Blogs from East, Laos, Asia - page 5

We had a brief stay in PHonsavan which was so interesting learning a bit about the Laos recent history, and the "secret" war with America. This area was heavily bombed for 9 years when America was at war with Vietnam and is still heavily affected by millions of unexploded bombs (UXO's). The Plain of Jars that we visited is one of the few sites which has been completely cleared, for tourism purposes and while we there we had to keep within markers so we didn't venture into uncleared territory. It was a very mysterious place with stone jars from 500BC which no one is too sure why their there. Archaologists guess that it may have been to do with burial rituals. There are myths of giant gods who used them for making Lao Lao (a famous ... read more

Today was another early start. Again our guide was also our driver. We headed off after a wander around the morning markets. First planned stop was a large bomb crater somewhere out in the countryside. Unfortunately they were doing road works and there was no way our little van was going to get through. Second item on the agenda were the Tham Xang Caves. After waiting around in the local village for a little while the head of the village confirmed to our guide that the gate was locked and the key was lost. We had a great time anyway walking around the village. The residents were very friendly and didn't seem to mind us having a look around...even encouraging us to take photos. We headed off again..this time heading for the Hmong Village our guide ... read more

Breakfast was included at the White Orchid Guest House. It consisted of eggs, toast, jam, tea and coffee. It was quite filling but again the bread was the thin sweet white bread found all over South East Asia and the coffee you could stand a spoon up in. After breakfast Stephen and I along with our new German friend set off with our friendly Hmong Tour Guide who had also become our driver as none other was available. We headed off to the Plain of Jars and started with Jar site 3. It is not the largest number of jars but was certainly a great introduction to the rest of the days activities. The trip out was very pleasant through the Lao countryside but it was also very dusty. On the way back we passed a ... read more

Geo: 19.4811, 103.13Phonsovans Plain of Jars may not be as well known as Stone Henge, but the same mystery applies. It's not really understood how they got there and what the were used for. We got to Phonsavan from Don Det at the very bottom of Laos.The whole trip took 32 hours by catching a longtail boat to the mainland, mini van to Pakse, waiting in Pakse for 6 hours, an overnight bus with minimal sleep to Vientiane, transfer from the southern bus terminal to the northern terminal and then straight away catching a 10 hour local bus on bumpy, dusty, noisy and windy roads. It was very tiring!, although looking back it wasn't really worth the detour.Phonsavan wasn't really a nice town in terms of attractiveness and friendliness with more of a police presence, but ... read more

Armed ready with a mug of steaming Lipton tea hoping to get some creative juices flowing to explain part deux of our slightly less than comfortable journey into Vietnam! Although drinking hot tea in 30oC heat is far from ideal, but listening to a guy playing acoustic guitar is making it much more bearable. I'd much prefer to be curled in front of my dads open log fire in my fave hoody, slouchy jeans and my feet all snug in a pair of pink fluffy socks while tickling Baxter's tummy (the dog)! Grass always being greener and all that jazz, but I'm not complaining, were still enjoying every single second and wouldn't change it for the world! If I remember right, I cut the blog short last time as it turned out to be quite a ... read more