Laos: Remnants of the War Live On

This canoe is made from fuel tanks dropped from the air 

The Sierra Club magazine had an excellent article in its January-February issue on the long term impact of ordinance dropped on Laos during the Vietnam War.  

From the article:

Laos is the most heavily bombed country on Earth per capita. Between 1964 and 1973, in a sideshow to the Vietnam War, the U.S. military dropped more than 2 million tons of explosives on this landlocked Southeast Asian country...Up to 30 percent of the bombs that were dropped did not detonate on impact, and they remain volatile in the soil today. More than 50,000 people have been killed or maimed since the bombings began, with more than 20,000 of the casualties resulting from accidents after the war ended, according to a recent survey by Laos's National Regulatory Authority for Unexploded Ordnance.

It's No Laos in New England

It has snowed and snowed - so high that until today's 40 degree break, we've had 7 foot snowbanks. When we walk through the woods, we're hitting our faces on branches that usually wouldn't bother NBA forwards!

Here's a bike embedded in a snowbank in Belmont Center

Another newspaper writer falls off her bike

My wife and I both signed up for the Pan Mass Challenge a week ago. We'll be riding 192 miles from central Massachusetts to Provincetown on Cape Cod the first weekend in August. This will be the fourteenth year of riding for me -and the PMC is one of the highlights of my summer.  Training rides are one of the highlights of my spring.

Bella English, a Boston Globe columnist , has a frightening article in today's Globe magazine.  In September, she fractured her skull (despite her helmet) and had a pretty serious head injury which has left her on medical disability and with some residual cognitive deficits.

Scary stuff.

The snow is piled high now.  I hope her article will recede from my mind when the snow melts and the spandex calls.

Should you get back on after a fall?

Gina Kolata, my favorite science writer at the NYTimes, has an article this week about why it is so incredibly scary to fall off a bicycle.

The scariest line:

“Well, you’ve joined the proud majority of serious cyclists who’ve busted a collarbone.”


I haven't broken any limbs - and I've fallen twice on my head - and both times a helmet has left me feeling fine.  It's good she wrote this article in the autumn when most of us are waiting until spring to get back on our bikes!

"Can I go for a Bike Ride"

Weekend bikers.  Not always easy on the spouse

Bike to Work Week

I was able to bike to work just a single day of "Bike to Work" week earlier this month -- and biking in urban Boston is about as different as biking in Laos as you can get. Of course the roads are in much better shape.  And of course there are more cars.

Here's what surprised me though.   Through our entire 800 km in Vietnam and Laos, I never saw another recreational cyclist.  I saw entire families on motorbikes (sometimes with a refrigerator or some other unlikely luggage).  I saw small children on beat up single speed bikes.  But I never saw another western cyclist (except the fellow riders and guides on our trip).

Boston, on the other hand, is full of recreational cyclists.  Many ride bikes fancier and more expensive than mine, and a large portion of them, though not all, wear helmets.  

But here's what they don't do. They don't obey "one way" signs.  They don't slow down for stop signs. They don't push to the right if they are going slowly, and they don't call out "on your left" when they are speeding ahead.

I miss the car-free miles on the roads in Laos.  However, I am surprised to also miss the lack of fellow cyclists now that I'm back in the states.

The highlight of my ride home was a stop in Fresh Pond where a red-tailed hawk family has made a  nest on a fascade of an office building. Here's a link to a video from the Boston Globe.  There is frequently a carnival around the office building, with a gaggle of onlookers, some with cameras that have lenses longer than my forearm.  Even without binoculars you can see the parents and at least one of the chicks.   This is a sight,of course, that you would never see in Laos!

Sticky Rice (and Clean Water)

One thing I learned in Laos was that I love sticky rice.  I finally found some (Thai Glutinous) sticky rice here in the US (Three Elephants Brand) -- and followed directions from a blog and the rice came out - well - not quite as good as in Laos - but awfully good.  I also cooked some tofu with red curry/coconut sauce and an eggplant red chili dip - here's a photo from this evening.

The bamboo shoots just didn't come out quite right - maybe next time. 

You might notice the tell-tale bottle of water on the table -and notice that many of the plates are disposable.  Why, you might ask?  We had a "catastrophic" water main break in suburban Boston, and 2 million of us in Eastern Massachusetts are now boiling our water (or drinking bottled water).   Another thing I learned in Vietnam and Laos - how to brush my teeth with bottled water.

Here's a photo of the water section at Target in Watertown, a few hours after the announcement of the water main break: