Plain of Jars

Location: Vientiane
Weather: Warm and humid

My trip to The Jars was through some extremely windy roads in a minibus. Only 3 of us went on this tour - Dom, Laura from London and Me. Our friend Anne-Marie gave us the idea to visit them, but changed her mind at the last minute! Anyways, after 5 hours of meandering we got to the town of Phonsavan. We stayed in the best guesthouse I've ever been to, it was more like a 4 star hotel, the rooms and staff were top quality - the hot shower was awesome.

Phonsavan is the capital of the Xieng Khuang province which the USA bombed 800 times a day for 4 years during the secret Laos war during the 60's, thanks to this it wins the title of the most heavily bombed area in the history of the world per capita! A bit of an overkill if you want my opinion. UXO (unexploded ordinance) are still being recovered/suffered by people in the area today and it is dangerous to walk off the paths by the jar sites because of this - they found a 500lb bomb under a jar site just 2 months ago - our guide said he'd showed tourists that area many times - well done to the Mine Action Group (MAG) for finding this. Most of the guesthouses such as our one have a fine collection of grenades and bombs on show in the foyer.

Our tour consisted of seeing 3 jars sights. At each site we got to see the mysterious jars, which they think, strangely enough were made to hold the remains of dead people in - some kind of funeral right. They were all different sizes - some huge, some small just sitting on the hillside and I'm very glad I saw them, because in a few years I reckon you won't be able to touch or view them up-close. The landscape of the jar sites and of Phonsavan(and I suppose rural Laos in general) is spectacular - rice fields, mountains and even idyllic water buffalo wandering around. I really liked the place. We also got to see a cave where villagers hid to escape the bombing and a Buddhist temple which had been bombed to bits but the Buddah was left standing. I think Phonsavan town is clearly gearing up for the future tourist industry, in 5 years it'll probably be too popular, I think I'm lucky to have seen it as it is now.

We had to leave bright and early the next day because our minibus driver wanted to get back - so we left at 8am and did a straight 6 hour drive to Vang Viang. This is THE other town in Laos - it is very much like Ko Phan Nga, backpacker central, but a bit more laid back. There are cafes showing DVD movies and bars selling potent Laos whiskey (called Lao Lao) buckets. We met up with Laura's travelling friend Charlotte there and hanged out with them quite a bit. Spent an entire day floating down a river on an inner-tube again, like in Pai, but Vang Viang is very famous for this, because they have numerous people along the river flogging Beer Lao to you. There are also platforms and swings that you can jump off into the river, which is great fun. Amusingly they cost 1000kip to have a go and get you get a free beer(which funnily enough actually costs 1000kip normally). oh yeah this Japanese dude accompanied us on the river that day and he was stoned and drunk by 10:30am during this trip, that dude ruled, haha.
When we got to the end of the river and were pushed along the last bit by a bunch of Lao kids (yes we had to pay them afterwards) we walked to a cave, which Vang Viang is also famous for. Taking my camping torch which I bought in Louang Phabang that I can wear on my forehead, we went swimming IN the cave because it was flooded! Once inside it was total darkness, but the water wasn't cold. There were quite a few different passageways in there and you could get totally lost if you wanted, but we somehow found the way out. This was really great, I actually enjoyed swimming in that cave more than the river.

By JamesReed on 21.03.05 @ 10:29 AM GMT