Advertisement
Published: January 16th 2008
Edit Blog Post
The Plain of Jars
Us next to the biggest jar in the world! Hello from Laos!
We are presently in Luang Prabang and about to spend two days on the Mekong in a slow boat heading for the border with northern Thailand.
Laos has definitely been a change of pace for us. This started with our epic bus ride from Hanoi into the capital of Laos, Vientiane. This was a ride of stages, including a motocycle to a taxi pick up point, and a taxi (playing blaring dance music) to the bus station. In the taxi we also had our first "real traffic accident" since arriving (not counting a minibus running over a dog, watching a guy chased by the cops skid off his scooter, or other guys on the highway fall off their scooters...). Was very minor - with a bus reversing slowly into our taxi, where the only evasive action taken by our driver was to keep his hand on the horn (like usual no-one seemed to take any notice)! Quite a crowd gathered round, hand waving and shouting ensued, money changed hands, and then we were off again. They said the bus would take 20 hours - and it did. However this included 1 1/2 hours sitting in the
bus station before leaving, 30 minutes sitting by the side of the motorway (couldn't determine why) and a 3 hour wait for the border crossing to open for us at 7am.
The capital, Vientiane was a nice change - clean, quite and pretty small by the standards of other cities we have visited in Asia (population approx. 200 000) Not much to see though, the main attractions being a really big golden stupa reported to enclose a piece of the Buddha's breast bone (which was quite impressive on a sunny day) and a monumental Arc in the same style as the Arc de Triomphe but with lots of fiddly decorative bits and Buddhist elements. The Arc was constructed from concrete donated by the US to build a new airport runway - hence it is known locally as the "Vertical Runway". We also saw a few more temples, the most notable being one with thousands of small niches with little Buddha figures inside (photo attached).
One complication with travelling in Laos is money if you are not into travellers cheques. The country only has one ATM network which unfortunately has trouble with foreign cards (ours included). Visa to the
rescue - this time round for cash advances, as no-one wants to accept credit cards for purchases (without huge commission fees) because their margins are really tight.
Another days bus travel from Vientiane through the mountains bought us to Phonsavan, home of the plain of Jars, and one of Laos most bombed provinces during the American/Vietnam war.
The 3 sites of the jars we visited were pretty impressive. However, no one has any clear idea what the jars were for as they are 2000 years old and of a size that makes you think of Giants having a massive booze up. The best explanation given was of some kind of tomb/burrial vessel, although massive brewing vats for the local rice whiskey (which is extremely potent!) came a close second.
We also saw lots of evidence of the bombing campain of 30 years ago, from the large craters still in the ground (now covered with grass and sometimes trees) to the defused ordinance used as BBQ's, fence posts, and hotel lobby decorations. We also took in the displays and video put on by the Bomb defusal mission working in the area, explaining how the US cluster bombs dropped
are still a massive curse for Laos 30 years on as they restrict the amount of land that can be worked safely, and look like play things to the kids.
Another days bus travel through the mountains (average speed again of approximately 30 kph) has bought us to Luang Prabang, a kind of cross roads for tourists heading into Laos or going to Thailand.
We have been recharging the batteries here for the last few days and recovering from Bus fatigue before heading off up the Mekong back to the Thai border. We have taken advantage of the dirt cheap traditional massage services (no funny business here), and been nicely surprised by the experience - although the Laos massage was farily active with lots of stretches and pressure being applied. We have also been enjoying the large range of nice resturants lining the river banks.
It is a good thing we are currently stopped at a center like Luang Prabang as over the last two days Simon has developed a rather nasty skin affliction (photo attached).
We orginally though it may be bites from the bed bugs we found in our room in Vientane (which were
very selective only biting one person), as the spots itch like crazy. However over the last few days more and more have been poping up and getting bigger - lovely. So this morning it was time to take advantage of the Laos medical system and get some help. The local chemist looked pretty confused (and slightly disgusted), and offered a tube of "I don't know what the hell it is but this will kill most stuff" (antibacterial, antifungal, topical steriod cream) but suggested it may be better to visit the dermatologist at the local hostipal to which she wrote out directions for us. The hosptial doctor was only a little more helpful, had a similar level of English and prescribed pretty much the same stuff but in tablet form with a big tube of topical steriod cream.
We are pretty confident this load of drugs will sort it out - but also pretty keen to get to Thailand too :-)
Thats it from us for a bit - hope the summer holidays are treating you all well and we shouild be posting again next week from Chiang Mai.
S&S
Advertisement
Tot: 0.346s; Tpl: 0.023s; cc: 13; qc: 54; dbt: 0.062s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb