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Destroyed landscape around Xieng Khouang

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Pfriemer

Premium (World), Bangkok

Destroyed landscape around Xieng Khouang

An American bomb damaged the cave during the Vietnam War, when the Pathet Lao used it as a stronghold — the surrounding area still has trench systems and bomb craters. The land is littered with metal shrapnel. The town of Xieng Khouang was utterly destroyed during the fighting between the Pathet Lao and American backed anti-communist troops. A new town was built in the mid 1970s, known to foreigners as Phonsavan.
Walking in this area is dangerous and the visitors have to follow strictly orders by the MAG (Mines Advisory Group) which takes care about every bodies life and clears the fields of UXOs (unexploded ordnances).
Laos was the most bombed country in the world per capita. More than two million tons of ordnance was dropped on the country during the Second Indochina War. Up to 30 per cent of some types of ordnance did not detonate.