We survived the night in the "auberge" and set off on our tour of the enigmatic Plain of Jars which has a two-fold interest. The first and obvious interest is that the area has 60 odd locations scattered about on hillsides and hilltops with huge stone jars that have been quarried out of rock and left to puzzle tourists 2,000 years later. You can just imagine the instigator of the project having a chuckle and saying "in 2,000 years this is going to be a great tourist attraction". There doesn't seem to be any conclusive theory as to what they were made for. Brewing whiskey and burying the dead were two that were mentioned. My theory is that they were centralised grain storage facilities, so there. The second reason for visiting the area is that it is the scene of the "Secret War" that the US waged illegally against the people of Laos for 9 years in the 60's and 70's, dropping more than 2 million tonnes of bombs on a country which they were not even at war with. Laos is the most bombed country in the war per capita. The tonnage dropped on Laos exceeds the sum of the tonnage dropped on both Germany and Japan during WWII (excluding nuclear perhaps). A shocking, horrific and almost unbelievable sideline to the Vietnam war which was itself shocking, horrific and (nowadays) itself almost unbelievable. Anyway, the point is, that apart form the horror 40 years ago, it continues to this day because of the nature of the ordnance dropped which was anti-personnel. Up to 30 percent of the 2 million tonnes didn't detonate at the time but has been doing so ever since when farmers or children come into contact with them. They estimate that only 5 to 10 percent of the UXO's have been removed and that it will take another 150 years to completely clear them!!! Meanwhile people continue to be maimed or killed. The USA has never accepted responsibility for what amounts to a war crime!