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Published: July 31st 2011
As I mentioned in my previous blog, we left Luang Prabang by express bus for Phonsavan - an eight hour journey down highway 13 and then onto highway 7. Both highways are now paved which made the journey a little less life threatening. We were lucky to have a half empty bus. There were only seven of us foreigners on the bus - and we had all been on the same slow boat to Luang Prabang. The rest of the bus was half full of Laos people. We were able to take two seats each to ourselves, which was going to make for better sleeping. At least, we THOUGHT we would sleep.
It is pretty hard to sleep when the road makes a roller coaster feel tame. The road wound through mountains, following the countour of the mountainside. There are no tunnels, and very few guard rails. Guard rails would have been nice as the drop was steep. Several landdslides had occurred recently, and the bus had to slow down to navigate over the mud and rocks, tires slipping and skidding in the process. The road did not go straight for more than 20 metres at a time, and more
often, one sharp curve of no less than 90 degrees, but often 180 degrees, led to another sharp curve much the same. We traversed our way up one mountain, and down the next. This went on for the entire eight hours. At the end, we all felt sick and had headaches and body aches all over from being jostled and banged around at every turn. The worst part was, we knew we had to return the way we had arrived as the last four hours would be the first four hours in couple of days when we travelled to Vang Vieng.
When we arrived in Phonsavan, at the bus station, which is strategically placed a couple of kilometres outside of town (they all are - it must be an agreement with the tuk-tuk drivers) we were approached by a tout with a mini van who offered the seven of us a ride into town. His price was reasonable at only 5000 kip each so we all agreed. He was a really nice man with an excellent command of the English language, and when we arrived in town, he proceeded to sell us a tour for the next day of
the Plain of Jars and a few other sites. The other couple, Hans and Marion, who were from the Netherlands, and Peter and
I, agreed to a tour the following morning to the Plain of Jars sight one as well as a tour of a Hmong Village, a cave and a hot spring.
Phonsavan is a bit of a dive town. There is no backpackers area, just a few mediocre guesthouses on the main strip and some less than appetizing restaurants also scattered on the main strip. We booked a room at Nice Guesthouse for 70,000 kip. I felt I was sleeping in the cleaning supply aisle of the grocery store though, as the smell of Pine Sol was heavy. At least we knew the room was clean!
The next day, our guide Yang Xang (pronounced Yong Son) picked the four of us up at our guest house and we set out for Site 1 of the Plain of Jars. There are 160 sites, but only three of the sites have been cleared of UXOs (Unexploded Ordinances). From 1964 until 1973, the United States dropped two million tonnes of bombs over this area of Laos, over 580,344 missions
during what is known as the Secret War. In fact, according to The Lonely Planet, every 9 minutes a bomb was dropped in this area. However, according to Yang Xang, a bomb was dropped every 5 minutes in this area during that time period. Thirty percent of these bombs did not detonate and literally litter the landscape. Many Laos people have lost their lives, or limbs, or been permanantly and devastatingly disabled by these bombs since then. The Lao people are fairly poor, and most make their living through small farms, but they cannot risk expanding their farm by ploughing new fields because there is a high risk of there being an Unexploded Ordinance on the land. Most of the UXOs are just beneath the soil and some are deeper. It is not like they are sitting on the top and are easy to see. There is a British group, called MAG, which is
slowly clearing the UXOs, but it will take 100 years at the rate they are able to work and with the manpower they have.
As for the Secret War, Laos had been declared a neutral nation at the Geneva Convention after WWII, and because of
that, both the U.S. and Vietnam were not allowed to cross their borders. Despite that, the CIA had operatives in Laos training anti-communist Hmong (hill tribe) people to fight in the jungle. Then the U.S. responded to the flow of war munitions travelling down the Ho Chi Minh Trail (through Laos) by executing non-stop carept bombing of the area. Of course, the rest of the world was unaware, because the Americans weren't allowed to be there, after all.
Anyway, as I was saying, Yang Xang picked us up from our guest house and off we went to Site 1 of the Plain of Jars. First we stopped at a small museum displaying photos and information about the UXOs while Yang Xang arranged our passes to the Jars. Then we were off to the Jars. The first site is close to town so it wasn't long before we hopped out of the mini van and walked up the short hill to see the first Jars. Site 1 has over 250 Jars and has the biggest Jars. According to Yang Xang, they were made in the mountains, some 17 km away, then transported to the site, with the help of elephants.
Jars of Site 1
You can see a bunch of the Jars here, and in the distance, the mountains where they were made. The largest Jar, which weighs about 6 tonnes and stands about 3 metres high was thought to have been the victory cup of the mythical King Jeuam. No one knows for sure what the Jars were used for, but it is believed now that they were for storing ashes of the dead. Recent archaeological digs have discovered the remains of bones close by many of the jars. Another theory hypothesize the jars were used to make Lao Lao (rice whiskey). At any rate, the jars were awe inspiring and amazing to see, knowing that they were built and used and were extremely important to the ancient Laos people, and so little remains of their culture but the Jars and all we can do is speculate about who they were and why the Jars were so significant to them.
We stayed at the Jars sight for a good couple of hours, even venturing into a cave which evidence suggests was a crematoriam. We had to be very careful to stay between the markers and not stray off the path, as only the marked areas were free of UXOs.
After seeing the jars, we drove about 30 minutes into the
mountains and visited a Hmong village. Yang Xang himself was Hmong, so he was able to show us around and speak to the Hmong in their language. The village was small and primitive. There was one electrical wire running across the village, but none of huts had electricity running. We did not go inside, but through the door, one could see a dark interior with a dirt floor and a couple or chairs and a table. About 10 or 12 people on average live in one hut. Outside were many farm animals, some tied up and some running freeley, as well as several dogs, a pet monkey and numerous chickens. There was a manual stone mill for grinding corn into flour. They also had several pigeon coops and when we asked if they ate the eggs, Yang Xang said, "No, the pigeons."
Holding up many of the buildings in the Hmong village were bomb shells. The metal from them is stronger and doesn't rot like wood, so they are used extensively as supports in their structures. It was surreal seeing them in such a serne surrounding. One can only imagine the hell the people went through during those years.
In fact, we did see some of the effects. After the Hmong village, we went to see a cave where the local people hid during the bombings. At the base of the hill going up to the cave, there was an exhibit showing the effects of the Secret War, and even pictures of people with limbs blown off or intestines hanging out. On the walk up to the cave we saw many grave markers and some bones were surfacing in the soil. In the cave, many people had stacked rocks as monuments for their loved ones, and placed flowers on them. The cave itself went quite deep. Many injured people were treated in the cave and hundreds died in there. It was quite sad.
After our visit to the cave, we made a couple of short stops. One to a hot spring. The spring was on the river and was not developed. The water was too hot to go in to and stunk like sulpher, but it was still interesting to see. The next stop was to a "whiskey village" which was essentially under the deck of someone's hut. A couple of baskets of rice were fermenting under there
and the only thing protecting them from the elements were a couple of dirty old cloths. It was wet and muddy as it is rainy season here, but I'm sure there are a thousand other places like that in Laos and it's likely where most of the Lao whiskey comes from that you get in the restaurants.
Phonsavan was a lousy town, but the day of touring was fabulous and the scenery stunning. However, we left the next morning for Vang Vieng.
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