SE Asia Trip, Part 5 - The Mysterious Plain of Jars

28/02/09 - 02/03/09

The Plain of Jars is one of those things that I've heard of before but never really realised where it was, until I started researching my trip to SE Asia. I wasn't sure if I could squeeze in a visit during my time in Laos and how difficult it would be to visit the sites on my own. In Luang Prabang, however, practically every tour company was asking for extra people to join trips to the PoJ so I decided on the spur of the moment that joining a tour would be a lot easier than trying to do it all myself. I opted for a 3 day 2 night tour by minivan. My group consisted of me, 3 Germans and another guy from New Zealand - the one and only Kiwi I met throughout the entire trip!

We set off along the winding road south of Luang Prabang fairly early in the morning. I'm sure the views from the tops of the hills would have been amazing if it was not for all the smog from the slash-and-burn farming going on. Our guide spoke good English and was up for a laugh and a joke which made the drive a lot more enjoyable. On the way we stopped at a Hmong village and a Khmu village for a quick look. I felt like a bit of a voyeur having a poke around, but the kids seemed to enjoy having us around.

A traditional Hmong house.

A Hmong village south of Luang Prabang.

This cute kid kept following us around. I'm not usually one for taking photos of kids, but they seemed to be expecting it and enjoyed looking at the camera screen to see themselves.

Villages along the road to Phonsavan.

We arrived in Phonsavan in the afternoon. I think I was expecting the town to be a lot more touristy but in reality we hardly saw any other foreigners. I'm not sure where they were all hiding! Phonsavan basically consists of one fairly busy main road with a couple of streets on either side of it. The town was built in the 1970s after the original capital of the province, Xieng Khouang, was destroyed due to fighting between the Pathet Lao and anti-communist troops (backed by the USA). It is on the main road to Vietnam, so there was a fair amount of traffic passing through, including a lot of motorbikes and mopeds - seemingly most people in Laos own one!

The view from our rather posh hotel - Dave desperately wanted to reach the cow but couldn't quite make it!

War souvenir display at the hotel.

Some more war memorabilia. There is A LOT of this type of stuff displayed around town, leftovers from the Vietnam War, which affected this area of Laos really badly.

I had a good first night in Phonsavan, eating at a local restaurant and chatting to some Vietnamese workers who were very pleased to see me drinking a huge bottle of Beer Lao.

The second day was the day we would actually be seeing the Plain of Jars. There are apparently more than 400 sites across the region, in Thailand and as far away as India, leading experts to suggest they were put along trade routes. Only Sites 1, 2 and 3 are easily accessible to the public. The others are unsafe due to the huge amount of unexploded ordnance in the area, left behind in the 'Secret War'. Laos is apparently the most bombed country in the world, and yet nobody really realises it was affected so much by the war in Vietnam. Apparently American planes dropped their extra bombs here on their way back to Thailand.

We visited Site 1 first, a short drive along dusty roads from Phonsavan. This is one of the largest sites, with over 250 jars of different sizes. We had to make sure we kept to the paths within the markers to ensure we didn't tread anywhere which hadn't been swept for bombs... I took tonnes of photos, but here are just a few of my favourites.

The mouth of a cave where local people and Pathet Lao soldiers sheltered from the dropping bombs. It is pretty big inside. There is a small hole in the top, probably damaged from a bomb hitting it. The landscape is spotted with craters, now overgrown with shrubs and weeds.

While some of the jars are intact, a lot have been damaged by time or by bombs.

Some jars have lids.

On the way to the next site we stopped by the old town of Muang Khoun. The German woman who travelled with us the day before had gotten food poisoning so she didn't come on the trip today, and one of the German guys was feeling worse as the day wore on. Our guide went on a mission to find him some medicine at the local pharmacies. In the meantime, we had a look at the local sites, including a stupa and a Buddhist temple.

Notice the bomb casings in the background.

We came across some monks exploring the stupa as well.

Inside the stupa - this one had been hollowed out by invaders attempting to find hidden treasures.

At least the Buddha is still standing... I mean, sitting...

We headed to Site 3 next, where we were pretty much forced to eat the lunch at the noodle shop that had set up by the entrance. Yum, noodle soup with the most grisly chicken I've ever seen - I fed it to the cute puppy that was hanging around... After that experience, it was a short walk through some cow fields and rice paddies, over a couple of bamboo bridges, to reach the next site. It was a really pretty one, set amongst trees and farmland.

Cows on our path on the way back from Site 3.

Finally, we visited Site 2, which for me was by far the prettiest and most atmospheric. It was set on top of a hill in a copse of trees. Some of the jars here are huge. Somebody joked that it was as though a group of giants had had a drinking session one night, and left their empty jars behind.

I think the tree grew up through this jar.

The sick German guy was still feeling pretty rough, so we opted to head back to town after seeing the final site, instead of taking a detour anywhere else. I had a quiet afternoon exploring the town and reading my book, heading out to eat on my own. Have to say, most of the food I've eaten on this trip hasn't exactly been mind-blowing, but at least I didn't get food poisoning, like the rest of my group. Must be the doxycycline at work!

The third day was basically just driving back to Luang Prabang. The Germans were all heading to Vang Vieng, whereas the Kiwi and I wanted to go back to LP. This meant a coordinated crossover at the town where these roads met. Didn't run so smoothly due to a lack of cellphone coverage, but we eventually caught up with the other minivan and dropped them off. Then Dave and I got a row of seats each to ourselves, which definitely helped with the windy trip back along the road to LP.

I knew I wanted to go back to LP because I wanted to head north, but I wasn't exactly sure of my plans. Time for a little spontaneity after my organised couple of days.

SE Asia Trip, Part 4 - Luang Prabang, the First Attempt

25/02/09 - 27/02/09

After checking in and making myself look and feel a bit more human, I decided to take a wander up the main street of Luang Prabang. The main 'old town' part of Luang Prabang is a thumb shaped piece of land, with the Mekong river on one side and the Nam Khan flowing around to meet it. It was very hot, though not as bad as Vientiane, so I headed to the Royal Palace Museum where I could do some sightseeing away from the heat (seems to be a pattern of mine now...)

The Royal Palace was built between 1904 and 1909 after the previous one was destroyed during the Black Flag invasion. It is a mix of Lao and French styles of architecture. The monarchy lived here until 1975 when it was dissolved and Communism took over. The Palace was turned into a museum - which is a much better fate than being knocked down.

I wasn't allowed to take my camera inside, which was a shame as there were some really nice things. I really like the mosaic on the walls - it portrayed scenes of typical Lao life - and seeing the King and Queen's rooms, which looked apparently just as they did when they were occupied. There were also displays of gifts the monarchy had received and clothes they had worn.

Outside I chatted to a Lao man who worked at the Museum for a while. He was trying to convince me to move to Luang Prabang - think they might need to pay their nurses a wee bit more before I consider that! Then I had a look around the gardens, on the edge of which was a temple. Presumably this is where the Royal Family would go to worship.

I couldn't get inside but I did look around the outside - again it had some cool naga statues.

It was still too hot to attempt walking up Mt Phousi, so I headed to the riverside instead. There are a couple of restaurants along the river banks but it has nothing of the atmosphere of Vientiane.

The next day I was up early to get a head start on the day. I had problems changing my travellers cheques because my current signature doesn't exactly match the one on my EIGHT YEAR OLD passport, but eventually found somebody who would change it with my much more up-to-date driver's licence. I decided to spend the day seeing the city sights, which basically meant another day of temple-seeing.

To be honest I got bored of looking at temples fairly quickly, but the next few photos are from Wat Xieng Thong, one of the most historically important temples in Luang Prabang. It was founded in the 16th century by King Setthathilat and was spared during the Black Flag invasion because the leader of the invasion, Deo Van Tri, had been a novice monk there. He used the temple as his headquarters instead!

The temple is classic Luang Prabang architecture - apparently that's when the roofs sweep low to the ground.

On the back of the building above is a gorgeous mosaic depicting the Tree of Life, Buddhist style.

During the late afternoon I took a walk around the peninsula. I could see orange clad monks bathing in the Nam Khan river. There were a few very rickety looking bridges spanning the Nam Khan - but I wasn't too keen on crossing them!

Found some more nagas on the way home!

I spent the evening looking at all the pretty handicrafts at the night market and watching a movie at a cafe-slash-bookshop called l'Etranger. They have a funky room upstairs decked out with comfy floor cushions and a big screen TV. Yummy food (Western and Lao) and Beer Lao too!

The next day I decided to grab a slow boat ticket up the Mekong to the Pak Ou Caves. There must have been about 60-70 people waiting at the boat landing for the skippers to shepherd us down in groups of 6 to their waiting boats.

Here's our skipper - boy they hire them young here!

A common sight on the Mekong (looks pretty much like the photos from my last post!)

The Pak Ou caves are literally in the side of the cliffs on the bank of the river. They bring the boats up to some wooden pallets floating on the river and you clamber out and up some steep steps to the caves. On the way up the first thing I saw was this sign - if you can work out what it was trying to say you're smarter than me!

There are 2 main caves at Pak Ou, the lower one chockablock full of Buddha images, large and small. Apparently there are about 2500 sculptures inside. These caves have been spiritually significant even before the rise of Buddhism, when local people worshipped river spirits there. The Lao Royal Family used to come on pilgrimages here on Buddhist holidays. Now, however, they are mostly a tourist attraction and unfortunately I think the local river spirits are long gone.

The upper cave is a fair walk up some concrete pathways, populated with small children trying to sell the freedom of small caged birds. A big seated Buddha dominates the entrance, silently watching the tourists flock in and out.

The upper cave is much longer, bigger and darker and stupidly I forgot to bring my torch so I have no decent photos to show for my trip up there. After a quick look around I headed back to the boat.

On the way back the boat stopped off at a 'traditional' Lao village. There was basically a pathway to follow leading us around several market stalls selling the usual handicrafts, which I ignored for the touristy gimmick it was. There was also an interesting display of Lao alcohol and insects in jars - tried a bit of Lao rice wine, which was absolutely disgusting.

While the rest of the group wandered around the village I sat on the beach and took in the scenery, a much more pleasant way to spend my time I thought.

I got back to Luang Prabang at about lunchtime and had been planning on visiting the local waterfalls, but really I just wanted to be lazy and soak up the surroundings, as the next day I would be leaving Luang Prabang for a while to head to Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars!