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JOURNEY
I
t
rained a lot during the night and
I was a little concerned about the
balloon inflation the next day in the
middle of Vang Vieng, Laos. Luckily
for us, the weather kept improving
and was perfect by the time we
headed to the old runway that the
US Air Force used during the Vietnam
War, (which is now the middle of town).
Around 50 children from the local
school were picked up and brought to
see the balloon. We gave them a bottle
of water each, a CD of a popular Laotian
children’s show and some stickers.
I inflated the balloon and had it up for
around an hour. The kids looked wide-
eyed at it and asked me questions. The
local UNICEF staff translated for me and
after an hour or so, I brought the balloon
down and some Australian tourists helped
to pack it up.
Vang Vieng is a beautiful area with
karst limestone mountains. Tourists like to
go tubing down the river and it was once
infamous for its many bars that lined it.
There are great bush walks and cultural
experiences in the area well worth a visit.
I left for Luang Prabang after lunch.
About 50km out of Vang Vieng, I noticed
the engine temperature rising. I stopped
and checked the water in the radiator. I
was very unhappy to see a hole in my
‘new’ radiator which I had replaced in
Vientiane a few days earlier. I managed
to limp the vehicle down the road where
I found a petrol station which luckily had
a cover. A huge thunderstormstruck about
20 minutes later.
I called a couple of people and used a
translator to ask the owner of the petrol
station whether there was a place to fix it.
He said there was and it could be done the
followingmorning as it was late in the day.
He invited me for a meal with his family,
which was very kind of him.
The mechanic arrived at 6.30am and
Undaunted by Potholes and
a Broken Radiator
Children are ourmost precious, valuable and fragile resource for the future and no one
knows this better thanUNICEF’s
AndrewParker
. Here he talks about his experience
with them in remoteVangVieng, Laos.
efficiently took out the radiator. The owner
of the petrol station took me 10kms down
the road to get the radiator fixed. It took
10mins to fix and we headed back and
the mechanic put it back in. I was on my
way by 9am.
I decided to take a new, shorter
Chinese-built road. It was one of the
steepest roads I have ever been on and
was wondering whether I had made a
good decision. Just before the start of the
climb, amassive pile of stones blocked the
road. The week before the road had been
Rural School, Northern Laos
Luang Prabang
Children cycling at Xang