To Laos with the TLCB

[Lone Rider]

Some time ago I was invited by Mac to join one of the trips of the Thai-Laos-Cambodia Brotherhood (Home Page) to Laos to look at some of their completed, ongoing and potential new project in support of schools in Laos. So early May I set of from Chiangmai to join Mac in Nongkhai to travel together to Vientiane and onwards to Xaysomboun, Long Chieng (Longcheng), Xamthong, Tha Tham Bleung, Nam Chieng, Phonsavan, Khangdon, Nasythong, Thatom and back to Vientiane.

Part 1: Vientiane to Phonsavan​

After half a day of organizing and finalizing things in Vientiane we departed late afternoon for Xaysomboun but not after Joe from AVR/Europ Car decided that the tyres of the truck we rented should be changed to good quality mud tyres which we found out later, was a very wise decision. Late afternoon we arrived in Xaysomboun to find the doors of the Phou Bia hotel locked but with a note of phone numbers to be called in case we would like to stay in the hotel.

The Phou Bia Hotel

After checking in to the hotel it was off to the market for a drink. Unfortunately we were spotted by an important guy on a motorbike who insisted that he would need copies of our passports in order for him to let us to stay the night.

Mac at the Xaysomboun market talking with the guy from the Police/Immigration department

The next day, after meeting with the people from the Education Department to prioritize projects for support and checking on the carpenter who is making the furniture for some of the schools, permits were arranged with a lot of help from Mac's contacts to travel to Phonsavan via Long Chieng.

Kids patiently waiting for their parents to finish their work

With a handwritten permit from the Security Office in Xaysomboun and a phonecall to Long Chieng to let us in it was off to Phonsavan along the dirt road.

The Phou Bia/Phou Kham mine

The phonecall clearly helped to smooth the way as the guards at both the south and the north side of Long Chieng village opened the gates the moment they spotted our car.

Crossing the old runway of LS 20 Alternate to go to the old school buildings.

The old school building with kids patiently waiting for the teacher

After a quick bowl of noodles it was off to see the new school buildings.

From here it was still quite a long drive to Phonsavan. Luckily the sun came through from time to time which provided some fantastic views of the countryside.

Long Chieng seen from the north from the Skyline Ridge (Battle for Skyline Ridge, Laos). Behind the two mountains, also known as the "speed brakes" the old runway is just visible.

Ban Xamthong where LS 20 was located

Students at the school in Xamthong with the little son waiting for his teacher dad to go home

Tha Tham Bleung (Hmong village). Mac had made some pictures during a previous trip and one of the guys offered to distribute the pictures as most of the parents were still out working in the fields. By the way, this guy had lost a leg a few years ago due to a bombie exploding while he was working in the field so watch out and stay on the roads as there is still a lot of unexploded stuf lying around

Getting down from the mountains to Ban Nam Chien with rain clouds quickly closing in.

Previously the main entry gate from the north to the Long Chieng and Sam Thong valleys was located at Ban Latkhay but the gate has now been moved to Nam Chien. Unless you have a permit to enter the area, the people manning the gates will not let you in as KTMPhil found out the hard way.

 

[KTMphil]

LR - An absolutely wonderful achievement getting in to Lon Chen (USA's CIA HQ in Laos during the Vietnam war), I must admit I did have my doubts in Vientiane the day before you left if you would actually pull it off - well done.

Great to see some real time photo's of what it looks like now, thanks for sharing.

Was there any signs of any old military hardware?

 

[Steve Canyon]

Nice to see some up to date pictures....

Why is this place still closed to the public, everybody knows about it??

Wonder what it's like growing up in such a place?, wonder what History lessons they get in class?

Great post...

 

[Mark Rossi]

Good on you Auke!

 

[Midnitemapper]

The lure of the "The Most Secret Place On Earth" "the busiest airport in the world", and the general aura, of the name "Long Cheng" will suck in every wannabe adventure seeker that stamps his passport, on the way to tubing in Vang Vieng . A great legend to be sure! Fortunately most of the "adventure seekers" are still playing mud volleyball while gulping sangria on the banks of the Nam Song. The reality of Long Cheng and Sysombone today is that it is a military controlled, and industrial mining, area were foreign tourists are not welcome. Please be informed that security issues exist and the Lao, do not want tourists in these areas.

Note: Pou Kham operations were closed for 2 days this week, due to a "security incident".

Phu Kham security incident won?t affect production ? PanAust

Loneriders trip would have been canceled had he been there at that time. I too, have been sucked in to this downward spiraling vortex with an unpleasant result. I accompanied some people with all the permissions set up by the Special Security in Sysombone, only to have a security issue crop up at the same time. Not to be denied we trudged on anyway, big mistake. 7 of the 10 day trip were spent looking at the inside of friendly police stations.
An unsatisfying trip.

In great contrast to other parts of Laos, nothing can compare to the carefree, joy, of bounding over the endless mountains dotted with friendly villagers.

My advice, be responsible, stay clear of this area, and respect the country you are visiting.

 

[Steve Canyon]

Sound advise...

Especially whilst there is still people up shooting....wow

 

[KTMphil]

Mac, I think has been there more than 10X as far as i'm aware?

 

[Lone Rider]

Not sure if Mac has been there 10 times but he does go on a regular basis to Laos and I think his last visit was 2-3 months ago and at that time he was again allowed to use the Long Chieng road to go to Phonsavan.

Someone, quite some time ago, asked me about the permit needed to go there but, as in our case this was organized by the contacts of Mac, I would not know how it can be organized. In our case the permit consisted of 2 Post-it notes stuck together as 1 note was not enough. Actually, if we would have been there 1 day later when there were problems in the area, I am quite sure that we would not have been allowed to take the short-cut from Xaysomboun to Phonsavan via Long Chieng.

While everyone I talked to seems to be very eager to go there, reality is that there is not much to see other than the old runway and VP's house (see below). Security is tight with one army base at the end of the runway and another base behind the house of VP and the powers that be are not happy to have people roaming around without their guidance. Midnight-mapper has some hair-raising stories about the area and when they went there with a permit when some problems cropped up, they were requested to present themselves at the police station for 7 out of the 10 days they spent in the area so be careful.

 

[Lone Rider]

OK, it seems that there is quite a bit of off-forum interest in this area so a few more old pictures from others and a story by Roger Arnold published in the "The Digital Journalist" - However, once more, be careful and please do not try to enter that area without permission


The base around 1974 - Copyright Kajntung


The base seen from the cliffs at the end of the runway - Copyright Soua Yang

There are also some pictures of the base or LS 20A as it was known at that time on the website of "The Ravens" - http://www.ravens.org/pictures/pictures.htm

More pictures here: http://www.longtiengbbq.com/Landmarks In Laos/album/Long Chieng (Xiangkhouang Province)/index.html

 

[phuketrichard]

I know first post but this interests me.

can anyone tell me why this is so protected?

I was at site 3at the plain of jars an met some de miners an i asked if i could go to Long Tieng an was told yes , no problem, perhaps they meant that the road went thru. They did tell me my car ( a honda civic) wouldn't make it.

Whats the trip like from there?

 

[The Bigfella]

I believe the issue relates to trouble with the Hmong minority. When I was in Phonsavan last September, I asked some Hmong lads about the rumours of 50 soldiers having been killed in the area in July 2012. They said it was the case. If that's ongoing, then it isn't going to be easy to get in.

 

[Lone Rider]

One of the reason is the problem with the Hmongs which the Bigfella mentioned - have a read here about some of the background (should have included the URL of the article by Roger Arnold yesterday in my post but forgot it: http://www.digitaljournalist.org/issue0 ... rnold.html
There are, according to some people, other problems as well but that is only hearsay so I won't bring these up here as I don't know in how far I can trust the info. The story about fighting mentioned by the Bigfella was not reported in Laos - I called a friend in Vientiane a day after it had happened and he had not heard so he asked a local friend who is from that area who had to call his family to confirm that indeed there had been problems and that a curfew had been imposed.

 

[Lone Rider]

Some more pictures of LS 20a from around 2003-2005 and no, these are not my pictures, but I found them through a search on the WWW and some fiddling around with picture sites


The control Tower

The American Compound and one of the two karst mountains at the end of the runway - think this one was called the Titty karst

The runway

Some war scrap at the base
.
Aerial view of LS 20a taken from a plane on its way to Phonsavan

 

[NKPBob]

Thank you Mr. Rider (Lone Rider) for posting this. LS20A is one of the places that I want(ed) to go. Perhaps your update will hold me till it is more accessible. And thank you Mr. Mapper for your advise... I don't want to spend my time with the authorities.

 

[KTMphil]

NKPBob - If you're really interested in getting in, I can PM you mac;s email address who i think has been there 15 times he will have some great information on your chances and what is needed.

 

[NKPBob]

Thank you very much Phil. Indeed, Mac has already contacted me. I do want to go to LS20A... it's kinda on my latest bucket list. I was never there, but I know lots of people that were there in it's "former life" and just want to know for myself. Long Chieng was such an integral part of the military operations in Laos during the Second Indochina War that it is always in the background of every action throughout the time no matter where the actual operations were. It's one thing to read about or see pics of the karst that is at the end of the runway... but I'm sure it's something else to stand there and look up at it. Likewise, looking at pics from Skyline ridge and reading about it can't possibly be the same as seeing it for myself.

That said, visiting LS20A isn't the highest on the list. I certainly don't want to have the kind of problems Don (MidnightMapper) has experienced. As it stands, I won't be coming to Thailand/Laos until some time after the first of the year so there's still time to figure out if I can find a way to LS20A. Another consideration is that I'm thinking of staying in the region for a while, so it may be better to wait until I have a better understanding by being there a little bit.

By all means... if you, Mac, or anyone else has any ideas, please let me know.

 

[mactbkk]

Bob, and All

Long Tieng, and the road on to the PDJ, is still very much restricted. For what reason, I'm not really sure. There's some foreign business travel there, such as the folks from the Phu Bia Mine, who also have an office up in Phonsavanh, and their major work south of Long Tieng. There's also the folks building the Nam Ngum 3 dam, which is just 10 km west of Long Tieng on the Nam Ngum, of course. They have a large camp for workers, really large, over on the SE end of the runway. I've not visited or talked with any of this crew.

My last trip up there was in early January, after an overnight in Xaysomboun town. Had some more local school stuff to check out. Then went up to Long Tieng, lunch, pho, with the head of the secondary school, asked if he needed anything, he came up with a new kitchen for the school's dormitory. Did the funding for that one.

Then one of the Lao "security" guys asked if he could catch a ride on to Sam Thong with us as long as we were going that way, sure, no problem, happy to help out. Did so, so now have another contact in the area.

Early last month was in Xaysomboun again with funds for two projects, new roof for a school there, Ban Khi Xang (yes, "Ban elephant shit"!!), and for new tin roof for the Sam Thong primary school.

Had planned on going up that way and on to Phonsavanh, but "my guy" in XSB said no can do, roads out on past Sam Thong, rains, landslides, etc. Have hit that problem before on that road. so, decided to retreat back to Tha Bok on RT 13S go down to Paksane, and north to Phonsanh, did so and got in about 1800 hrs. But, before leaving the area phone up to a contact at Long Tieng to ask about the road and the every-other-day bus/truck that goes through. He said the road was open, but that there was a "big meeting" in Long Tieng that day so no visitors allowed. OK, understandable.

So, yes, area still restricted. I get by as after a fair number of visits, and doing some local school support, guess I've become something of a known factor, so do get permission to visit or go through to the PDJ. Also depend on the local folks to advise me if there's any potential "problems" along the way. Also helps that I speak Lao pretty well.

FYI, on that January-February this year trip, after the PDJ headed on north to Vieng Thong aka Moung Hiem, RONed, then north to Moung Son, and east to Sam Neua city. Did stop at Ban Houay Ma, wanted to get some photos of Phu Pha Thi. Did, but heeded advice from the Midnite Mapper NOT to take the road up to the base of PPT as he also ran into a bit of difficulty with the Lao officialdom there. So we just got our photos at a distance and headed on east.

I'm a believer in listening to advice of others who've gone before me. That's one of the great things about this www site, lots of great info. FYI, I'm not a 2-wheeler by any means, more like Lone Rider, 4-wheels is more my speed.

Mac

 

[KTMphil]

Mac, great insight from someone who's been there more than most, thanks for sharing.