9th + 10th Feb – Phonsavan

Arriving at the bus station on the outskirts of town a tyre of the bus was being changed, reminiscent of South America. I tried not to look at the tread or think about it, at least it wasn’t being done at the side of the road after a blow out – positive thinking.
Strange bus layout with tiny seats enabling 3 on one side and 2 on the other. I found a 3 seater empty and scowled at anybody that came near – it worked and I had 3 seats, very small seats, to myself.
I settled down to read my book occasionally looking up to check out the Loas countryside. Laos is really poor the majority of the houses along the road are wooden or bamboo shacks with thatch roofs and small, very small. The countryside however is beautiful. The bus wound its way around the mountainside with steep drops – glad now they had changed the tyre.
On arrival in Phonsavan the countryside and housing changed dramatically. Gone was the rich lush jungle and forest, in its place dryer arid landscape. The housing was weird no shacks here instead massive mansions with 3 storeys and lots of large balconies.
Jamie an English bloke I met in Luang Prabang came with me to one of the guest houses which was under-decorated but decent.
I went for a wander around town which took all of two minutes this really is a dusty nothing town with very little on offer. I had dinner with Jamie in on of 3 restaurants – more noodles with vegetables – great!
Laos is the most bombed country in history, the US, even though they were not at war with Loas and until recently denied ever bombing the country, actually dropped more bombs on Laos, during the Vietnam war, than they dropped in the whole of WW1. Around town there are masses of bits of bombs made into tables, chairs, posts and just general touristy stuff. Unfortunately there are still thousands of unexploded bombs in the countryside which has caused lots of missing limbs and deaths. There is an office for the Mines Advisory Group in Phonsavan who are trying to clear the mines from the area which is some job. The Americans recently have given MAG the bomb paths from the war. They have put together a map with a red dot for each bomb dropped and basically the whole area is a thick block of red.

The next day we get on the tour to the Plains of Jar our only reason for being in this hick town. Not too much is really known about The Plains of Jar – but they think these massive funeral Jars were created between 500BC to 50-800AD but by whom and for what purpose they don’t really know. At the first site there are over 250 jars some up to 2 meters across to 2.5 meters high. They are totally not what I expect – like massive hollowed out boulders just lying around the plain – or a field. There are lids also lying around that have been carved to fit tight on the jars. Unfortunately the contents of the Jars is long gone but was thought to be the bones of the dead before cremation. The ancient Vietnamese of this and other areas interned the dead for a few years then dug them up and cremated them – wouldn’t like that job much. Few bones have been found in and around the sites consistent with the theory, however many of the Jars are smashed or over turned and their contents long ago looted so maybe nobody will ever know.
At site 1 we saw a few bomb craters some of the craters were marked ‘US Bomb crater 1960 – 1970’ we felt it really should have said ‘Welcome from Private Smith Idaho’.

The other two sites we visited were much the same and the guide was less than useless telling us to read Lonely Planet but he did take us to a fantastic waterfall where Mark an Ozzie fell in. I saw him fall over the edge and was terrified for 3 seconds until he popped his head back up – lost his shoe but fortunately didn’t lose his camera. It was really comical watching 3 other guys run to help him and rescue him from falling in again – we tried not to laugh – but failed.

That night back in town I had dinner with a bunch of other tourists from all round the globe, we had one conversation – The US – and the view was not too good well they did re-elect Bush.

The next day I had a long wait for my flight to Vientaine and found there really is nothing at all to do in Phonsavan. I went to the bank to pass some time but they wouldn’t exchange money from Visa so I only managed to change a few US dollars. In the bank at the counter where I got my money there were a couple of staff counting money by hand - thousands of money, which was just lying around the floor like monopoly money. Even better a child, I supposed of one of the staff was playing with a pile of it what a way to spend you youth.

Eventually it was time to go to the airport and get my flight which was a bit worrying as Laos Airlines has one of the worst safety records in the world – I tried not to think of this as I boarded the plane and certainly didn’t look at the tyres!

The flight all 30 minutes of it was fine and I disembarked at Vientaine in one piece. I didn’t have a hotel booked and thought there would be some hotel counter at the airport – wrong – I picked a hotel out of the Lonely Planet and took a taxi there. IIt couldn’t have worked out better as the hotel was lovely and the en-suite, air-consitioned room was lovely. It even had cable TV with a couple of English movie channels – heaven, pure heaven.