Xiangkhouang - Swiss Of The East

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Xiangkhoang, on the north east of Laos, border to Vietnam. The capital is Phonsavan literally means "Hills of Paradise". Its original name was Muang Phouan. A population of 37,000. Its lush green forest, with pine trees everywhere, rugged kartz formation, valley with plenty of rivers, caves and waterfalls. People are friendly, mostly agricultural and livestock. Peaceful and breathtaking. People have other names for this place. I called this place, The Swiss of The East.

About two kilometres from the town, there is a plateau which was named Unesco World Heritage. It is the Plain of Jars. It is about 2500 years old, a megalithic archaelogical landscape, scattered at the low foothills and uphill valley. The archaelogists has discovered prehistorical burial artifacts and human remains. There are about 400 jars discovered this moment.

In the morning, we went to the market, met some monks in safron robes, collecting alms and food. Such practices can be seen in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia. They are known as the Theravadas. Self Cultivation. They are allowed two meals a day, breakfast and lunch by 11.00am. By noon, no more meals except drinking water, light soya drinks, milk or bean (blended) soup.

Best time to go is in the rainy season, sometime in September to December.

The common indigenious people are the Hmongs. There are Thais, Chinese, Viets and other indigenious group that I have no record of.

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Photos

Swiss of The East 1
Beautiful Mountains, Beautiful Shades

Swiss of The East 2
Beautiful Landscape

Swiss of The East 3
Early morning mist settled on the mountains

On the way to Phonsavan
cold but scenic

The Safron Robes 1
street after street, house after house, they chant, in the hope someone will offer them food

The Safron Robes 2
devotees offering alms and food

The Safron Robes 3
The curious one

Working Girls
Farmer girls on the way to work. This is the road to the Plain of Jars.

On the slope of the hill
trying to get the calf moving

Plain of Jars
From a distance, I see light

Plain of Jars 2
The height is just below my jaw

Plain of Jars 3
togetherness

Plain of Jars 6
only the lonely under the tree with the jars

Plain of Jars 7
hotelier leading us out to main entrance

At the market 2
family together, woman look on

At the market 3
behind the greens

Outskirt of Phonsavan
Paddy Fields

Comments

[The Travel Camel]

Lovely Photographs!
They capture and convey the landscape, people and practices of Laos. Look forward to seeing more blogs from you!

[TravelKlicks]

Thank you
More to write about with pictures, Vientienne, Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng coming your way. Glad to have met you on the social media conference in Kuala Lumpur recently. You are a great blogger.