The Plain of Jars consists of several sites with thousands of large stone jars dating back to 500 BC. Nobody is quite sure what the jars were used for. Some speculate that they were for rice storage; some say they were funeral urns. I rented a motorbike with two Americans and a Scottish guy and headed out to two of the sites. The mystery of the jars and the beautiful rolling green hills made a worthwhile venture.... read more

The 10 hour bus ride from Vientiane to Phonsavan was mainly through the green mountains of central Laos. It was the most beautiful ride I have ever been on. The mountains are dramatic and raw. The rickety bus would wind through the green landscape in a constant S formation around cliffs and through little wooden villages. The realization hit me on how far off the map I really was. ... read more

Songkran is the Thai New Year celbration. For 3 or 4 days, depending where you are, everybody drenches each other with water. Buckets, Super-Soaker guns, hoses and even elephants are paraded around, dipping their trunks in a pond or tub of water and showering anybody in the vicinity. They also cover each other in a white paste made of talc and water (Very Rolling Thunder Review). You walk down the street and person after person comes up and smears this stuff on your face. You have to be in the mood to enjoy it, which all Thai's seem to be. The talc dries like a paper mache if you can get away from the water long enough. In one sense, it was great timing because we arrived in Ayuthaya on the first day of Songkran. ... read more

Pattaya. The seediest place in Thailand...? Perhaps. It is kind of the Las Vegas of Thailand, centered around tourism, conventions, shopping and the sex trade. While I was there, the 14th Annual ASEAN Summit was taking place. It had been scheduled to be in Thailand last December but was cancelled due to the "Yellow-Shirt" PAD party demonstrations. The "Yellow-Shirts" took over the Suvarnaphumi International airport in Bangkok causing around 300,000 tourists to be stranded. The coup led to the ousting of the prime minister who was replaced with a PAD party member. Now the "Red-Shirts" have been holding counter demonstrations claiming that the new prime minister, Abhisit Vejjajiva, did not come to power democratically and new electionsshould be held. A group of "Red-Shirts" showed up in Pattaya to disrupt the summit. I saw what looked ... read more

Known to the Lao people as Xieng Khuan (Spirit City), this park was built in 1958 by a yogi-priest-shaman Bunleua Silulat. He fused Buddhist and Hindu images in over 200 statues creating a very surreal environment to spend an afternoon. It sits on the banks of the Mekong River that separates this part of Laos from the Isaan area of Thailand. There is also a counterpart just on the other side of the River in Nong Khai, Thailand. It is also about 2 km from the Lao-Thai Friendship Bridge. It was a beautiful but dusty motorbike ride out there. I hung out on top of the pumpkin-looking thing with a Lao kid and a girl from Mozambique. I asked her if she ever heard the Bob Dylan song Mozambique. She didn't believe he had ever ... read more