Plain of Jars and Louang Probang

After Vang Vieng and the tubing incident we headed off to Xieng Khuang, which is basically a transit town with nothing there. The only reason people would go there is to see 'The Plain of Jars'. Now, I had never heard about these before but basically it is the name given to a stretch of uplands where they have found these mysterious stone jar like thingys. The jars themselves are not particularly interesting (although they would be great for a game of hide and seek). There are lots of the jars broken, and most have no lids anymore. There are a couple of theories as to their origins, something to do with burying people in them, or underneath them, but I personally love the old Laos folklore story attached to why they are there and why they are broken. The story (as I understood it from our local guide who was so gorgeous Jen and I have decided to share custody of him) goes as follows....... The king, or prime minister or something won an ellection and to celebrate he ordered the townspeople to make these huge jars to store rice wine (which is called Lao Lao) in. The reason this story believes the jars are now all broken and smashed is that the Lao people back then were actually Giants and got so drunk on the Lao Lao that they began fighting and throwing the jars around. Some of these jars are about 6ft tall so they would have to have been super strong drunken troublemaking Lao Giants. Now I think that is a genius folktale.

Anyway, we spent a few hours in the morning seeing the various jar sites and then went to a local vilage and got a chance to sample the Lao Lao ourselves. It is STRONG. Unfortunately there were so drunken jar throwing incidents. It was really nice to go to the village actually. We all sat in this persons house and had some of the drink and a chat. We also saw a man making spoons with was interesting. He had a wooden mould and poured metal into it. And yes, we all got a souvenir spoon.

Ah! We also went to this place called MAG which stands for...Mines Advisory Group i think. That was actually really interesting and very sad. Im sure lots of you know this but I didnt but basically Laos was unbelievably heavily bombed by the Americans in the Vietnam War and still has thousands of UXO (Unexplained ordnance..little bombs known as 'bombies') lying around the countryside. And in this particular area they seem to be everywhere. We saw one when we were walking between jar sites. Local people are constantly being blown up when they are out farming. And kids keep playing with them because they sort of look like little balls and then they explode. Lao people are risking their lives everyday trying to make a living. The other thing they are doing is trying to disarm the 'bombies' to sell them for scrap metal. It is awful. When we were walking through the countryside there was an explosion and we saw lots of smoke accros the hill from us. The guide wasnt particularly forthcoming about what it was.

Anyway, The Plain of Jars was slightly interesting but I was pleased to move on from that area. Although Xieng Khuang did introduce me to Lao Coffee which is the most delicious drink ever. It is essentially really strong coffee with condensed milk in it but it tastes like a little slice of heaven!

The following day we took a bus to Louang Phabang (great name). I cant remember how long the bus journey was but I recon it was a long one..maybe 7 hours. This tour is called 'Journey Through Laos' and they are not wrong, the clue is in the title. I have spent at least half the past 2 weeks on a bus, boat or truck, often all three on the same day. Anyway Louang Phabang is a lovely place. It has a really nice chilled vibe to it ,as does the whole of Laos really. We had a whole free day there so in the morning (5.45am) we all went to 'give alms' to the monks. This essentially means giving food to them and once I was over my embarrassment it was actually a realy nice thing to do. We lined up alongside the road with our feet tucked away beneath us and the monks walkes past us with their little bronze bowls and we put the food in. I had brought some sticky rice...and some Orea biscuits. The monk who got a whole packet of biscuits looked very pleased with himself! Although I am assured it all gets shared out.

After that Jen and I had quite a nice relaxed day. We had some brekkie and some Lao coffee of course to get the strength to climb this hill called Phou Si. There is a lovely view from the top and a little temple and more monks. It was very nice up there actually. On the way up we brought a little bird in a cage and released them. It was a nice thing to do but Im sure stupid airy fairy tourists buying these birds and setting them free just means that more and more birds are being captured. That was the biggest thing we did that day. Dinner that night was another family affair I should image with some more Lao beers.