Plain of Jars

I reckon the 7-hr bus journey to Phonsovan was probably worth it...the views were amazing.

We stayed at a really cool guesthouse called Kong's - $5 for a bungalow, and the food was excellent! The second night we had a karaoke - PD and Sharon (a fun Irish girl we met on the tour) sang a Laos song using the sub-titles - considering the script used here isn't even from the English alphabet it was a pretty good effort!





Next day we did a tour to the Plain of Jars. Nobody really knows why they're there, but they date back about 2500 yrs. A couple of them have lids, with engravings such as "frog man" - strange :) Of many theories, the most likely (to me anyway), is that they are old burial sites, and people + personal posessions were buried inside the jars. Some dried buffalo skins used to line the jars, presumably preserve the belongings inside. Who knows? Not I...




Walking between two of the jar sites gave us a chance to see some of the surrounding countryside, which is really beautiful. The number of rice fields in this part of the world amazes me!




There were a number of bomb craters surrounding the jar sites as well, from the Vietnam War. Laos is the most bombed country on earth, and sadly there are still people dying daily from stumbling upon unexploded bomb sites (UXO). We watched a documentary on the war and it's effects on Laos people back at the guesthouse.