"Phonsavan was built in the mid 1970s, because the old capital of Xieng Khouang was utterly destroyed during the fighting between the Pathet Lao and American backed anti-communist troops. Its most famous attraction is the nearby Plain of Jars*. The town itself is dusty and modern compared to most other Laotian towns. The Red Cross centre in the middle of the town provides information on the impact of the fighting on the town.**
*Archaeologists believe that the jars were used 1,500–2,000 years ago, by an ancient Mon Kmer race whose culture is now totally unknown. Most of the excavated material has been dated to around 500 BC–800 AD. Anthropologists and archeologists have theorized that the jars may have been used as funeral urns or perhaps storage for food. The Plain of Jars remains one of the most dangerous archaeological sites in the world. Unexploded bombs, in particular cluster munitions, the results of massive US bombardment during the Secret War, still cause injuries every week. Visitors can safely visit only three sites, designated Jar Sites 1, 2 and 3, and they should follow signs still warning of unexploded bombs. Many ignore them.
**The Mines Advisory Group (MAG) is a Non Governmental Organisation (NGO), which assists people affected by landmines, unexploded ordnance (UXO) and SALW (Small Arms Light Weapons). MAG takes a humanitarian approach to landmine action. This means that they do not focus on metrics such as land area cleared or numbers of landmines removed. Instead, they focus on the impact of their work on local communities. This approach recognises that although the number of landmines in an area may be small, the effect on a community can be crippling.
Me and Jan went in to the MAG office on the evening that we arrived to learn all about it. One of the statistics there said that during the secret war one planeload of bombs was dropped over Laos every eight minutes for 9 years, with 30% of all the ordnance dropped not exploding.
I hadn't read about it this place, but Jan's mum had mentioned to go. We had a 7 hour bus journey there, climbing up more in to the mountains and going round and round, and up and down the slim windy roads. We also got chatting to David - a guy from Texas. He had been travelling for 2 years already. We got there and headed to a guest house that was in our guide books for being the 'our pick'. Mr Kong. We settled in and then went out to get our tour to the plain of jars for the next day. Mr Kong suggested we do a trek with him as well as spending a whole day in the fields with jars was a bit dull. It was also cheaper if there were more people, so with that thought we ventured out to have a bite to eat and hopefully find some more trekkers. Which we did! And got it all booked up.
So then the next day it was an early start and we drove to the market to get our breakfast (mmm waffles!) and lunch. The markets are all so colourful and buzzy, I really like them. And the waffles that we bought. I liked them too :) Then we drove for an hour back along the curving up and down mountain roads and finally stopped at an area with bomb crater caused by bunker bombs. It was here that it started to rain. And rain.
We then headed to a Hmong village and walked through, seeing how these people have had to deal with the results of the war. It was still raining. And raining. Luckily we'd put in our rainmacks so we were good to go.
Then was the trek to the waterfall. Ok so I am a BIG wuss so the following may seem like I'm once again exaggerating but it's hard if you have certain fears! Like being high up on a mountain! So we were at the top of this mountain and we had to get to the bottom to the waterfall. Fine. But the rain was making the path downhill so so swippy once again. So carefully we followed the relatively easy path down, which twisted and turned. It took a good 30 mintues to get to the bottom. That's just half an hour of slippy twists and turns downhill. Ok. And yes I did slip on my bum once. Just for the sheer fun of it. We got to the bottom, took in the wonder of the waterfall and then grouped around the banana leaves that had been put on the floor to put the food on. As we were crouching, Texas felt a bite on his leg. A leech. I hadn't thought about whether there would be leeches until now. So then everyone quickly got to their feet and continued to eat standing up. It didn't phase those leeches though as I got a couple on my legs whilst standing there. They're only little and if you get them quick you can flick them off before they start sucking. As I ate lunch and watched for the leeches, I looked up at the mountain we had climbed down. We had to climb back up. But crazy Mr Kong wanted to take us on a different route. This route mainly involved just climbing up the side of the mountain, with shrubs and trees to help pull us up. Oh and walking over parts of the waterfall. At first the girls were taking off trainers to walk through the water, but then we kept going through so many we didn't bother. Oh and more leeches. You really don't feel them latch on though, they're HORRIBLE!!! At one point, crazy Kong was hacking away at the jungle bushes to try and make way for us to walk. There was no ledge. We just had to hope that there was something or other under the green that would keep us up on the mountain. I have to say that with a pure fear of going up mountains (which I got from actual reoccuring nightmares from walking/driving up mountains when I was little) I think I did pretty well. No time to fret. Just do it. And even though my head was spinning for some of it, it was once again weirdly enjoyable. So I'm going to save that memory for the next heart attacking moment that I come across. The adrenaline keeps you going. An hour and a half later and we reached the top of the mountain again. Oh yeh and it wasn't just raining either. It was a proper monsoon tropical downpour. In the asian jungle. With the leeches. Climbing mountains.
Then was the jars. And Kong was right. After about 20 minutes of admiring, taking pictures, and talking about them, enough was enough. An ancient wonder though, and I really enjoyed learning about them. Once you've seen one jar though, you've kind of seen them all...
So we got back to Mr Kong's guest house, completely knackered. Sleepy time. And hot shower time. We were, for the first time on my travels, really quite cold. And then an evening of BBQ, BeerLao, LaoLao (Laos vodka), and guitar music played by Kong himself and Olivier - I guy from Canada. Oh I have to mention Peter coz we liked him. A scotsman who had done loads of travelling and also gave us lots of tips for our next place. You loved Luang Prabang didn't you Peter!
So this was just a short stop over as nothing else goes on in this town really. Another early start the next morning to go catch our bus. Texas was coming with us as well.
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