Vietnam - Laos Border

Yesterday, I went on a site visit to a team trying to recover remains from a burial site very near the Vietnam - Laos border. It is a very remote site requiring a helicopter ride and then a 3 mile walk to get there. Actually we walked in and took what is known as a REO truck - a large bedded cargo truck built to haul large items out of very difficult to access places - back out.

The walk to the site was quick because we were worried about getting weathered in by an approaching front, but it wasn't so quick that I didn't realize a botanist would have a splendid day just exploring this area. There were beautiful, exotic plants everywhere. The weather was very comfortable with a nice overcast sky. In the mountains, as we were, the temps were considerably lower than the lower lands along the coast that were easily teetering on the 100 degree mark.

The visit was quick and my boss had a few discussions with guys on the team, but we were there long enough to experience the most irritating thing about the base camp that these guys were in. The leeches were very bad in this area. These land leeches will wait in the trees until they sense your body heat and drop from the overhanging leaves. If you don't notice them when they hit your skin, they will immediately make a small bite and inject you with a powerful anticoagulant that will keep you bleeding for hours, and sometimes days before it heals. Two landed on me, but only one managed to bite into me. In the end, he paid the price. The team leader handed me his knife and I used to to scrape him off my skin and cut him in half. They are remarkably resilient creatures and interminably hard to kill.

The REO truck back to the helicopter landing zone was infinitely harder than the walk in. We got banged around pretty good, and even with the blister that formed on my heel from the new boots I had, I would have walked back out if given the choice again.

Today we are driving from Quang Binh to Danang. About a 5 hour trip. We will travel along Hwy 1 through the Street Without Joy (a reference to the book written by Bernard Fall). Actually this who area is without joy. The norhern end of this route was literally bombed into the stone age and the people are just now recovering. Of course, the weather is so unliveably hot here in the summer I don't understand why people are here anyway.