From Phonsavan to Luang Prabang...

Ok, we're back again and hopefully now our VPN issues have been corrected and we can return to a somewhat more regular schedule of postings. After our day traipsing around the stone jars we hopped back in the van for the long ride back to Luang Prabang, and we told our driver that we would want to make some stops at picturesque little villages that line the road and cling to the upper ridges of the mountainous terrain. Enjoy the photos.

This girl was 3 and carrying around her 8 month old brother.

Returning home from gathering firewood.

They almost knocked Tina over when she tried to show them the photos she had taken.

They told us to come back again the next day when they had school.

We pulled back into Luang Prabang around 17:00, and on our walk over to the Goodwill - where we donated some of our old clothes - we found this van that had been converted into a bar. So we stopped for a quick drink...
Then a nice dinner with a good bottle of wine, what a great way to end the day.

Finally... stories about jars.

Alright, after days of fighting to try and get our VPN service to allow us to connect to Blogger we are finally able to post. It was more the VPN then China, and we are still having some slight issues that make posting more difficult then it should be, but you guys are worth it... Don't be surprised if it takes us another 3 days to post again, as loading photos has been quite a fight lately. Our posts need to feature photos since we know that most of you don't actually bother to read fully - just a quick skim and then look at the pretty pictures.

Anyway - last time we wrote, prior to our guests last weekend, we had just taken a 6 hour ride into the eastern section of northern Laos to Phonsavan. Our first day there we were able to sleep in a little prior to heading out for the sights that we came all this way to see. When I say 'we' in this case I mean 'I', Tina liked the idea but felt that there may have been other sights to see in China or nearby Asia prior to heading home. She gave in on this one in exchange for her being able to dictate where the rest of our, here I mean 'my', vacation time was spent. I gladly agreed.

Phonsavan is a fairly new city, the original city of Xieng Khouang being completely destroyed during the war, and people mainly come here so that they can head out and see the jars. Plains of jars actually, but because of unexploded ordinance in the area there are only a few sites that can be safely visited. So, without further talking may I present to you the plain of jars....

First stop has a large sign about the unexploded ordinance (UXO's) in the area, actually all sites have this, and warns you to stay within marked areas. The group MAG does a lot of work around the world to help clear mined and bombed land, and since Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the world they are quite busy here. Go back up and click their link and donate them some money, it's worth it for all of the work they are doing.

Right, back to the jars. They are carved out of stone and quite large, and just lying about across a section of the country. Nobody really knows what they were originally for, or even when they were made. Just big stone jars...
Those are all from the first site that we went to, it had the most jars along with an old trench line from the war and several large bomb craters. Several of the jars were damaged and there was only one that still had a stone lid on it.

From there we went to site 2 which was up on a hilltop, actually two different hilltops.

Just the amount of work to move these stone jars up to the top of a hill is mindboggling. Although fewer jars then the first site it was almost more impressive due to the location.

Rice paddy path to site 3

Site 3 was a bit of a hike through some rice paddies and then across some farmers fields. It is by far the best of the three sites just because of the location and the surrounding fields and mountains.

Lots of jars...

...and even more jars

Mark in a short squat jar*

Tina in a tall thin jar*

From there we to the old center of the capitol city and looked at an old temple that had been bombed but the Buddha has survived, and took a look at some old Stupas on top of the nearby hills.

Buddha survived the bombing

Old stupa on the hilltop

After a long day of looking at ancient carved rocks we headed back into town, where we wandered the market for a while before enjoying a great local dinner.

Water buffalo near the market

Full moon after dinner

* - we didn't actually climb into the jars, there are signs telling you not to, these were jars that had been damaged and had a hole in the back side of them.

Luang Prabang to Phonsavan.

Just a quick post today on the long drive from Luang Prabang over to Phonsavan in the eastern section of northern Laos. We have guests arriving tomorrow for a quick weekend, so hopefully we will interrupt these stories with their guest posting. If they are too tired, don't expect a post tomorrow - the Laos stories will return on Monday. We think...

So for the ride to Phonsavan, it's a little over a 6 hour ride on nice tight winding roads that are really in pretty good shape. Once a short while out you get great sights of the mountains and the small villages that are situated along the road way.

You can click the photo to get a better view of the small village there.

We were picked up sharply at 09:00, and since we only made a few photo stops as we were going, by about noon we were pulling into what we believe was Muang Phou Khoun. Basically this is a small stop where the road splits, you can either take the route that we took last year down to Vang Vieng, or over to Phonsavan where we were heading this trip. It's three streets with lot's of shops and markets. We were a little shocked as some of the items that were for sale...

Stacks of edible bee larvae, and not tiny either. Sized like the tip of a pinky finger.

Fried rats.

Fried bats.

Seriously, stacks of rats along with homemade drink.

We didn't try any of these items, instead deciding to stick with a beef noodle soup. Last time the VIP bus that we took zoomed straight past this intersection, I'm sure some of those backpackers would have tried one of these just for the shock value. Seeing that we were alone this time there was no need, I've given up on trying to shock Tina with my antics.

A short time later and we were back on the road and within a few hours the mountains slowly gave way to gentler slopes and gradually to more and more signs that we were approaching a city.

Signs of civilization.

On the way we stopped to visit an old cave that housed an Buddha that was more then a thousand years old and then another that had been used as a hospital whilst Laos was involved in fighting in Vietnam with US support (look up the secret war for more information on this whole non-war war). In one section of the cave the ground was littered with thousands of small bottles - "Operating room" our guide said. It's amazing just because of how hard it was to get into the cave when we were in somewhat good shape and not being bombed.

Gurney that was left in the cave.

Butterfly outside the cave - damn bugger wouldn't stay still.

By nightfall we had pulled into Phonsavan and checked into our hotel - one without air-conditioning. When we questioned the no-a/c we were told that it gets too cold, that no place has it, and that they have fans and screens on their windows. The screens on the windows is something we never would have expected, and it actually was quite comfortable at night.

Phonsavan main street.

Marketing skills - using kids to sell hot peppers.