The Selective Edit

It's a little too easy to view the 1960s as old news, but Laotians still live amongst unexploded ordnance (known as UXO) from the Vietnam War era. We’re taking a small group of clients to see Mines Advisory Group (MAG) in action in Laos, soon, so we wanted to learn about living with the UXO...

Phonsavan is brimming with bravado. 'Craters' bar... 'Bombies' restaurant... bomb casings hung as trophies, like a hunter might display the beast that nearly killed him. The rural communities of Laos are unlikely to run into a tiger these days, but many of them still live with the daily risk of an encounter with unexploded ordnance from a war that ended over 40 years ago.

Out-of-towners who dine at Bombies are probably in Phonsavan to see the unusual megalithic monuments which fill the 'Plain of Jars' beyond the town. The Plain was a major theatre of action during the Laotian Civil War, which was fought in parallel to the Vietnam War, by overlapping sets of enemies.