I'd like to say thanks to all the s*&t heads who decided to have a drunken conversation about lesbians and Irishmen outside or hut at 3am when i'm due to be on a 7hr bus at 8.30am, it's appreciated! Grumble over.

The journey was fine and hardly anyone on the bus so Jen and i spread ourselves out, enjoyed the mountainous scenery and managed to nod off now and then. Phonsavan is North Eastern Laos known for the plain of jars whic is the most important pre-historic archeological site in SE Asia, with 2000yr old clusters of huge stone jars some weighing up to 5 tonnes and measuring 2m high. No one knows the exact use or reason for the jars but there are thought they were used for funerary purposes.

As well as the jars Phonsavan and the surrounding district is also know due to being heavily bombed by the US during the Vietnam war (2nd Indo China war) which has left Laos as the most bombed country per capita in history. When walking around the jar site you see markers in red and white, you must stay within the white markers as this area has been cleared 2m below ground and visually whereas the red is on visually cleared.

The jar site was good to see but i couldn't help but be overwhelmed by all the bomb craters that are in the site too, Jen and i both intrigued to know more about the history of this highly bombed area went to watch a film run by MAG (Mines Advisory Group) who work to dispose of all the UXO (Unexploded Ordinance). The film was horrifying with stories of death due to unexploded cluster bombs, pictures of torsos of adults and children and livestock destroyed by bombs still being found today. Children tend to find the bombs and think they're a ball and play with them, picking these bombs up is all that's needed to trigger the explosion, the children instead of learrning nursery rhymes sing songs about how to recognise a bombie and what to do. Artillery is used in everyday life, as troughs to feed their animals, grow plants in, used for cooking, melted down for horse shoes and even ashtrays in restaurants, no wonder the children aren't scared when they see these bombs and even try to open them in order to sell the gunpowder.

Whilst everyone knows of the Vietnam war no one seems to know of the secret war America waged on Laos, neutral during the Vietnam war, Laos was used as a bombsite for the Americans' who to this day still have taken no responibility. The people here are so nice full of smiles and laughter and some of which may be killed tomorrow by something which happened 30 years ago.There's so much more to it but it gets me really wound upso i'm stopping here.

To cheer you up a bit the 7hr bus journey back to Vang Vieng was pretty full of tourists and about 15 Lao people. The roads are all through mountains, up and down, weaving around corners ect, i now know that Lao don't travel well, at all. The whole journey was spent with people chucking their guts up into plastic bags or even rubbish bins. I've learnt that i can tolerate it and not spew myself (the smell gets quite putrid, especially on a hot bus for 7hrs!) When they all got off half way and started stuffing their faces i did feel like chucking the sticky rice at them!

Enjoy that thought!