http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Laos , East , Plain of Jars en-us Tue, 21 May 2013 07:36:23 +0000 Tue, 21 May 2013 07:36:23 +0000 So my sister Shanta and friend Manjula have joined me for the rest of Laos and Cambodia. I knew when my energetic sister arrived there would be no laid back traveling as I have been doing up till now. Since she has joined me I have been up at 7 am every morning and ready for breakfast by the time she has comeback from her early morning walkThe Plain of Jars in Phonsavan Laos were amazing and an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-743256.html 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 UXO39s. The Plain of Jars that we visited is one of the few sites which has been completely cleared for tourism pur http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-710492.html 31st Jan 12 Luang Prabang to Phonsavan home of the Plain of JarsTime to hit the road again this time by tuk tuk which was actually late this time to the bus station and then by minibus to Phonsavan which was supposed to take about 8 hours.The minibus was a bit of a surprise as it was actually pretty large newish and had only 8 seats in the back. The luggage all went on the roof and as t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-684492.html Rough night. Walls are paper thin and there39s a light that shines into the room. Every time I turn it off a girl with loud flip flops stomps down the hall and turns it back on. I abuse their wifi connection. Buying a book in Laos costs about 50000 kip the room cost 40000 and I stole a book from them. I prefer to think of it as buying a book and getting a free room.Sill tired I get up at 07 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-613158.html Theres a site in Laos shrouded in mystery. Yes even until today the full extent of this place remains unknown. This is none other than the Plain of Jars. You are not the only one with questions. Scientists and archaeologists still havent found the answers to this site. What are these jars for Who put them there When are they builtAs the name suggests the Plain of Jars is an archaeologi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-612809.html Thursday 12th AugustNow then. Bus journeys. Usually uneventful and usually noone gives a sht so I just gloss over them. Today39s was testament to the absolute ineptitude of the South East Asian transport system so far it would be a complete injustice to every other transportation system in the Universe including the cross Saturn X34 route to not document it. It started early as always 2 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-585089.html LAOSPHONSAVANXIENG KHOUANGPLAIN OF JARS...Xieng Khounag has been the only place I have to come where the weather has been dry and cool in 22 degrees Celcius...Hail the Lord...It brought tears to my eyes...I checked into the hotel and arranged for a ride to the plains. First to site 1 then to site 2. There are many jar locations. These two along with site number 3 are the ones that are open t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-494500.html Ich bin in Phonsavan und es ist eiskalt Nur 18C abends und es herrscht ein eisiger Wind so dass es sich noch klter anfhlt. 18C sind doch angenehme Temperaturen werdet Ihr nach Eurem kalten Winter jetzt wahrscheinlich sagen ich rede aber nicht von angenehmen ErsterFrhlingstagundendlichSonne18Grad sondern von MitteAugustundseitzweiWochennurRegenundwannwird'smalwie http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-485284.html Because we were due to fly out again this afternoon Tey arranged to meet us at 7.30am this morning. He was most concerned that we did not have jackets because it was so cold. He may have been feeling the cold this morning but we thought that it was blissfully cool From the hotel we drove to the Visitor Information Centre only to find it was still closed. As an official UNESCOtrained guide Tey http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-480158.html Keith and I signed up for a trialrun of a brand new trek trek being the word used here for a longhike through the jungle. An ecolodge had been built in a poor remote village in the jungle with the idea that money could be brought to this community by having tourists trek through the jungle to get to it. Tourists would pay to stay in the village to have the villagers cook for them as we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-472008.html The other day while dining with a group of expats I met Keith a welltraveled British man in his forties in Laos researching and writing for a very popular companys guide book. He was starting his research in Luang Prabang but would soon be heading west and north to continue his work. He invited me to come along after learning I was the only at the table not currently working. I was relucta http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-471915.html Phonsavan is approximately 6 hours drive from Vang Vieng up Route 13 then it is a right at Muang Phu Khodir onto Route 7. As you travel north on Route 13 you travel through some stunning scenery the mountains are beautiful the roads follow windy routes around the hills and through tiny little villages that populate along the sides of the road there appears to be large aid projects funded by Au http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-459227.html Most tourists make the trek to Phonsavan to explore the mysterious Plain of Jars a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Phonsovan region has another claim to fame it's one of the most bombed areas in the world and is still packed with UXO unexploded ordinance bombs. We'll explain in a minute. Our driver picked us up at 9am and we met Tay at the one and only tourist center in town the tourist i http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-453327.html We were the last to get on the minibus and ended up the weird foldy end of the row chairs which proved violently uncomfortable through the very windy and mountainous roads. We stopped off for food after a few hours but neither of us trusted our stomachs enough to consume food while we were drinking the industrial strength Laos coffee the owner produced a dead flying squirrel for our lunch Luckil http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-397268.html 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 http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-394903.html The Plain of Jars near Phonsavan Laos is a big plain of well . . . jars. This vast expanse of stone jars is one of the great unsolved mysteries aliens anyone of the world and is pretty much the only reason to make a trip to Phonsavan. It has the feel of a town that is just starting to be developed into more of an attraction still on the traveling path but a bit less trampled than the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-384655.html We stayed in Vang Vieng for another day of tubing. I can now see why people stay there as long as possible. It's a wicked place. This time we found the bar with a massive mud pit which was fantasticOn the 26th we got a local bus to Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars. I gotta say it wasn't the best journey to take on a tubing hangover especially with the bus stinking as much as it did Every time we http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-371146.html RossOn Sunday 1st February we awoke early checked out and marched up the hill with our backpacks towards Sam Neua bus station to catch the early bus to Phonsavan. The 8hour journey again took us through endless Blue Hmong villages and up and down numerous hillsides with a brief lunch stop at a small town on the way. We finally rolled into Phonsavan bus station at around 4pm grabbing a tuktuk http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-370285.html After two weeks on the remote Island in Thailand we were ready to continue our travel up north through Thailand into Laos. We decided to pass through the rest of Thailand as quickly as possible as we were keen to spend more time in Laos. Within 36 hours we traveled with speedboat minibus plane bus overnighttrain and tuktuk to the friendship bridge connecting the city of Nong Khai in Thailand http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-362977.html We hadn't originally planned to go to Phonsovan but we met a FrenchLaos couple who had worked as tourguides in Laos during the 70's before fleeing to Laos during the revolution. They suggested we should go here to learn some interesting history and we certainly did.Phonsovan's regular attraction is the Plain of Jars a series of huge stone jars scattered across various sites. The one we went t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/East/Plain-of-Jars/blog-331844.html