Phonsavan

Keeping with our original travel plan, we have no travel plan.  Wondering what we should see in Laos, I asked Dick and Tita, (who have been to Laos several times) if they could suggest anything that we should see.  Tita mentioned the "Plain of Jars" located near Phonsavan in between Luang Prabang and Ventiane.  Ken and I decided that a stop there would break up the trip nicely so we took the local bus from Luang Pragang to Phonsavan, 7 hours and  $12 each  took us through some of the twistiest mountain roads we have been on in a bus.  Only 6 of us tourists were on the bus, the rest were Laos an I don't think many had been on a long trip before this one.  Half and hour after starting, the bus staff were handing out barf-bags and within the hour people were puking, left, right and center:(  We were lucky enough to get seats in the middle of the bus and (touch wood) didn't have a problem.

In the town of Phonsavan itself there is really not much to see but during the two nights we spent there a fair was in town so Ken, I and Gary ( a fellow traveller from the Shuswup) walked around checking it out.  The fair mostly consisted of a few rides, dart games (break a balloon, get a price), bingo, and a roulette type of game, I guess the Laos like to gamble.  Really, the only reason we were in Phonsavan was to see the Plain of Jars, so as soon as we arrived we booked a tour for the next day. The tour consisted of 5 stops, one being to visit the site with the jars but the remaining 4 stops were relating to the Secret War.

There are 8 sites containing jars or vessels in the Phonsavan area, of these 8 we visited site one of the three that are open to tourists.  Site one has close to 350 vessels of all sizes, the largest being about 3 metres high, and all were carved from single stones not hand made from clay.  The purpose of the vessels is still unclear but the main theory is that they were used to put bodily remains in after being cremated.  Some have lids, some don't.  Another theory was that they were used to store things i.e. salt (a precious commodity) back in the day.  Similar sites are also found in Malaysia, India, and Vietnam and date back to 500 B.C.  

The second part of the tour taught us a little about The Secret War (something I had no idea about), Ken had to explain a lot of it to me as we went along, even though he didn't know everything about it.    Everyone knows abut the war in Vietnam but during the same tie, from the mid 60's to mid 70's, there was also a "Secret War" going on in Laos, directed by the CIA.  More bombs were dropped on Laos, in that time, than in all the bombing done by the Americans in the Japan and Germany combined.  Estimates are, over 1 million people were killed in this time and most people, even the American government, didn't know it was going on.  For more info go to http://thediplomat.com/2011/02/25/the-cia’s-secret-war/ or google "The Secret War Laos".  We visited a short airstrip used by the American military, the main airstrip is out of bounds to tourists (it was the busiest airstrip in the world, at the time).  We also visited a cave that was used as a hospital and to house doctors during the war.  It was impossible to imagine the conditions they worked in, there where small morphine bottles covering the floor.  The last stop on the tour was at a farm where our guide took us for a walk out in a field and pointed out UXOs (unexploded ordinances...shells and bombs that didn't explode on contact when dropped).  Some were laying on the ground and others were half buried, unseen without looking for them.  He had walked the path many times with a metal detector to insure our safety??? Still today over 100 people are killed every year by UXOs, and many more are injured.

On the lighter side, during the tour we stopped in a village to visit some of the locals and they showed   us how they make lao lao, moonshine made from rice.  We tasted it but didn't purchase any, she wanted only 10,000 kip a litre, about $1.25.  One kg. of rice makes around one litre of lao lao and rice costs approximately 5000 kip/kg, so she could double her money in two weeks.  Not bad money for them.

 After a full day on tour, we left feeling drained from all that we had ween and learned.  The stop in Phonsavan was not a fun stop but it did help us understand the Lao people a little better.

Everyone looks happy on the local bus, it's all fun and games until the locals start to throw-up!

Site one on the Plain of Jars, over 300 vessels are located here, all sizes, some buried, some square, some round, some with lids nearby???

Do not venture far from the path!  Unexploded ordinences are everywhere.  Stay between the white markers.

Our guide show us  part of a bomb (UXO) buried in a field.  Who is crazier him for digging around it or us for watching him?

Thousands of small jars which, had at one time, contained morphine line the floor of the Hospital Cave.

I am standing beside the largest vessel on the Plain of Jars.

On the bus to Phonsavan we passed through many villages with locals living, working and walking along side the road.

You can barely see Ken, but he is standing beside a crater made from one of the many bombs that were dropped in this area in the late 1960's to early 1970's.

A very old stuppa built as a grave for the wealthy.

Nearby homes are utilizing the casings from the unexploded American bombs.