Austin Bush

writer/photographer

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Because of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, this area was bombed by the Americans; not far from the village, there’s a six or so km stretch of road edged w dozens and dozens of often linked craters. One village still has parts of a US fighter jet that was shot down rotting in its temple, as well as bomb casings rusting next to wood houses. To grasp the scale of this, watch the recent Ken Burns doc, The Vietnam War; the footage of bombs being poured on these places is truly horrifying. #lpinlaos

The area was once part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, and this cave was allegedly home to 3,000 North Vietnamese troops at one point. It’s said that you can still find junk they left behind more than 40 years ago! #lpinlaos

Emerging from no internet and a crazily beautiful, weird and kind of sad place. Will update soon.

I’m reaching the eastern part of central Laos, near the so-called Ho Chi Minh Trail, where the legacy of my country starts to become very apparent. Laos is the most bombed country in the history of warfare — an unsuccessful effort by the US to eradicate that trail — and bombs show up just about everywhere here, even today, in the form of craters, silverware, steps, planter boxes and other things made from scrap metal, people w amputated limbs and, here in Tha Bak, boats made from the more intact bomb casings — a testament to both Lao ingenuity and horrific US foreign policy. #lpinlaos

After almost 20 years in SE Asia, rice planting doesn’t seem any less beautiful (not look any less back-breaking). 🍚 🇱🇦 #lpinlaos

🔪 @fantasticfoodsearch 🔪

😎 @fantasticfoodsearch 😎

Eating in Mae Hong Son

December 28, 2008 in blog

There are so many things I'd like to share from Mae Hong Son that it would take several posts. So instead, I've created a Flickr slideshow of some of the more interesting things. (Hint: click on full-screen mode, where you can opt to see descriptions of the images.)