Laos - Phonsavan

Now, when I bought my ticket for the bus to Phonsavan from my guesthouse in Vang Vieng, the ticket said "VIP BUS" - which means reasonably new bus, aircon, mainly western tourists.

What I got was this:




Not quite what I was expecting!!! All up, the bus was missing 6 windows, the seats were mostly broken, and there was around 16 sacks of rice piled up in the aisle, which I had to climb over to get to my seat. When the bus finally left, they had oversold the bus by about 10 tickets, so people were actually sitting on the bags of rice.....!





However, like I said in the previous post, you really shouldn't come to Laos without a sense of humour, and this was one of those moments when you really needed one!

Anyway, the bus did make it to Phonsavan, after around 8 hours of travel up and down the mountains in the Lao country side.

Phonsavan is a tiny town, the main street is the only street, and its around 4 k's long. The only reason people come here, and the only reason I came here, was to see the "Plain of Jars". The Jars are a bizarre formations situated on three different sites about 10 - 20 k's out of Phonsavan. No body knows where they came from our why they are there or what they are made of. The typical Lao rumour is the were used to make Lao Lao hundred of years ago for Lao New Year parties.....given the size of the jars it would have been one hell of a party!!



I signed up with a tour for about $11US with 3 other backpackers I met on the bus, and a Belgium couple in their 60's who had been travelling the world for almost 15 years.

The first site, and by far the biggest, was probably the most impressive. Spanning over around 6k's of country side, there are around 60 jars on the site, as well as a cave in the middle.



After going to the first site, the last two sites were a bit of a let down as far as size was concerned, however, they were a lot prettier. The view from the last two sites were amazing, and there was a bit of shade, which is always welcome during the hot season in Laos.

We spent all up around 5 hours travelling through the three sites and stopping for lunch. It was an interesting part of the world to see.

Phonsavan is also in one of the areas that was most heavily bombed in the 1970's by the US. So everywhere you walk, there are signs warning you about Unexploded Ordnance (UXO) which still haven't been cleared. The Plain of Jars is one area that has been mostly cleared, but its still not worth wondering of the dirt tracks just in case...!

The next day, I headed to Luang Prabang to meet back up with Ville...