Plain of Jars

I really like that there are still mysteries in this world.

The Plain of Jars is a series of 160 sites (only 3 open to visitors) outside of Phonsovan, Laos littered with huge sandstone urns, the largest weighing 6 tonnes! Nobody knows what purpose they served, who made them or how they were transported to the sites!

Two theories exist: that they're either funeral urns or they're giant mugs that the Gods used for drinking wine. You know which theory I'm in favor of....

The 3 sites I visited have all been cleared of "bombies" or cluster bombs left behind by the US when they used Laos as a base of operations for fighting the Communist forces along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and northern supply routes during the Vietnam War, or "the American War" as its called in these parts. Apparently the US dropped more bombs on Laos than they did in Japan and Germany COMBINED in WW2, and approximately 30% of the bombs failed to detonate, so they're buried in the dirt, armed and unexploded. Every few days, accidents kill or maim local people, many of them children, as they play in school yards, work in rice paddies or try to tether water buffalos by pounding a stake in the ground.

Well marked signs warn people to keep to the paths in the Jar Sites - but its sobering to see the trail markers.

I watched a couple of documentaries while I was in Phonsovan: "Bombies" about the work NGOs like the Mines Advisory Group (www.mag.org.uk) are doing with villages to find and destroy cluster bombs, and to train local people to participate on bomb search and disposal teams. The second documentary, "The Most Secret Place on Earth" was all about the US (CIA) activities in Laos between 1964 and 1973. Absolutely sickening.

Phonsovan townsite is full of "war decor" - bombs as fence posts, artillery shell lamps and aluminum bracelets made of materials from old war materials. Inventive, but bizarre.

Laos is considered to be one of the 20 poorest countries in the world, but until the land is safe, it's difficult to build infrastructure, increase farming output and improve quality of life. The numbers I heard were staggering - MAG estimates there are millions of UXOs still out there - and that it could take over 100 years before they're all found and disposed of.

Wondrous sights in an unsafe place.