Phonsavan & Kong Lo

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There is only one reason to visit Phonsavan - the Plain Of Jars. So with the room at Nice Hotel sorted we booked a tour for the following day.


Nobody is quite sure what the jars are for or how they got there. There are various theories, following the discovery of bones at some of the sites our guide was firmly backing the cemetery theory. Didn't quite add up for me, I'm in the "People were bored so did it for a laugh and to confuse future generations" camp.


We decided the next move would be south towards the Kong Lo cave, a seven kilometre long cave with a river running through it. To get there the bus first to Paksan was the most direct option, along a road described in the Lonely Planet as in a deplorable condition. All we knew was that there was one bus per day at 8am and that it had rained heavily the previous day. It sounded promising for a bit of an adventure and didn't disappoint.


After a few miles of tarmac the bus turned onto dirt track and began the process of winding down through the mountains. So that if the bus went off the edge it would only take the driver with it everyone hopped off a few hours into the journey and walked for half an hour as it negotiated a particularly tricky downhill section. Later in the day the road was muddy enough to often need chains on the back wheels, so there were repeated stops and starts as the chains were taken on and off about a dozen times.


The bus crew when they weren't working on the chains would occasionally need to run ahead and test the depth of mud to advise the driver on the best route through. He never once got stuck, nudging a bank to help the bus round a particularly sticky hairpin corner was the closest there was to an incident. That is unless you count the back door falling off (stored on the roof for the rest of the journey) or the lights failing nearing the end of the journey leading to an emergency stop in the pitch black night.


It turned out to be a twelve hour trip, longer than any of us would have guessed, for a distance of less than 200km. That was value for money as far as we were concerned, a fantastic journey from start to finish never to be forgotten.


After a night in Paksan we spent the next day in various sawngthaew (trucks with bench seats in the back) getting to the Sala Kong Lor lodge in a small village a few kilometres from the cave. They had an excellent menu but it was one of those that didn't really correspond to what was available, they spoke no english but took the orders then served whatever they felt like. Not that I minded, it was all good and delivered with the usual Lao cheerfulness.


The cave itself was immense, we travelled through and back with a boatman front and back, getting out on occasions while the boat was lifted up (or down) rapids within the caves. On completion the sawngthaew who had taken us down to the village the day before was on hand to take us the fifty kilometres back to a guesthouse on the main road, from where we would catch some sort of transport towards Vietnam the following day.

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Photos

Bomb Crater
With Tom in it

Jar
The largest one

Vietnamese Tank
Not taken for scrap only because nobody has the tools to cut the thick metal

Bus Journey
Crossing a small ford

Comments

[johnson]

Foreigners abroad
Paul, your account of a life without work has lost none of its interest and I find it fascinating. I had no idea that so many English and Irish and the rest were sculling round in the Far East, celebrating St Patrick's Day and propping up bars, keeping the tourist industry afloat in out of the way places and suchlike, though I understand the Plain of Jars is quite an attraction to visitors. We look forward to the accounts of your time in Vietnam.