The hills have jars

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The 8 hour bus ride from Luang Prabang to Phonsavan allowed us to see in amongst the hills and valleys we has seen from the slow boat. Outside of the city this presented a very different side of Laos. Houses are wooden with bamboo roofs mostly raised off the ground. Children and adults shower in a communal area and food is eaten on the ground. Chickens, pigs and buffalo roam seemingly freely and cows sit outside the houses, some tethered, some not, as if like dogs near the front door.

Phonsavan is the gateway town to the Plain of Jars, an iron age archaeological landscape comprising of clusters of stone 'jars', the original use of which is open to some debate. We visited sites 1&3 of the 3 main sites and saw jars of between 1-2 metres in diameter and 0.5-2 metres high, some in clusters, some isolated but all set against a stunning backdrop of rolling hills. Site 1 was the easy access site and the most visited, well sign posted with car park and an easy walking trail set out past over 200 jars. Site 3 was mostly guess work to find and a quite an adventure by foot tiptoeing around paddy fields to its setting above the farm land. The jars along with one cave at site 1 made for some fun photos and a generally enchanting day.

There is, however, a darker side to this area it it's more recent history... this 'plain' was, before the 1964-1973 war, a forestry area but much of it was destroyed during 'the secret war' evidence of which is presented in the marked bomb craters. In fact, only since 2004/2005 have the jars sites been made safe for public following a clearance programme removing 127 and 22 UXO from sites 1 & 3 respectively and 38,000 pieces of scrap (site 2 stats unknown). Even now you are advised to keep within the trail markers laid out in order to avoid unexploded ordinance. Advice to keep to well trodden paths applies to all of Laos and is something we are keen to adhere to after hearing that Laos is THE most bombed country in the world with UXO incidents still common now. The more chilling story is that as the population grows people are becoming forced to risk lives farming uncleared land.

Curious to understand the Laos involvement in the Vietnam war we discovered the shocking truth that most bombs dropped on Laos were failed US missions to Vietnam who discarded bombs on their return in order to minimise risk when landing. We also heard stories of caves of refugees, like the one we had seen, being apparent target practice, one story quoting 417 civilian refugee deaths in one hit.

Phonsavan people now uses bomb shell remnants to make bracelets, spoons and other paraphernalia and make money from this. The town itself decorates it's restaurants and cafes with bomb shells which act as a kind of integrated memorial as well as attracting attention from tourists.

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