Plain of Jars and the rest of the day...

The Plain of Jars is situated in the Xieng Khouang province. You stay in Phonsavan where we are staying and you go with a guide to the plain. Initial research of the Plain of Jars in the early 1930s claimed that the stone jars are associated with prehistoric burial practices. Excavation by Lao and Japanese archaeologists in the intervening years has supported this interpretation with the discovery of human remains, burial goods and ceramics around the stone jars. The Plain of Jars is dated to the Iron Age (500 BCE to 500 CE) and is one of the most fascinating and important sites for studying Southeast Asian prehistory. The Plain of Jars has the potential to shed light on the relationship between increasingly complex societies and megalithic structures and provide insight into social organisation of Iron Age Southeast Asia’s communities.

Huge bombshells at the permit department.

Hundreds of bombshells, everywhere. 

There are 58 jar sites, 50 of them are not open to tourists.

Excavators / archaeologists etc have come to study the Plain of Jars, but no one can say exactly how they got there!  

 The jars are made of sandstone and they come from a different quarry. 

Their dustbins are made of rubber! Cool idea...its a "green" thing to protect the environment!

The jars - really amazing to see! 

They are huge. According to Laos myth, after some big battle (many many moons ago), they filled with jars with Lao Lao (whiskey) to celebrate their win. 

HUGE! this is the biggest jar.

Plateau of jars down the hill.

Cave - Unesco found human remains in this cave. They think it may have been a crematorium. 

2 holes at the top of the cave.

Hundreds of jars.

Some of them have stuff growing in them! It rains a lot here. Phonsavan is 1200m above sea level - hence the colder weather.

This looks like basil growing in there. 

View of the jars from the top of the hill. Gorgeous surroundings.

Plain of Jars: Site 2

We had to walk up this road and then a million steps to reach the second the plain.

Under a tree that covers them like a umbrella. 

Some of these jars are lying on their side. 

They say that these jars are over 3000 years old.

Incredible views from up top. Rice, corn, coffee and teak are Laos main exports.

Rice paddies. You know those funny triangle hats you always see people wearing in rice paddies in Asia? Well, its a true story! They really do all wear them!

Some wild life in one of the pots. Beautiful spider, it has leopard print legs, a bright red and yellow stomach. 

More of the jars at site 2.

The scenery here is so different other parts of Laos. This is all  mountainous with grassy plains. Everywhere else has been dense jungle. 

Walking back to the taxi.

After the Plain of Jars, we went to a Mong Village. This is a village where they still live day by day just gathering food, grinding corn, farming etc. It is such a simple way of living. 

A woman grinding corn with a home made "crusher". It consists of 2 big stones and a couple pf pieces of wood you push back and forth.

The Mong People build their houses on old bombshells. 

So cruel, a poor monkey kept as a pet. 

Their walls are made from bombshells. 

 The house where they store their food.

So many cute little baby animals all over the place! I could have taken these 2, they were so adorable "cheep cheep"

Poor thing - and its chained up. I felt miserably unhappy after that.  

Walking through the village.

Fighting bulls. These bulls are locked up and fed and kept for fighting, specifically. They are worth about $5000.

There are only about 30 families per village so that the chief can keep it under control. Mong families consist of about 10 people per family.

Gorgeous little kids. The oldest one on the left, who is only about 4 years old looks after and feeds the 2 younger while their parents are out farming.

Bacon in the making!

Bombshells to grow spring onions!

Horses are used to carry things etc

Kyle trying to grind some corn! 

So sweet "oink oink"

Pigeon nests - they keep them and eat them. 

So much bacon running around!

Very very very rural!

OK, so after the Mong Village, the driver, the guide and the guy from our guesthouse took us to a party which was the opening of petrol station...Yes those are speakers!

It was quite something to attend...These Laotians know how to break it down...HARD!

Traditional Laos food, rice, barbecued meat, salad, soup and veggies... 

Guide, Driver, Guesthouse, Kyle

It was a karaoke party...you could get up and sing LOL it was hilarious!

This is one of the soups. A meaty sort of spicy soup...not my fav.

This they call special soup...now special soup is super special because I don't think anyone really knows what goes in...all I can tell you is that the lumpy stuff you see is cows stomach and the soup is bitter...and it is totally revolting, apparently, I never tried...Kyle did!

Now, in Laotian culture, when you drink beer, you don't sip it out the bottle or drink it slowly out a glass...they pour beer into 1 glass with ice and you down it. It gets passed around the table. It would be fine if it was just a glass, however there was an entire case of beer Laos at our table that was being shared among 4 of us...Well we left there a little pickled...

Then the traditional Laos dancing started so we had to try...anyway, you can't touch one another (no public affection in Laos culture)and you have to turn your hands in a weird way and dance in a circle...Not that much fun...but at least we tried!

After lunch we went to the bomb craters, where the US dropped bombs into open spaces in Laos (Vietnam border is only about 200km from here). They are huge and there were so many of them.

Here is a bomb that never went off. Apparently you have to be pretty careful when walking around those hills!

Some of the craters are filled with water - I can't describe how big they are. 

All over the place. 

Apparently there are craters in the rice paddies and they just farm around them!

All up the hills. At many of the jar sites there are also bomb craters.

After seeing all the bomb craters, we went to a place where they make Lao Lao...all it is fermented sticky rice in big bins.

Lao Lao is 50% alcohol, the Laos people say, "drink Lao Lao it makes you happy, drink some more Lao Lao it makes you crazy". I reckon if you drink Lao Lao it cleanses your colon and causes projectile vomiting. 

So much of it! My word! This stuff is so dangerous!

The lady at the shop liked me so she gave me a bag of Lao Lao...Hahahahaha...in the bag it will stay!