Okay so the ‘Nice’ guesthouse is nice enough. The staff were great, actually brilliant. Rooms clean (if aging) and quiet but our mattress felt like sleeping on a bag full of scrap metal ! We had a quick bite and met up with our guide and driver for the day. We had tried to get an older kiwi that traveled with us from VV on the tour to bring the price down but we couldn’t find him last night. Probably a good thing – anyone who thinks Fox News is the best place for information is in a different league.

First stop for the day was the old city of Phonsavan :gps:(GPS)::19.332628::103.367123:gps: which experienced heavy bombing and fighting during the Vietnam war (reminder to self: watch the documentary ‘The Secret War’ sometime). The original monastery was destroyed leaving ‘miraculously’ the Buddha statue and some columns complete with bullet holes. The city’s main stupa (15m high) was also damaged but more so by looters. It’s very ‘Tomb Raider’ with cracked brick and mortar and plants growing all over it. Very cool to explore.

We took a quick stroll through a quiet traditional village and were wondering why we had not seen or heard many birds. They are a popular food source. Bird traps dot the countryside especially around lakes. They consist of bamboo poles covered in glue with swallows as their primary target.

After a simple lunch we took a walk out to the site 3 of the ‘Plain of Jars’. The paths and boundaries are marked with ‘MAG’ flagstones indicating which areas have been cleared of unexploded ordinance. The clearing is ongoing – both the army and private companies are very busy but it’s an immense challenge. There are a few thousand jars at 50 odd sites around the area but only 3 are tourist attractions. Their origins (2000-3000 years old) are a bit of a mystery as little other evidence their creators exists. The jars are carved from chunks of solid rock quarried about 10km away – impressive – and it seems that they were used for burials.

Jar site 2, the chassis of a cannibalized T-72 Russian tank and a demonstration of the production of Lao-Lao whiskey (fermented rice) occupied us for the next few hours. Our final stop was site 1 :gps:(GPS)::19.430478::103.152052:gps:. Although the jars are generally smaller and more damaged than at the other sites, it is the most impressive covering a large area. Huge bomb craters, trench lines and bullet scars bear witness to the fact that the area was the home (and still is) of a major military base. Two of the jars here are unusual. One is huge (around 6 tonnes) and was probably for a ‘king’ while another has a carving of a person on it. A cave guarded by a massive bee hive and a cobra was the last thing to check out in the area before heading back to town.

The tour was in all very interesting and our guide was good but it was expensive for what it was. If we had more time in Phonsavan it would have made sense to rent a scooter and to have done it ourselves. Tomorrow we are off to Vietnam !

[Pictures: The surviving Buddha statue and the King’s jar, or just a really fat dude]

– Posted from my iPhone via Wifi