We went out along route 9 to the Vietnam border to see one of the hubs of the Ho Chi Minh trail at Ban Dong. There is a museum there which the Vientiane Times announced had opened in December but as you can see is still being built.
They had moved some war debris from the area into the grounds—bombs, tanks, anti-aircraft guns, bits of plane.
A couple of km down the road on the bikes was this Vietnamese suspension bridge built at the end of the war which escaped bombing. From the bridge we could see the local canoes in this area are made of aluminium from US planes —a plentiful natural resource of the area.
This other major concrete bridge on route 23 to Saravan was built in ‘45 and destroyed in ‘64, an early target. Route 23 is still impassable because of this.
Further west, Sepon has been rebuilt a couple of km away from Seponkao or old Sepon which was obliterated. All that’s left is the bank strong room and a partial temple wall inside which the new temple has been built. The new Sepon still doesn’t have a bank 45 years on.
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