The 8 hour bus ride from Luang Prabang to Phonsavan allowed us to see in amongst the hills and valleys we has seen from the slow boat. Outside of the city this presented a very different side of Laos. Houses are wooden with bamboo roofs mostly raised off the ground. Children and adults shower in a communal area and food is eaten on the ground. Chickens, pigs and buffalo roam seemingly freely and cows sit outside the houses, some tethered, some not, as if like dogs near the front door. Phonsavan is the gateway town to the Plain of Jars, an iron age archaeological landscape comprising of clusters of stone 'jars', the original use of which is open to some debate. We visited sites 1&3 of the 3 main sites and saw jars of between 1-2
... read more