, in this impoverished country where 44 percent of the population live on less than $1.25 a day, many children are involved in the scrap metal trade, most of which is war-related scrap. It’s like playing Russian roulette but they take the risk to help generate an income to buy food in times of shortage. <img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/45061/image__500x333.jpg" alt="Image_ (15)"/> Working in paddy fields can be a dangerous occupation in heavily-bombed areas of Laos like Xieng Khuang province. There is a strong link between UXO contamination and poverty — 41 out of the 45 poorest districts in Laos are those most affected by UXOs. Many rural communities cannot grow sufficient food for their needs because the land area they farm is too small — but they are frightened to expand it. Experience has told them that ploughing new fields can be lethal. The land best suited to agriculture is often the most heavily contaminated. Communities would often benefit economically from basic infrastructure such as irrigation systems that would help them grow more crops, and roads and bridges that would make it easier to transport and sell any surplus — but the risk from UXO prevents them from building such things. We also visited the MAG (Mines Advisory Group) Centre in Xieng Khuang where our guide Vieng described the work of the bomb disposal teams. MAG, an international non-governmental organisation founded in 1989 with headquarters in the UK, has been operating in Laos since 1994. Working alongside community liaison teams, MAG chooses project areas based on a comprehensive assessment of what difference UXO clearance will make to communities in that area. <img width="499" height="665" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/45062/in-text-two_499x665.jpg" alt="In Text Two (1)"/> Inside Tham Thonghai Neung cave in the Xieng Khuang province of Laos, Innovative Travel guide Fhan explains that the area was one the prime US bombing targets. Land to benefit community This ensures that priority is given to clearing the land most likely to directly benefit the community, and therefore most likely to alleviate poverty. MAG hires and trains members of rural communities and actively recruits women because of their dexterity in handling delicate and unstable UXO. According to the most recent figures, MAG has destroyed 212,455 explosive items; cleared 58,526,823 square metres of land and surveyed 58,482,966 metres of land thereby helping 954,978 people. Needless to say, when Fhan and Vieng told us to stick strictly to the pathways as we explored the nearby 2000 year-old Plain of Jars, we did precisely that. Working in conjunction with UNESCO, MAG has cleared seven of the most important archaeological sites to ensure the safety of both local people and tourists. However, I was not prepared to take the risk. I followed exactly in their footsteps, passing many huge bomb craters that still scar the peaceful, green landscape. The clearance of such a significant site is an important achievement as it will enable the Lao government to apply for World Heritage status. This will boost tourism and reduce poverty by providing more employment for local people. The clearance work has also increased the amount of land safe to use for agriculture, enabling farmers to grow sufficient food to meet their needs and even generate a surplus to sell. At one of the three most important archaeological sites, we Kiwis were immensely proud to see a NZAID sign alongside the UNESCO one. It read “MAG cleared UXO from site 3 in 2005 with funding from NZAID.” <img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/45063/in-text-three_500x333.jpg" alt="In Text Three (1)"/> I was immensely proud to see this NZAID sign alongside a UNESCO one saying MAG cleared UXO from the Plain of Jars site 3 in 2005 with funding from NZAID. Emotional and sobering While the experience was emotional and sobering, it was also uplifting to see the international community getting behind such organisations as MAG and COPE (Co-operative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise), a rehabilitation service offering orthotic devices, prosthetic limbs and wheelchairs to those disabled and injured by UXO. COPE assists 1000 people a year but there are many who are not even aware that help is available. They struggle by using homemade wooden or bamboo stumps to replace limbs lost in explosions. Our Innovative Travel-Singapore Airlines tour group combined to donate a lump sum to help fund COPE’s work. During our 12 days in Laos, the information enabled me to reflect on, admire and respect the indomitable spirit of the Lao people, who — despite having to live with the ongoing lethal legacy of a war that ended four decades ago — are joyful, positive and incredibly hospitable. <img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/45065/image__500x333.jpg" alt="Image_ (17)"/> A bomb casing has been recycled as a foundation on this house. I loved the irony of their recycling efforts, using war scrap as building materials — turning deadly into useful. We saw many houses propped up on bomb-casing foundations with tank tracks for fences. And outside Meaung Khoun Restaurant and Guesthouse in Phonsavan, Xieng Khuang, where we lunched one day on delicious local dishes, there was a display of bomb art. I’ve never encountered such universal good humour, warmth and cheerfulness. Without exception, we were greeted everywhere with smiles and genuine affection. In response, I found myself beaming all day long. Very therapeutic… and sorely missed when we left Laos and returned home to the somewhat sombre faces of our fellow Kiwis. Have you ever been to Laos? Image credit: Justine Tyerman *Justine Tyerman travelled with <a href="http://www.innovativetravel.co.nz/" target="_blank">Innovative Travel</a>, a Christchurch-based boutique tour operator with 27 years’ experience offering travellers the opportunity to explore historically and culturally unique destinations worldwide that provide a challenge but with the security of a peace-of-mind 24/7 wrap-around service. <a href="http://www.innovativetravel.co.nz/travel_companions.club" target="_blank">Travel Companions’ Club</a> creating new horizons for social travellers. Getting there: <a href="http://www.singaporeair.com/" target="_blank">Singapore Airlines</a> flies from Auckland to Singapore daily, from Wellington four times weekly, and from Christchurch daily. Singapore Airlines and its regional wing SilkAir operate 139 weekly flights from eight Australian cities to Singapore Changi Airport with Singapore Airlines and SilkAir.

International Travel

10 must-do things in Laos’ capital Vientiane

Justine Tyerman visited Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, with Innovative Travel and Singapore Airlines. Laos is a landlocked country in South East Asia surrounded by China, Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Vientiane, on the banks of the mighty Mekong River, has a population of just 760,000 and is far less hectic than most other Asian capital cities. It’s peaceful and laid-back compared with Hanoi and Bangkok. The city is rich in history, heritage, culture and traditions, and has fabulous cuisine. Among the many fascinating places our excellent local guide Souk took us to, here are my 10 must-do things in Vientiane. 1. Of the many temples we visited in Laos, Wat Sisaket is my favourite. The only building to have survived the razing of the city by Siamese (Thai) invaders in 1828, it is therefore the oldest temple in the capital. Built from 1881 to 1824 on orders of King Anouvong, it is strikingly beautiful. The shady teak cloisters surrounding the courtyard and sanctuary or “sim” are lined with 10,136 statues of Buddha, 2000 large and 8000 miniatures. It’s a tranquil, cool place of reflection and quiet meditation. <img width="497" height="330" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/39271/1_497x330.jpg" alt="1 (193)"/> The cloisters at Wat Sisaket are lined with 10,136 statues of Buddha. Image credit: Justine Tyerman If you want to see more stunning temples, visit nearby Wat Phra Keo, Temple of the Emerald Buddha, which has a fine collection of Lao and Khmer art. Built in 1565 as a chapel for the royal family, the temple was once home to the Emerald Buddha, hence the name, but the Thais stole the statue in 1778. It is now a museum famous for its wood and stone carvings and collection of Buddhas. 2. Pha That Luang, or the Great Stupa, is dazzling. Constructed by King Setthathirat in the 16th century and restored in 1953, it is the most important Buddhist monument in Laos. The golden spire or stupa is 45m tall and believed to contain a relic of Buddha. An impressive statue of the king stands in front of the stupa. In the grounds and nearby, there are a number of beautiful ornate temples and a magnificent golden reclining Buddha. <img width="500" height="750" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/39285/2_500x750.jpg" alt="2 (186)"/> The golden Pha That Luang or the Great Stupa is dazzling. Image credit: Justine Tyerman 3. From a distance, you would think you were in Paris looking down the Champs-Élysées at the Arc de Triomphe. Vientiane’s Patuxay Monument or Victory Gate, built from 1957 to 1968, is dedicated to those who fought in the struggle for independence from France and perished during the World War 2. While it resembles the iconic Parisian landmark, the Patuxay has four arches rather than two and five distinctively ornate Lao towers on the top. <img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/39273/3_500x333.jpg" alt="3 (157)"/> Vientiane’s Patuxay Monument or Victory Gate by day. Image credit: Justine Tyerman It’s quite a climb to the upper look-out, the equivalent of seven-storeys, but well worth the effort for the magnificent view over the city. There are bazaars and souvenir stalls on the lower levels. <img width="500" height="750" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/39275/12_500x750.jpg" alt="12 (23)"/> The view of Vientiane’s from the top of the Patuxay Monument or Victory Gate. Image credit: Justine Tyerman 4. Buddha Park is one of the most bizarre and eccentric places I have ever visited in my travels. Also known as Xieng Khuan or “Spirit City,” the park is dotted with over 200 Buddhist and Hindu statues and sculptures created in 1958 by Luang Pu Bunleua Sulilat, a Lao priest-shaman who integrated Hinduism and Buddhism. There are sculptures of humans, animals, demons, a Hindu god riding a three-headed elephant, a god with 12 faces and many hands, and an enormous 40m long reclining Buddha. To get the best photos and a panorama of the whole park, you need to climb to the top of a giant pumpkin. This is no easy feat – you enter by way of a demon’s mouth and negotiate steep steps with no safety rails passing through hell, earth and heaven on the way, emerging on a dome topped with a tree of life. An awesome view of the whole park . . . but not for the faint-hearted or those who suffer vertigo. <img width="499" height="665" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/39276/4_499x665.jpg" alt="4 (131)"/> Buddha Park, one of the most bizarre and eccentric places I have ever visited. Image credit: Justine Tyerman 5. It’s such a novelty for Kiwis to be able to (almost) walk to another country so one day, we all trooped to the mid-point of the 1174m Friendship Bridge that linksLaos and Thailand. Built by the Australian government in 1994 for $A42m, the bridge across the Mekong River connects Nong Khai province and the city of Nong Khai in Thailand with Vientiane Prefecture in Laos. The bridge is near Buddha Park. <img width="499" height="665" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/39278/5_499x665.jpg" alt="5 (121)"/> Justine at the Laos-Thai border on the Friendship Bridge over the Mekong River. Image credit: Justine Tyerman 6. One of the most moving experiences in Laos was our visit to COPE (Co-operative Orthotic and Prosthetic Enterprise), an organisation working to help the victims of the millions of landmines that still litter Laos 40 years after the end of the Vietnam War. We listened to an earnest young man explaining COPE’S rehabilitation service that provides orthotic devices, prosthetic limbs, wheelchairs and other aids to those disabled and injured by explosions from cluster bombs. <img width="498" height="410" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/39279/6_498x410.jpg" alt="6 (112)"/> A sculpture made from recycled bomb casings at the COPE centre in Vientiane. Image credit: Supplied The statistics are shocking. From 1964 to 1973, the country was subjected to intensive bombing by the United States of America as part of the wider war in Indochina. Based on US bombing records, at least two million metric tonnes of ordnance was dropped on Laos in nine years making it the most heavily bombed country in the world, per capita. Included in this figure were 270 million submunitions – the bomblets dispersed by cluster munitions - known in Laos as “bombies”. Bombs fell every eight minutes, 24 hours a day, “like rain from the sky”. <img width="372" height="556" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/39280/7.jpg" alt="7 (100)"/> An artwork made from cluster bombs at the COPE centre in Vientiane. Image credit: Justine Tyerman An estimated 80 million – 30 percent – of submunitions failed to detonate and remain potentially dangerous after the end of the war. These are called UXO (unexploded ordnances.) Four decades later, UXO continue to kill and maim people as they go about their everyday work. Farmers and those who work on the land are most at risk but in recent years, more than 40 percent of casualties have been children. Bombies are the same size and shape as tennis balls, and sometimes bright yellow in colour so they are tempting to play with them. Every day in Laos, 3000 men and women conduct survey and clearance work, locating and destroying hundreds of UXO. COPE assists 1000 people a year but there are many who are not even aware that help is available. They struggle by using homemade wooden or bamboo stumps to replace limbs lost in explosions. Rather than buy trinkets as souvenirs, our Kiwi group combined to donate a lump sum to help fund COPE’s work. 7. I developed a strong taste for the locally-brewed beer on my first night in Laos. Drinking ice-cold BeerLao at Moon the Night Restaurant as the sun set over the Mekong is an enduring memory. Fishermen up to their necks in the red-brown water were hauling in their nets, scooters were buzzing by driven by young men with girls riding side-saddle behind them, the lights of Thailand twinkled just across the river . . . it was magic. Time Magazine called BeerLao “Asia’s best local beer”. <img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/39281/8_500x333.jpg" alt="8 (91)"/> The Mekong River from Moon the Night Restaurant. Image credit: Justine Tyerman 8. Instead of dining in restaurants every night, meander your way through the Ban Anou night market, an area of street-eats popular among locals. It’s the Lao version of takeaways, fresh off the barbecue coals. The range of food is astonishing and the flavours and aromas intoxicating. Colourful fruit and vegetables, fish, duck, chicken, pork meatball wraps or “nem nuong”, sausages of every description, noodles and mountains of sticky rice or “klao niaw”, the staple food eaten at every meal. There are also sweet treats galore from Lao-style donuts to icecream and gelato. <img width="500" height="375" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/39282/9_500x375.jpg" alt="9 (76)"/> Street eats in the Ban Anou night market. Image credit: Justine Tyerman 9. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/doikanoi" target="_blank">Doi Ka Noi Restaurant</a> is an excellent spot for lunch. We were the only non-Lao people there, apart from the owner Mick, chef Noi’s English husband, who is a photographer and writer. The food was delicious with fabulous fresh ingredients, many from their own garden – yummy fish soup, crispy sun-dried pork with grilled aubergine and chili dip, salad of foraged fiddlehead fern topped with pork, stir fried chicken with black pepper, spicy salad with confit duck leg and organic Lao wholegrain black rice and white sticky rice. I loved the chilli, garlic, lime juice, spring onion, mint and lemongrass flavours. <img width="500" height="333" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/39283/10_500x333.jpg" alt="10 (61)"/> Spicy salad of confit duck leg at Doi Ka Noi Restaurant. Image credit: <a href="http://www.mickshippen.com/" target="_blank">Mick Shippen</a> 10. When we arrived in Vientiane, were treated to an evening of traditional Lao dancing and music at Kualao Restaurant. A four-piece orchestra played a variety of delightful Lao tunes which were recognised immediately by the mainly local diners of all ages who enjoyed themselves immensely on the dance floor. A pair of highly professional entertainers performed exquisite dance sequences while we consumed a delicious dinner – I had Laos’ signature dish, larb moo (pork salad with lime, lemongrass and shallots). I must get the recipe! <img width="500" height="334" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/39284/11_500x334.jpg" alt="11 (31)"/> We were treated to an evening of traditional Lao dancing and music at Kualao Restaurant. Image credit: Justine Tyerman * Justine Tyerman travelled with <a href="http://www.innovativetravel.co.nz%20" target="_blank">Innovative Travel</a>, a Christchurch-based boutique tour operator with 27 years’ experience offering travellers the opportunity to explore historically and culturally unique destinations worldwide that provide a "challenge” but with the security of a peace-of-mind 24/7 “wrap-around” service. So important in a seriously foreign country: Getting there: <a href="http://www.singaporeair.com/" target="_blank">Singapore Airlines</a> flies from Auckland to Singapore daily, from Wellington four times weekly, and from Christchurch daily. <a href="http://www.silkair.com/" target="_blank">SilkAir</a> flies from Singapore to Vientiane and Luang Prabang three times weekly: Fly to Laos from NZ$1203 return with Singapore Airlines' World Wanderlust Special Fares on sale until July 17. <a href="http://www.laoairlines.com/" target="_blank">Lao Airlines</a> flies from Vientiane to Xieng Khuang * Accommodation: <a href="http://www.ihg.com/crowneplaza/hotels/gb/en/vientiane/vtecp/hoteldetail/hotel-overview" target="_blank">Crowne Plaza</a>, Vientiane is an excellent place to stay.

International Travel

Why you should visit Luang Prabang in Laos

Anne Sinclair, 68, was born in England but spent most of her youth in Darwin, Northern Territory. Now in a position to travel and explore the world, Anne looks forward to sharing her personal experience and encourages others to step out and have fun. Well, this has turned out to be a most interesting city. Luang Prabang – situated in northern Laos and perched along the banks of the Mekong River. It is known for its many Buddhist Temples – fabulous structures with some even dating back to the 16th century. Luang Prabang was listed as a World Heritage Site in 1995, as it is home to unique and remarkably preserved architectural religious and cultural heritage. Add a touch of French colonial influences in the 19th and 20th century and, you have a truly amazing cultural experience at your fingertips. Luang Prabang was the royal capital and seat of Government of the Kingdom of Laos, until the communist takeover in 1975. The old name was Muang Sua – this enriched culture and its people have encountered such a diverse history – conquests, occupation, expansion, warlike tribe rulers, Siamese administrative system in the 7th Century, independence, dynasty struggles – and even occupied by many foreign invaders, during WWII. Today, it exudes peace and serenity. You will pass many a training monk in the streets here; their thirty five temple areas tempting you – with this spiritually tranquillity on offer, you may not want to ever leave! The temples and shrines are dotted throughout this area – its little wonder Luang Prabang is known as Laos’ premier tourist destination. <img width="498" height="315" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/33975/1_498x315.jpg" alt="1 (163)"/> It is believed the Phra Bang Buddha has been a source of the city’s protection since the fourteenth century. An 83cm statue of this Buddha remains today in the grounds of the Royal Palace. The Palace was built by French colonialists during 1904-1909, and offers a blend of Laos and French architect. Quite lovely. So much amazing history and architecture wonders are all around the city, offering a constant reminder of the wonder of Luang Prabang. The Airport is the transport mode I used, flying from Vietnam – but there are bus trips also available from their capital Vientiane - and many of the bigger cities would certainly have international flights, if not daily, to bring you to this wonderful spot! Just being able to stand on the banks of the Mekong River makes me feel in awe of the historical events reflected in this incredible city. The morning dedication of the giving of alms ceremony, for the many monks in this area, starts around six am. There is further delight in the incredible wild, yet peaceful waterfalls only one hour away. All waiting for you to discover! <img width="499" height="279" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/33974/2_499x279.jpg" alt="2 (163)"/> I happened upon an English Teaching School (its open to the public to drop in and help locals and monks) to improve their pronunciation of the English language. This school boasts the creation, printing and introduction of reading books into the lives of many Laos’ children. What an achievement. It was understood in Laos, that ‘Lao people do not read’ – but, with such a dedicated ambition, a young man named Khamla, has turned this all around. His story is both moving and extra-ordinary, as today, the children in Laos enjoy so many, many colourful and education reading books – making their literacy learning fun! Khamla and his supporters (I have called them visionaries) have achieved remarkable results, encouraging children in Laos to read and – read out loud. There is lots to see – explore – enjoy! Or, just come here and have some quiet time in those ‘special’ Buddhist parks. Pretty much something for everyone here in Luang Prabang. <img width="500" height="895" src="https://oversixtydev.blob.core.windows.net/media/33973/3_500x895.jpg" alt="3 (141)"/> On visiting the Pak Ou Caves – which are situated about 25 kilometres from Luang Prabang by long boat – you will be privileged to visit one of the most respected holy site in Laos. These caves are reported as holding some 1000 (some say up to 4000) statues and Buddha icons. You journey along the Mekong River where the caves hold statues dating back many hundreds of years. Many are quite small, many in meditation positions, teaching, peace and rain – and also reclining Buddha. And, last but by no means least, we visited the Lao Lao Village, famous for its whisky – of which I would like to be able to suggest would be one of the world’s finest whiskey available – but, I didn’t try it – I have left this little adventure for you. So, come to Luang Prabang and let me know what you think! Related links: <a href="https://www.oversixty.co.nz/lifestyle/retirement-life/2017/01/anne-sinclair-on-volunteering-in-a-bali-orphanage/">Volunteering in a Bali orphanage</a> <a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/travel/international-travel/2016/11/step-back-in-time-and-experience-kirkwall-scotland/">Step back in time and experience Kirkwall, Scotland</a> <a href="http://www.oversixty.co.nz/travel/international-travel/2017/02/justine-tyerman-lifelong-dream-santorini/">I fulfilled a lifelong dream to visit Santorini</a>

International Travel

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Whether in war-torn Ukraine, Laos or Spain, kids have felt compelled to pick up crayons and put their experiences to paper

Vientiane, Laos - the city of charm

Exploring the ancient Plain of Jars in Laos

10 must-do things in Laos’ capital Vientiane

Why you should visit Luang Prabang in Laos

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Whether in war-torn Ukraine, Laos or Spain, kids have felt compelled to pick up crayons and put their experiences to paper

Vientiane, Laos - the city of charm

Exploring the ancient Plain of Jars in Laos

10 must-do things in Laos’ capital Vientiane

Why you should visit Luang Prabang in Laos

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