The Rain in Phonsavan Stays Mainly in the Plain (of Jars)

What does one do in Phonsavan besides visiting the Plain of Jars? Once you're done discussing transportation conundrums and looking at all the remnants of UXO (unexploded ordnance) around town, not much. The Plain of Jars is the broad name used for sites spread throughout the surrounding countryside, consisting of these bizarre stone containers that sit on the tops of hills or in the middle of cow pastures. The are literally stone jars, from two feet tall to ten feet. There are several explanations: ancient people used them to store lao lao, the locally-brewed rice whiskey; or, said people used them for funerary purposes; or, the gods were having a big picnic and got so drunk they forgot to pick up their cups when they went back to heaven. I'm rather partial to the last one, although the first one could have made for some epic "jar stands".

Even though the sites we churned up to on muddy tracks (known as "roads" in the dry season) had all been specially cleared, this part of the country is still recovering from the heavy bombings of the Vietnam War. You see signs of it everywhere - bomb craters used as fish ponds, UXO shells used for school bells or flower pots, the places you pass along the road where they are clearing areas currently used as fields. There are still at least 1oo fatalities and just as many injuries every year from land mines, bombs, and other weapons of local destruction. Even here it's still a good idea to walk on the maintained trails.

All it took was an eight hour bus ride this morning and I'm a world away from the stark concrete streets of Phonsavan. Being in Vang Vieng is hardly like being in Laos at all. The streets are lined with chilled-out restaurants serving "hambergers" and showing "Friends" on TVs, places advertising tube trips down the river, bars servings buckets of some mystery alcohol, and internet places with shiny new computers for the outrageous price of 300 kip a minute. After travelling the north and east of Laos with very few other tourists, it's a shock to the system to be back in a place where everyone else looks like me, except more fashionable and better groomed.