Wild Orchid Search, Central Laos

by Charlie Griffith

Yes, this actually happened; and I leave it to your collective hind-sight imagination to think of its' potential for max. trouble. While at Savannakhet sometime during 1967-68, someone (perhaps me) came up with the idea while sitting around the hostel one afternoon of going out to search in the boonies for wild orchids which could be pulled by their roots from the side of a tree. As air-plants, they'd grow onto any place where their seeds blew which also afforded them shelter. I volunteered to drive our station jeep. So I think about three of the Volpar Aerial Survey Project Pilots and myself said,..... "Sure why not?....beats sitting here!". We set out along dusty, potholed roads a pretty good distance from the outskirts of Savannakhet, and for quite some time. After a while we found some and pried them away from the tree with long poles and got them undamaged and with good blooms into the jeep, and later back to the hostel. I remember putting mine in the small shower stall I had at my quarters a three minute walk away. Others sitting in the hostel who hadn't seen us leave said...."You've been WHERE doing WHAT?" If anyone out there remembers that afternoon, or any other Savannakhet stories, I'd like to hear them. Too many years have passed for me to remember names. Best regards to all, Charlie Griffith, (former Station Manager there at that time)