Saturday, February 11, 2012 Phonsavan and the not-so Plain of Jars

After a few days in Luang Prabang, Tania, Ashley, Chad, and I decided to head to Phonsavan to see the Plain of Jars, a UNESCO world heritage site. The Plain of Jars is like a little "Stonehenge" of Laos in that there are huge stone jars in several fields and no one can explain their purpose. I had heard mixed reviews on the area but decided to risk the journey and was glad I did. The drive there alone was an adventure with more curves than J-Lo and a road that made the route to Pai look like child's play. The drive took around 6 hours and I think there was maybe 200 meters of straight road that entire time. No exaggeration. It was a curvy, mountainside, "road" with obstacles every 20 feet ranging from children, dogs, cows, parked motos, bikes, villagers working, to the road simply ending and becoming dirt for a patch. I give major props to those drivers and would not want that job!
The roads were bad enough, but my trip was made even worse by the fact that my seat was not screwed into the floor so it lifted itself up with every turn. It also had no head rest so I got a nice core workout the entire time. By the time we arrived in Phonsavan, all we wanted to do was rest. Lucky for us, there were people waiting to take us to a hotel. The man that took us, Enxy, turned out to be a tour guide as well and we liked his non-pushy attitude so we booked a tour with him the next day for $12, all day, food included. The hotel was adequate. We dropped our bags off and checked out the local market where we saw lots of dead animals we had not seen in other parts, like squirrels and a monkey-like thing. I later asked Enxy why that was the only one that was not already skinned and prepared and he said it was because they steal people's crops so they sell it whole so people believe what type of meat they are buying. After the market, we stopped by the Information centers and learned about the UXOs in the area. THE SECRET WAR and Shellfish Toxin
A UXO (or "bombie") is an unexploded bomb left over from 9 years of US bombing. Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the world, yet this has been one of the best kept secrets. Northern Laos was bombed because it was controlled by Pathet Lao (communists) and Southern Laos to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This "Secret War" lasted from 1964 to 1973 (although US military "technicians" were in Laos as early as 1959). The Us, Vietnam, and China acted in direct contravention of the Geneva Accord of 1962 which recognized the neutrality of Laos and forbade the presence of all foreign military personnel. The war was so secret that the name of the country was banished from all official communications and Laos was referred to as "the Other Theater" and the code name for the US pilots in Laos was "Ravens." To quote Christopher Robbins in his book, The Ravens, The pilots in the Other Theater were military men, but flew into battle in civilian clothes: denim cutoffs, T-shirts, cowboy hats and dark glasses…They fought with obsolete aircraft…and suffered the highest casualty rate of the Indochina War, as high as 50%...Each pilot was obliged to carry a small pill of lethal shellfish toxin, especially created by the CIA, which he had sworn to take if he ever fell into the hands of the enemy.
The UXOs that still exist have a huge impact on people's lives. Everyday activities like farming, ploughing, or expanding land pose serious risk of setting off an explosion. The schools are now used as a medium to educate students and families about the risks. To further complicate the issue, people are offered money for scrap metal from the bombs so many poor families dig up the metal for money and risk explosions. An organization, MAG sets out to clear areas and as recently as 2 weeks prior to where we toured, found UXOs. Needless to say, we were very careful as to where we stepped during the tour!
Laos is comprised of 3 tribes: Hmong, Laos, and Khamu. The US trained the Hmong tribe to be hillside guerillas and there is still an air of tension between the tribes today. It is even illegal to teach Hmong language in written form. Even still, I was told that inter-tribe marriage is approved but it mostly occurs between Hmong and Laos because they can understand each other's language and culture best. I was also told that English is easiest for Hmong people to learn and this seems to be confirmed by the heavy presence of Hmong people in the tourism industry.
The first night in town, I went to bed early after watching a few movies on tv (it was a nice "normal" night) but still didn't get much sleep because I was up at 4am sick and it lasted all morning long. We had already booked a tour for the next day so I rallied and set off for a day tour on an empty, yet still sick, stomach. Good times. Our expectations with Enxy on the tour were met and then some! We began the tour at the bomb site where we saw the giant craters left from bombs and learned more about the UXOs and Secret war. The village we saw was the most heavily bombed one because the president of Laos lived there. From there, we visited "Bomb village," named for the old bombs used in the village construction—stilts for houses, planters, fence posts, anything. Apparently most villages throughout Laos used to look similar but they have all since sold the bombs for money (one bomb can pay for a year of public schooling for one child). Bomb village retains their bombs because they are paid by the tour companies to keep them instead. Friendly local girl at Bomb village As we were walking through the village, I spotted a school and asked if we could see it too. We did and it was one of the highlights of my trip. The entire village, school, and Laos as a whole, remind me so much of Paraguay. It brought back a lot of memories and made me very nostalgic. I enjoyed being in this village much more than the Thailand village visit because it seemed much less "commercialized" and the locals were much more willing to interact with us and offer a kind smile. In general, this has been true in all of Laos-- quite a smiley, friendly people. Bombs as fence posts We hiked through the village and down to a secluded waterfall for lunch. It was a delicious spread of traditional Laos foods, including fish, but I was only able to stomach some rice and half a banana…and even those didn't last long inside me. The hike back up was fun, through the never ending falls. The last stop on the tour was the Plain of Jars. There are several jar sites but only 1, 2, and 3 have been cleared by MAG and deemed safe to explore. We only visited one site and it was interesting to speculate the purposes of the jars, ranging from tombs to rice or whiskey storage. There was also a cave we explored for a bit. By this point though, my energy was completely zapped and it had begun to rain so I waited in the car while the rest of the gang finished up exploring the site. Our private waterfall picnic The next day, I woke up rested and recovered—only a one day bug and the first and only one in 5 months of travel…not too bad (yes, I'm knocking on wood as I type this). It was also a good thing that my stomach was stronger for the ride from hell that I encountered that day. Tania, Ashley, and Chad set off for Vang Vieng while I decided to head back to Luang Prabang. I thought I might head north again and that was the route. I ended up not going north, but enjoyed a day alone in Luang Prabang to catch up on blogging, emails, job applications, getting my pants taken in, etc. At night, I treated myself to some goodies at the market and a 3 course meal and traditional Laos dance show for around $12 : ) It was nice to have a day to myself and to be productive. Plain of Jars But, back to the ride from hell. As I already told you, the road itself is quite hellacious to begin with. Well apparently it CAN be made even worse. I was shoved into a minivan with 11 other strangers, several of which had a very different concept of personal hygiene and socially-acceptable smells than I do. On top of that, there was a toddler in the car who was screaming the first hour, a 13 year old girl who threw up 1.5 hours into the ride, and said toddler who puked the entire rest of the ride. We pulled over 6 times for pukers. As if that couldn't be worse, it was about 10,000 degrees outside, there was no air conditioning, and the guy next to me decided to collect the bags full of throw-up at our feet instead of littering. Remember, my stomach was still recovering from the day before. I thought we would NEVER get there! I was in a race to arrive before I threw up, and before my Skype interview that night. Luckily, I won both races.