Auberge De La Plaine Des Jarres Phonsavan

The four of us travelled again by bus this time for about 8 hours to Phonsavan. The road twisted and turned every second of the way. It was a pleasent surprise to find i had to wear a jumper when we arrived as i have not been cold since i left home.<br><br>We stayed in a guest house that was recommended by the lonley planet which was not very nice at all, the bed was dirty, ants infested my clothes and i had to shower both ...

... was a boring, dusty old town so we ensured our room had a TV to keep us entertained at night. In reality, as always the guide book was not far off. Apart from the main streets, the roads were dirt tracks and men stood smoking at the side of the streets with rifles over their backs. It felt very 'wild west' Asia style!<br>Our main reason for being here on our way to Vietnam was for the Plain of Jars. So, we went into town to book ...

... the ancient rulers. Whatever they are they have been there for over 2000 years and I thought it was pretty cool nobody can say exactly what they are/were.<br><br>There's a much more interesting story to be told in Phonsovan though and thats of the Secret War conducted against Lao between 1965 and 1973. The town is in a region that was heavily carpet bombed by the US air force for nearly nine years unknown to US congress and media, they say. The legacy ...

... they moved them there.<br>We also went to a traditional Laos whiskey village and some rustic, rural tribal villages on the hills which was really interesting as they were not touristy at all and were interested in us as much as what we were in them. Apart from a few big towns in Laos 70% of the population live in poor farming villages so it was really interesting to see the heart of Laos off the beaten track.<br><br>21st September<br>Left for Vang Vieng<br>

... hospital during the Vietnam war and there is still an old hospital bed in it with the remains of a wax candle. The cave has a large Buddha statue and an altar at the entrance and inside there are several more smaller buddhas. Around the entrance many people have drawn on the walls. We saw some gorgeous limestone features in the cave so there's some photos of them for you too. Some of the stalactites (ceiling ones, Geography fans!) seemed to be almost hollow because ...

... worm nursery. Here they feed and are nurtured on Mulberry leaves and begin to spin their yellow cocoons of silk. A Group of women then boil the cocoons and reel thread by hand. The silk is then processed and dyed with natural dyes from fruits and berries. <br><br>The silk when ready is spun on a traditional loom. <br> <br>The trip was much more interesting than it sounds and I will absolutely be inflicting this blog as a lesson on my next class! <br><br>Love ye all <br>Lucy and Adele<br>

... out front playing in the grass. One screamed something to a person that couldn&#8217;t be seen, all that I got out of it was "falang", or white person. A shack was covered in relics from the war, bomb shells, cluster bombs, bazooka barrels, machine gun ammunition boxes and just about everything you can imagine was used in the war. <br> A group of young men eyed us from their mopeds by the gate from which we came in as a utility truck coughed up black exhaust as it roared to ...

... br><br>Next on our visiting list war the Plain of Jars. It's a bit of a mystery as there are hundreds of giant stone jars of unknown origin lying in groups across the countryside. They're thought to be 2000 years old and may have been used fr funeral purposes, or as storage for rice or Lao Lao - rice wine. The race who created them are no longer around and there was no written language in Laos until about 500 years ago so no-one knows the true origin of the jars. It was cool to see ...

... jars, huge 2 metre high jars, some with lids that were either used to ferment lao lao rice whisky (we prefer this explanation) or they were used to bury cremated bodies (probably more likely - otherwise there would have been loads of Lao Lao around!). It reminded us of stone henge - although here they had elephants to help move the heavy jars - some weigh up to 6 tonnes. Archeologists are still trying to solve this 2000 year old puzzle and would have ...

... kill many people. These bombies are still found in farm lands today. We saw three of them without even seriously searching for them. One of them was found on the side of the road while two were found where cows were grazing. It would cost millions of dollars and many years to explore all the land in Laos where bombs were dropped. The government mainly cleared land near schools and main towns. However farmers fields were not checked. The road we traveled on ...