Got to see Phonsavan in daylight and confirmed my thoughts from yesterday. It definitely feels like a town that they started building and forgot to finish…..not what you would expect for a capital city!!! But we were not here for the town but for the trip out to see the Plain of Jars.

The unusual Plain of Jars offers the mysterious sight of hundreds of stone jars, some weighing up to 6 tons, scattered over the landscape. The jars are over 2000 years old and legend says that they were used to ferment rice wine in the sixth century in order to celebrate a victory in battle. The Plain of Jars is a nominated site in the list of UNESCO World Heritage, and is popular for its magnificent megalithic archeological landscape. You can find hundreds of megalithic jars scattered all across the region, and it has a somewhat surreal atmosphere. Prehistoric material found at the Plain of Jars is still under study, and apparently spans a considerable period of time, with some dating from as early as 2000 BC.
Unexploded Ordnance is a real problem in this area and we made aware of the problem before we were allowed to enter the site. The United States,during the nine year Secret War, executed more than 580,000 bombing missions over Laos, and released over two tons of bombs per person. According to one Lao official, clearing the ordnance will take 100 years as compared to a mere nine years of warfare. The munitions include explosive items such as cluster bomb units, rockets, artillery shells, mortars and anti-aircraft rounds. Up to 30 percent of the CBU's (cluster bomb units) and an unknown percentage of other types of ordnance failed to explode during the war and continue to kill and maim hundreds of people each year. The CBU's pose the deadliest threat, and are responsible for most of the casualties. Cluster bombs, known as 'bombi' to the local people, were developed in order to improve the 'efficiency' of aerial attacks, particularly against "soft" targets like personnel (i.e. people). The most common type in Laos is the BLU 26, spherical objects which, similar to grenades, release hundreds of metal pieces of shrapnel at high velocity. Assistance for ordnance removal in Xieng Khouang was first provided
by a team of 12 Soviet experts over a period of 18 months in 1979-80. The two groups that actively implement bomb clearing activities are the Mines Advisory Group (MAG), with support from the Mennonites and the Quakers, and UXO Lao, a government body that has UN Backing.
We visited the MAG offices to learn more about the problems faced and were happy to make a donation to the cause. The art of CBU clearing has evolved into an established procedure. The
area to be cleared is planned and marked out very carefully, all information is recorded, and when they find something they have to be very careful not to disturb it. The area is then worked over with specialized metal detectors. MAG has trained villagers from the area to perform this work.The spots where the metal detector makes a noise is noted and marked carefully. Specialists from MAG are then called to dig up the 'bombi', bring it to a protected place and blow it up using a small TNT charge.

It was then off to visit the original capital city of Xieng Khouang, Muang Khun which was almost totally obliterated by US bombing between 1964 and 1973 and consequently the capital was moved to nearby Phonsavan. Of several Muang Khun Buddhist temples built between the 16th and 19th century only ruins remain. By 1975 all its inhabitants had fled. After 20 long years people began to return. There are about 14,000 people today. Most of them are the native Phuan people with a mixture of Thai Dam, Thai Neua, Lao and Vietnamese. The grand colonial buildings are gone. In their place are wooden rows of shop houses with metal roofs lining both sides of the unpaved main road.
The fine Buddhist temples have fallen into ruins - all that remains of them are the foundation, columns and a big Buddha in the seated position of Wat Si Phum located to the east of the town.

Not far from the edge of town is the Nam Lin Soung Bridge - not of great importance to the outside world but apparently a godsend to the local people who have been able to resume living peacefully in the area. More important to me was the discovery that this bridge was a gift from Australia and is also known as the Laos-Australian Friendship Bridge.

Late afternoon we head to the airport for our flight to Vientiane. Guess my brain was not exactly engaged when I booked this trip so got the shock of my life when we got to the airport and all I could see was this little baby plane with propellers on it……… Anyone who knows me well, knows that I don't do flying well so you can only imagine what I was like – be grateful you were not with me!!! A 30 minute flight (longest time of my life) and we arrived safely in Vientiane. With legs of jelly I staggered off the plane to the amusement of the ground staff and air crew. Collected our bags and headed off to our hotel to check in before my room ate and I heading out for some sightseeing and to find a bar where I could get a much deserved drink after the fright of the flight.