The subject of Laos keeps coming up in my conversations. Conversations with self, conversations with others, conversations between pen and paper as conducted by myself. If you are just tuning in: I lived in Vientiane, Laos, for a couple of years as a young Army brat. Some memories are clear and others handed down, but lately the subject keeps coming up for a variety of reasons.
A friend from the neighborhood will be in Laos at some time in the next couple of months, and if he makes it to Vientiane for any length of time he offered to try and get pictures of the house we lived in during 1974 and 1975. The house was at Salakoktane B-13, a dirt road which was, at the time, on the edge of Vientiane. This is the house:
Salakoktane B-13. Vientiane, Laos.
And this is what lay at the end of the road.
Meet the Locals. Vientiane, Laos.
Herds of water buffalo would roar past on a regular basis, occasionally goring someone with their horns. We do not seem to have any photos of said beasts but here are some cattle, strolling past our house:
Water Buffalo Passing Salakoktane B-13, Vientiane Laos.
I can not seem to find any solid information on Salakoktane Road today, if it even still exists. Oblique references to the road in some sources are not helpful, and Salakoktane Road does not seem exist in any of the online mapping services I tried.
I have reached out to someone who lives in Vientiane, and hope to hear back as to whether they know if this road exists, and if so where. If these efforts fail I’ll go old school and visit a library.
My search for Salakoktane turned up something which, though a little strange, energized my search for this connection to Salakoktane. I spotted a Telephone Directory for the U.S. Mission to Laos, October, 1974 (click here for the PDF). This was hiding in the USAID.gov web site, though there appears to be no direct link or reference to the document. The document contains names, home addresses, and phone numbers for military personnel at the American Embassy in Vientiane and includes (on page 26) the happy Thomas family, living at Salakoktane B-13, phone number 6684:
Salakoktane Phone Book Listing
DAO stands for Defense Attache Office, and the 4-digit numbers are phone numbers for the embassy and our house. Phone numbers in Vientiane only had 4 digits, as shown in my birthday party invitation from 1975.
It was strange to find this telephone book, this tangible piece of evidence lurking on the public network, and interesting to see how many names I remembered. Even though the information is over 35 years old it still seems strange to me that a phone book of military personnel’s home addresses and phone numbers is public. The book lists what was basically every American in Laos at the time, including my school teachers, librarians, and next-door neighbors. It also lists the names of facilities and places that were part of our daily lives. As a child I thought “Udorn” was a funny word, though I had no idea what it was. Some folks pronounced the word “oo-dorn” and others said “you-dorn”, and to this day I am not certain which pronunciation is correct. KM-6 was a compound which comprised several buildings, including the American School of Vientiane (also known as “ASV”) which my sister and I attended for a couple of years. I remember the long bus rides from Salakoktane to ASV, and I remember the giant sign pointing to the compound. I remember the sugar cane stands and the unbelievable heat.
How interesting on you keeps all of those thing all after these year!
Mark, we must have been neighbors. My parents lived at B-17
Your comment served to alert me that all the images and links on this post were busted. It’s fallout from a disk failure years ago. I replaced the images and added a working link to that USAID Telephone Book, where it looks like your address at B-17 is listed. I was too young to remember a lot about Salakoktane with any clarity. Our friends on the block were the Ameraults, and I think I was told a Russian family lived across the street. My sister remembers far more than I, and she fills me in the memories sometimes, but I always seem to forget them again. Now I am wondering what the word “Salakoktane” even means…
Oh, wait, your B-17 address is not listed. I see now that the B-17 address in that phone book was on Khoua Luang, not Salakoktane.