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Published: April 4th 2010
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:Plaines of Jars
No, I'm not really floating on top of the Jars, but pretty impressive right!? We Finally made it to Phonsavan after a few more curves in the road...so far we’ve yet to see a straight stretch of road, but none of us got sick....a few locals jump on with supplies of empty plastic bags, eeeee!!!
Finally recovering from my food poisoning, we booked a tour for the following day to see the very mysterious Plaines of Jars. In many parts of Laos there are unfortunate areas that during the Indochina wars got bombed. Within these areas they’ve found lots of unexploded ordinates (UXO). While trying to clear the area they excavated and discovered what appear to be massive Jars. Unable of course to explain for certain why they’re there, so yet again another mystery as to how and why approximately 3 different sites in the area. One can only imagine they were used in communities for cooking or storage,,, some found with and without lids, not much information can be said on the Plaines of Jars, interesting mystery located in beautiful locations in the Northeast end of Laos. of course a tour is never complete without a shot of homebrew, We stopped at a rice based whisky home brewery... We learnt that it’s
Lao Lao whisky?!
Proof that age doesn't matter, and that a shot or two a day keeps you looking young!!! not illegal in Laos to make your own alcohol, brilliant!!! They ferment sticky rice, which is a type of local rice, distil it and down it goes....warming your insides on the way!!! Cheers!!
The next destination is the capital Vientiane. We decided we’d save ourselves the long trip and make it overnight as it is a good 12hr trip... All seemed well, we got our seats on the bus like normal, and overflow of locals ended up sitting on chairs in the aisle...like I said the start of yet another Laos bus trip. I don’t know why I was surprised 4hrs in the trip, at the stroke of midnight when our bus stopped dead. At first i thought it was a break maybe even dinner time, smoke break, maybe even toilet stop, my mind was wishfully thinking....Lack of communication here really gets frustrating but well after a good 30min and realizing we stopped in the middle of nowhere and they were examining they engine, this could be a long night. Lucky I suppose it only took 1h30 before two more buses stopped, examined the situation and eventually we realized that and already overfull bus would have to separate
and squeeze onto 2 more overfull buses!!! Only 8 hours to go, after all our bus journeys so far I don’t know why we thought this one would be different!!!
Overtired and hungry as we make it to Vientiane we take the day to recover and get our bearings. We spent the following day in the Buddha Park just on the outskirts of the city; here we relaxed amongst a beautiful setting of sculpture represented by both Buddhism and Hinduism. Here we regroup and decided that things would be better in Laos now and for the most part it was. We took in the Laos easy living way. Heading south towards the Cambodian border we had a few stops along the way. Parkse is a city found in the south central part, know as the coffee region...and so we took part in the culture and drank our way around the coffee shops in town!!
Refueling ourselves for our journey to the 4000 islands region near the border, this is probably the best place to end your travels in Laos, living in a bungalow overlooking the Mekong River. The only real worry was deciding which book you
Hungry?
Even when stranded on a bus you can always get a quick bite to eat!!! would exchange your current one for after spending the day in your hammock reading. I tell you a real turn around from our adventures in the north.
Now the thing to understand about some of these settings, with this easy living is its remoteness. This in turn generally means no outside communication; which was the case here and also no ATM. Being at the end of Laos and heading to Cambodia (which in our guidebook also mentioned no ATM for the first few places we wanted to visit) we had to be prepared and so this meant carrying more than usual and in different currencies. Being on a strict budget we were managing well, after 5 days on the islands we could live our last two days in luxury, meaning more food and maybe a beer!!! I think by now you can imagine the pain and hurt my heart felt when I return to my bungalow one night to find my bag broken into and all my money gone!!! Horror!!! The equivalent of maybe 2 weeks travel was taken. Knowing full well they money was now gone, I only advised my guesthouse and police so they were aware
4000 Islands
My little bungalow with a view of the Mekong....how i love those peaceful days! of the problem. Nothing but money was taken, safety and passport in hand we had to leave Laos slightly early only that Tyler and Jenny had limited funds to get all three of us across. I thank my lucky stars they were with me!!! As luck should also have it, our guidebook, being outdated, we were able to find an ATM when we arrived in Cambodia.
I’m only sad that after a month in Laos, this was how we’d part, it has been exciting, adventurous and emotional, but this could have happened anywhere and so still I love it!
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