I have so much to write I am unsure where to begin. I will start with Sunday morning. Not being deaf, John and I must be heavy sleepers because when our 6am alarm woke us we could hear laughing and chatter in the road outside. Emerging onto our balcony (we are on the first floor), we found the pavement below full of people sat on mats; local residents waiting for the Buddhist Monks to come past for their food donations. When they arrived there must have been 200 saffron clad monks filing past, seniors first and juniors in the rear, it was quite a sight. Apparently it's a daily event to which we had been totally oblivious - shows we have clear consciences!
The reason we were up so early was that we had booked a car to take us to Phonsavan to visit the Plain Of Jars. We knew it to be a seven hour drive and decided to do it in reasonable comfort and overnight in Phonsavan before returning. What a good decision this was.
The journey was amazing in so many ways. Perhaps one of the unforeseen benefits was having a glimps of life outside of the cities Vientiane and Luang Prebang. Had these been the only two places visited here we would have left Laos with an incomplete picture of its life.
Once outside the main town of Luang Prebang (which is so beautiful) you see life as it is led by the vast majority of people and this is really quite poor. A basic house is made from what looks like panels of woven bamboo strips and with a roof thatched with the leaves of Pampas Grass. Some houses are walled with wooden boards and just a few from rendered brick but the great majority were of the simplest construction.
The parts of Laos which we have seen have been sparsely populated and this was reinforced on the journey.
To say the journey was amazing is not to do it justice. For seven hours we travelled roads so winding that to find a straight run of about 50 yards was impossible, we have crossed over mountains so high as to make your ears pop and from where the views from both sides of the car were into wooded valleys so deep it was difficult to see the bottom. When we set off it was an overcast morning but we climbed through the clouds and, for much of the journey, looked down on them ... it was unspeakable incredible.
Dotted along this road were tiny villages of a dozen or so houses all with their frontage right on to the road so every domestic chore was performed for all to witness. We saw women cooking, washing clothes, children naked queuing up at the communal water source to be bathed, babies being bathed in washing up bowls, people washing their hair, men bathing in their underpants and women bathing in their sarongs, it was all there to see. The children played in the dust, often frighteningly close to he traffic, even toddlers who could barely walk would wander into the road. There were cows, water buffalo, goats, pigs no larger than a small dog, dogs and cats just using the road and the habitation as one. There were chickens who must be the super models of all chickens with the longest legs, sleekest bodies and shiniest plumage who played 'chicken' with the traffic (I had wondered where the expression came from, now I know). Children who have little can be very inventive. In one place we saw children on a wooden wheeled sledge whizzing down a dirt hill towards the road - amazing fun but hugely dangerous.
The reason we were up so early was that we had booked a car to take us to Phonsavan to visit the Plain Of Jars. We knew it to be a seven hour drive and decided to do it in reasonable comfort and overnight in Phonsavan before returning. What a good decision this was.
The journey was amazing in so many ways. Perhaps one of the unforeseen benefits was having a glimps of life outside of the cities Vientiane and Luang Prebang. Had these been the only two places visited here we would have left Laos with an incomplete picture of its life.
Once outside the main town of Luang Prebang (which is so beautiful) you see life as it is led by the vast majority of people and this is really quite poor. A basic house is made from what looks like panels of woven bamboo strips and with a roof thatched with the leaves of Pampas Grass. Some houses are walled with wooden boards and just a few from rendered brick but the great majority were of the simplest construction.
The parts of Laos which we have seen have been sparsely populated and this was reinforced on the journey.
To say the journey was amazing is not to do it justice. For seven hours we travelled roads so winding that to find a straight run of about 50 yards was impossible, we have crossed over mountains so high as to make your ears pop and from where the views from both sides of the car were into wooded valleys so deep it was difficult to see the bottom. When we set off it was an overcast morning but we climbed through the clouds and, for much of the journey, looked down on them ... it was unspeakable incredible.
Dotted along this road were tiny villages of a dozen or so houses all with their frontage right on to the road so every domestic chore was performed for all to witness. We saw women cooking, washing clothes, children naked queuing up at the communal water source to be bathed, babies being bathed in washing up bowls, people washing their hair, men bathing in their underpants and women bathing in their sarongs, it was all there to see. The children played in the dust, often frighteningly close to he traffic, even toddlers who could barely walk would wander into the road. There were cows, water buffalo, goats, pigs no larger than a small dog, dogs and cats just using the road and the habitation as one. There were chickens who must be the super models of all chickens with the longest legs, sleekest bodies and shiniest plumage who played 'chicken' with the traffic (I had wondered where the expression came from, now I know). Children who have little can be very inventive. In one place we saw children on a wooden wheeled sledge whizzing down a dirt hill towards the road - amazing fun but hugely dangerous.
The visual impact of all this was enhanced by the scenery of valleys and mountains covered in trees. The roadside lined with white and silvery pink pampas grass, a humble dwelling made chocolate box perfect by a swathe of cerise bouganvillea. Bushes of marigolds glowing orange in the sun, wild Poinsettia bushes taller than me; yellow daisies on tall stems which looked like they had been transported from an English cottage garden and new bamboo shoots reaching the sky like redundant fishing poles. To add to the picture there was the inevitable washing drying in the sun alongside mats of rice and bright crimson chillies, it was incredible.
At Phou Khong, about midway, we stopped for a short break. The street food market had the usual array of tropical fruit & veg and suspect cooked meats. We were, however, a bit shocked to discover one stall selling hundreds of dead bats, all so tiny it seemed such a waste when they were barely a mouthful. Another with the corpse of a kind of bush-baby, not good.
After this assault on our senses we arrived in Phonsavan, a bit of a one horse town where the sole reason for its existance seems to be servicing the visitors to the Plain of Jars. There are many locations of Jars but three main sites for visitors. We went straight to Site 1 the main site. You are probable aware that the Viet Cong were very active in the North of Laos (the border is very near) and Laos came in for a huge amount of bombing by the Americans, the Plain of Jars was heavily used as part of the Ho Chi Minh trail so this area was extensively bombed. Trails have been cleared of unexploded ordnance and are clearly marked, needless to say we stuck to these paths. There are large bomb craters all over the place and trenches used by the Viet Cong. Then there are the Jars. Site 1 has a 250 jars with about 100 in a group in large clearing. They range from one as large as about 7ft tall to a small one of about 1ft. As some are sunk in the ground it is difficult to say exactly how large they are. Archeologists are of the opinion that they were used as burial containers and it would be difficult to see that they could be used for any other purpose.
After this assault on our senses we arrived in Phonsavan, a bit of a one horse town where the sole reason for its existance seems to be servicing the visitors to the Plain of Jars. There are many locations of Jars but three main sites for visitors. We went straight to Site 1 the main site. You are probable aware that the Viet Cong were very active in the North of Laos (the border is very near) and Laos came in for a huge amount of bombing by the Americans, the Plain of Jars was heavily used as part of the Ho Chi Minh trail so this area was extensively bombed. Trails have been cleared of unexploded ordnance and are clearly marked, needless to say we stuck to these paths. There are large bomb craters all over the place and trenches used by the Viet Cong. Then there are the Jars. Site 1 has a 250 jars with about 100 in a group in large clearing. They range from one as large as about 7ft tall to a small one of about 1ft. As some are sunk in the ground it is difficult to say exactly how large they are. Archeologists are of the opinion that they were used as burial containers and it would be difficult to see that they could be used for any other purpose.
There is always something strange, and rather moving, touching something made by people who lived and toiled two thousand years ago. It is one of those experiences where if time travel was possible I would like to travel back to see just how they were made and used. Walking around the site and up the hill to where more Jars were located gave one a sense of wonder at how anyone could move such huge pieces of stone with equipment we have today let alone 2000 years ago.
We then checked into our Guest House for the night, sufficient to say it was adequate and John clearly has a more robust constitution than me as he ate my dinner as well as his own!
The following morning, our driver collected us early and took us to Site 2, even better than Site 1. As it is several miles along a rough dirt road, it was more difficult to get to but oh so worth it. We were the only ones there and the morning mist was still in the air as we walked up the hill to the main group of Jars. They were quite ethereal as they emerged from the gloom of the fog, gathered together under and around a large tree which seemed to add to the mystery and atmosphere of our visit. Many of the Jars were remarkably well preserved and I have to confess to a strange urge to get inside one of them. This I resisted as it seemed to be irreverent in a way - but I was also concerned I wouldn't be able to get out again.
We then checked into our Guest House for the night, sufficient to say it was adequate and John clearly has a more robust constitution than me as he ate my dinner as well as his own!
The following morning, our driver collected us early and took us to Site 2, even better than Site 1. As it is several miles along a rough dirt road, it was more difficult to get to but oh so worth it. We were the only ones there and the morning mist was still in the air as we walked up the hill to the main group of Jars. They were quite ethereal as they emerged from the gloom of the fog, gathered together under and around a large tree which seemed to add to the mystery and atmosphere of our visit. Many of the Jars were remarkably well preserved and I have to confess to a strange urge to get inside one of them. This I resisted as it seemed to be irreverent in a way - but I was also concerned I wouldn't be able to get out again. The whole experience was something I shall always remember and treasure.
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