Atlantis Women in Laos: Most Amazing Tour Ever!

Emil Signes – Saved 6/10/13 09:50

5. From the Plain of Jars to Las Vegas

Friday February 1. The Hot Springs has been a nice place to stay. If I hadn’t been stressed out by trying to put a video together I would have enjoyed it more. But it was a small price to pay. After getting to bed in the wee small hours, I got up at 6 AM to continue the video. Here are a few views of where we spent two nights; I’m trying to make up for the fact that the only other picture I’ve included from the Hot Springs to date is that of us having a beer in the hot tub Tuesday evening.

Here is a panoramic view of the grounds where we stayed; several of us stayed at the building on the left.

Panoramic View of
Grounds at Hot Springs

Panoramic View at Hot Springs – building at left was one of our residences

Another of our residences at the Hot Springs

Porch at one of the residences
This was a very nice facility

Hot tub in front; pavilion in back is where we had our meals

We breakfasted at 8 and then headed to the famous Plain of Jars; I was particularly interested in this site, remembering the mysterious nature of the jars themselves that had long ago caught my attention –their makers unknown, their purpose unknown. And I also remembered the constant bombing it underwent – the Plain of Jars was one of the most bombed areas of the most bombed province of the most bombed country in the world.

This was the second time I’d been in a “most bombed” place on a rugby tour; in April 1993 when the Atlantis men played in the Belfast Sevens in Ravenhill, we stayed at the Europa Hotel, which was at the time in the Guinness Book of World Records as the “World’s Most Bombed Hotel” (by the IRA during “The Troubles”). I did some online research while preparing this report to make sure my memory was correct, and discovered that the Europa was bombed again – for about the 30th time - a month after we were there. Luckily the last bombing of Laos was nearly 40 years ago.

While researching the Plain of Jars online, I came across an interesting article from airforce-magazine.com, the “Online Journal of the [US] Air Force Association.” It’s far from the most technical, but it does give the US military perspective.

I excerpt the following from this site (http://www.airforce-magazine.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/1999/June%201999/0699jars.aspx):

“The Plain of Jars is a 500-square-mile, diamond-shaped region in northern Laos, covered with rolling hills, high ridges, and grassy flatlands. Its average altitude is about 3,000 feet. It derives its name from the hundreds of huge gray stone "jars" that dot the landscape. About 5 feet high and half again as broad, these containers were created by a people of a megalithic iron-age culture and probably served as burial urns. Exactly who created them, and why their culture disappeared, is not known.”

Others have speculated that there were probably lids on the urns, but none have yet been found in situ. The suggestion is that the lids were made of perishable materials. The jars have been dated as roughly 2000 years old.

“During the long Southeast Asian war, all sides found the Plain of Jars to be situated in a highly strategic location. The area was a home to several airfields and contained a limited road complex that connected various sectors of Laos to themselves and to the outside world. This crossroads has been a battleground for centuries but never so intensively as in this century's many overlapping conflicts in Indochina.

“The struggle for the Plain of Jars in Laos in the 1960s and 1970s was a mysterious and tragic affair, wrapped up in confusion and obscured by years of falsehoods and half-truths. It was a sideshow to the main war in Vietnam, but it was ennobled by some of the finest and most heroic flying in the history of the United States Air Force….
….

“The worst result of the 14-year struggle for the Plain of Jars was the destruction of a noble ally, the Hmong. They fought in countless battles against North Vietnamese forces and were in the end left to their fates. Originally numbering about 300,000 people, living high on mountain ridges and subsisting by means of slash-and-burn agricultural techniques, the Hmong suffered some 30,000 casualties, mostly young fighting men.”

There are also tons of UXO in the area. There are marked borders at those sites that have been cleared of unexploded ordnance: stay inside them and you’re safe – outside them there are no guarantees. We saw the markers – white on the inside, red on the outside, and we stayed within the white!

Another fact I hadn’t known is the huge number of jar sites (there are more than 90 separate sites) and how remote some of them are. Wikipedia notes that “Site 52, the largest known jar site to date with 392 jars [is] near a traditional Hmong village only accessible on foot.”

While wandering Site 1 of the Plain of Jars, we crossed immediately into the path of US Ambassador Karen Stewart, also walking there. We introduced ourselves, exchanged a few pleasantries, and got our photograph taken with her.

Some pictures at Site 1 of the Plain of Jars follow.

Overview of Plain of Jars Site 1

We spread ourselves out among the jars

L: Lao Kang, Keo and Maggie at jar
R: I make a feeble attempt to plank on jar

With Ambassador
Stewart on Plain of Jars

Atlantis meets up with current US Ambassador to Laos Karen Stewart on Plain of Jars

Standing, L to R: Unknown, Chris Ryan, Hannah, Dot, Josie, Nalada, Emil, Ambassador Stewart, Ray, Brittany, Sarah, Chris Mastaglio, Aileen, Maggie

Squatting, L to R: Tracy, Hoop, Sara, Karen, Lauren

Just before we said goodbye to Xieng Khouang, we drove through Phonsavan then lunched there at a restaurant called Sanga. At the Xieng Khouang airport we got on a plane to Vientiane, where we returned to the Chanthapanya Hotel for the remainder of our visit.

L: Driving through Phonsavan for lunch
R: Our last meal in the highlands

We leave the Plain of Jars and inspirational Xieng Khouang province

In Vientiane we got together to view our videos, and a group of unbiased but interested Lao Rugby representatives selected the winner.

Here they are:

The competition winner: Safe Spaces. Put together by (ah, I am looking at the credits and see the film team was listed as “Chau Jing, Righty, Pigeon, Pencil, Happy and Shortcake).” Hmm - that brings me to another digression: our tour nicknames.

On most tours I’m on, each member of the tour is nicknamed by another member. From that point on, we’re supposed to address them by their nickname only. Another thing we do is have everyone count out with their tour number when we assemble, to make sure we’ve got everyone before we set off.

Oh, and tour numbers are to be given in the local language, i.e. in this case, Lao.

When we went to Hmong country, I listed all the Hmong numbers as well, but I must admit we never implemented the count-off in Hmong.

Here is a list of the tour participants, along with their nicknames and tour numbers (Arabic number, Lao, Hmong).

Name	#	Jersey	Nickname	Lao	Hmong
Dot	1		Romney	neung	ee
Karen	2		Righty	sawng	aw
Britany	3		Pencil	saam	bay
Sara	4		KO	sii	blau
Lauren	5		Rhody	haa	gee
Misha	6		Sweetie	hok	jao
Casey	7		Pigeon	ched	zha
Josie	8		Cyclops	bpaed	yee
Tracy	9		Finesy	gao	joua
Hoop	10		Brittanica	sip	gao
Hannah	11		Shortcake	sip-ed	gao ee
Sarah	12		Chao Sai	sip-sawng	gao aw
Aileen	13		Chao Jing	sip-saam	gao bay
Ray	14		Tomily	sip-sii	gao blau
Chris	15		Oldfinger	sip-haa	gao gee
Emil	16		Ho	sip-hok	gao jao
Luna	17		Happy	sip-ched	gao zha
Maggie	18		Pitch	sip-bpaed	gao yee

Karen: “And we learned to count to twenty in Lao – sweet icing on the cake!”

At any rate, I was discussing our videos. Here they are.

To repeat, the winner (the deserved winner IMHO; I particularly loved the music they chose to accompany the film, Let Me Be by Xavier Rudd):

Safe Spaces: Aileen, Karen, Casey, Brittany, Luna and Hannah (Safe Spaces.m4v). Click on the image below to see it.

Still frame from "Safe Spaces" Video: Lao Kang in charge
Click to see video

Silver and Bronze Videos:
Benefits of Rugby: Emil, Josie, Tracy, Misha, Heather (Benefits of Rugby.m4v)

Exclusion and Sport: Ray, Sara, Dot, Lauren, Chris, Sarah (Exclusion and Sport.m4v)

Note that all groups wanted to get Lao Kang featured in their video ☺

L: Still frame from "Benefits of Sport/Rugby" video
R: Still frame from "Exclusion and Sport" video

Click on each to see respective videos

Following the videos we had a de-brief session over cocktails and snacks at Amphone Restaurant, after which we headed to La Cave des Châteaux, one of the best French restaurants in town, which happens to be owned by a former rugby player!

Saturday February 2. The rest of the weekend was pretty mellow. Today we went to the American Embassy pitch and ran a little intro clinic/practice for both male and female youth participating in the US Embassy’s ACCESS program. ACCESS brings highly talented, disadvantaged youth from across the country to Vientiane for study at Lao American College and intensive English lessons at Vientiane College, a private English language school that is a longtime supporter of Lao Rugby. All of these players were trying out rugby for the first time – and some of them even came from Nonghet.

We conducted a co-ed practice, which may have had the effect of driving a few of the young women away, but those that stayed seemed quite athletic and very dedicated.

With students at
Saturday co-ed practice

Working with students in the US Embassy ACCESS program

In the evening we went to a local expat hang out, the “Q Bar”, and watched the Ireland/Wales rugby match with a bunch of Irishmen, who gave us a dirty look after a few of us cheered for a Welsh try …

Sunday February 3 The only item on our agenda today was 4 PM training with the Lao Men’s National Team. Ray was heading home about this time, so Chris and I ran the practice, which focused on continuity.

Chris and I conducted a practice with the Lao Men's National Team

After training, those of us left met up for one last pleasant dinner at Viengkhanphou an outdoor restaurant. We met up with Megan and I put a #800 on her cast to commemorate her Atlantis number.

Chris and I also looked for a tailor to make something out of two 12’ pieces of cloth that we had briefly worn as pantaloons. But – both today and tomorrow – they were closed.

Monday February 4. Brittany, Josie and Chris went to the Q Bar to watch the Super Bowl at 6:30 AM; I slept in, but did get to see the last few minutes on the hotel room TV.

By 3 PM Chris and I were on a flight to Bangkok, where we hoped to spend the evening seeing the town before our 7 AM flight … Both exhausted, however, we had a hotel dinner, crashed, and caught the 5 AM shuttle to the airport. Off to Vegas!

I do remember that one of the last couple of nights in Vientiane we passed by a well-lit Laos square and I commented, hmm, looks like Laos Vegas. And now we were heading to the real Las Vegas. Heading to a World Series of Sevens tournament and to a function at which I would be honored for … having fun with sevens, I guess.

L: The best night-lit area of Vientiane that I saw; I nicknamed it “Laos Vegas”
R: Next stop: Las Vegas!

This is what I was heading for, a party in my honor:

Flyer for party in my honor

The USA Sevens in Las Vegas is the most prestigious rugby event in the US, and – besides spending several days in a milieu completely different from Laos, I was thrilled to see so many rugby people with whom I’ve interacted over the last few decades. I was particularly pleased to see, on the plaque USA Rugby awarded me, the words “tireless promotion of the 7s game.” That, I know, whatever the outcome, is something I have done to the best of my ability.

The words I liked best:

”tireless promotion of the 7s game

But all that is another story.

From the Atlantis perspective, I’ll let Casey be the final to comment. I will simply add that what she says – based on the Laos trip in the mini-universe of Atlantis tours she’s been on (4), I can echo from the more than 80 tours I’ve been on:

Casey: I've somehow managed to go on 4 incredible international tours with Atlantis (T&T, Thailand, Borneo and Laos), but this one truly was special. It was at the same time so much less about the rugby and exactly about what rugby stands for. The rugby family extends far beyond what most players imagine and it's a blessing to see it played with such joy. I've seen some incredible international matches over the years, but watching 3-5 yr olds throw a ball bigger than them around on this trip topped them all. I could not have imagined that when I followed a roommate down to rugby practice I would get all this - thank you Emil, for coaching me, but even more so, for sharing the Atlantis dream with me and so many more lucky individuals!

To close this intentionally long-winded story (see the opening paragraph of Part 1) from the Lao Rugby perspective, here is a wonderful quote from Maggie’s email to the team about 2 weeks after we left:

Maggie: “I know we asked you to do many things that were inconvenient and expensive, and perhaps at times these requests seemed unreasonable..., but you took it all in stride and did everything that was asked of you. You put up with conditions that were at times less than pleasant - cold temperatures and cold showers, a mandate to create an Oscar-worthy film short in 3 days, the plague - and you never complained. Or, at least, you never complained in front of me. Thanks for that. You led outreach activities with Hmong, Lao and Khmu children without knowing any Lao beyond your tour numbers and Sabaidee. You wore your sinhs around town, while playing rugby, and on a long walk to [Village 3] - and you looked good in them. You engaged children in your activities who are normally marginalized by disability, by ethnicity, by gender and by socio-economic status. You were respectful of local traditions and customs and brought the host villages so much pride and joy by participating in their celebrations. You were, and I am sure will continue to be, wonderful ambassadors - for the sport, for Atlantis, for North America, and for Lao Rugby. “

I can’t imagine a better end to this report.

EGS signature

P.S. Lao Rugby did a little video on our visit after we left. Click here to see it.

Atlantis Women in Laos: Most Amazing Tour Ever!

Emil Signes – Saved 6/10/13 09:50

Atlantis Women in Laos-1: Background and Tour Party

Atlantis Women in Laos-2: The Trip and the Tournament; Vientiane

Atlantis Women in Laos-3: Atlantis Visits Xieng Houang. We meet the Hmong, Revisit the Vietnam War