A 7 hour bus journey from Vang Vieng brings us to Phonsavan – 5 of those hours were taken up with “S” bends but its well worth it for the wonderful limestone Karst scenery. Phonsavan, is the base for our trip out to the Plain of Jars – Home to huge granite/concrete jars possibly 2000 years old which have been placed on the top of various hills. The most common held view is that they were burial jars but we are not convinced! Nevertheless its an interesting area and was the site for many years of fighting between the North Vietnamese and Laos communist forces versus the Royal Laos and Hmong guerilla armies – CIA funded. The town is of the one-horse variety and mercifully less touristy than Vang Vieng. Despite the Indo-China war finishing more than 30 years ago, the ongoing effects are still tangiable – Most of the land in this region is still unsafe for farming because of the scale of unexploded ordinance. It’s one area where you really do not want to get off “the beaten path”. Most of the victims today are children who still happen across ‘Bombies’ (cluster bombs). Who designed this bomb ...? What a bastard. Due to high price of war salvage – there is also an army of metal detector “enthusiasts” who risk life and limb in finding this material.
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