Luang Prabang and Phonsaven for Plain of Jars

First a few facts about Laos:

• Known also as the ancient kingdom of the million elephants.

  We rode the elephants into the river to give them a bath

• It is the least populated country in SE Asia  with a population of only        6 000 000.
• The republic democratic popular party of Laos  came to power in 1975.  It is a regime of popular democracy controlled by the president who is elected for a 5 year period by the national assembly.  He is helped by the prime minister, who is in charge of the ministry council, and the national assembly is made up of 85 representatives all elected by the people for a term of 5 years.

• Agriculture provides a living for 80% of the population.  The main crop is rice, but also grown are corn, tobacco, cotton, tea and coffee.  Livestock generally consists of cattle, buffalo and pigs.  Also electricity is sold to Thailand.
• May to October is the rainy season, with November to May being the dry season.  In the north during December to February the temperature can drop to 10-15 °C.
• The main religion is Buddhism but this tends to coexhist side by side with annimism.
• There are too many ethnic groups in Laos for them to all be accurately named, as such only about 70 have be formally identified.
• The currency is Kip, but also dollars and Thai Baht are regularly used.

• The national beer, 'beer Lao' is very good and also to be tried is the green tea and the powerful coffee.
• Between 1964 and 1973 the US dropped over 2 million tons of bombs on Laos costing US$ 2.2million a day.  About 30% failed to detonate, littering the country with UXO (unexploded ordnance).  Between 1973 and 1996 resulting in 11 000 UXO accidents.  Ever resourceful the Laos people have used the UXO for practical uses, such as in building houses, as flowerpots, and refasioned into spoons etc.

What we noticed to our surprise when we first arrived in Luang Prabang, were the french baguettes and laughing cow cheese, a legacy left over perhaps from the French colonists?  We also discovered beautiful silks and handicrafts and an excellent place to hang out, L'Etranger, where we would go to lounge on floor cushions eating good food and watching free films.  Once daylight arrived the next day we were able to explore properly and Luang Prabang certainly deserves its world heritage status, its stunning.  The Royal Palace museum, the former residence for the king and his family, now a museum since they fled to northern Laos in the revolution of 1975.  It also houses the Pha Bang buddha after which the town is named.  Various wats are scattered about the town, of most significance is probably Wat Xieng Thong built in 1590, in somes ways we preferred the more understated beauty of the Laos style of wats compared to the Thai.  In the afternoon we opted to cool off at the Kuang Si falls, where we could swin in clear pools and walk through the forests.

After our experience of elephants in Thailand we were careful to find an ecotourism company that cared for its elephants well, which we found in tiger trails, which helps an elephant conservation programme, so you knew that your money was going to good use.  We had signed up for a 2 day elephant mahout programme.  The first day we were immediately encouraged to get up close and touch the elephants, then we started by riding them on the seats before progressing to their bare necks.  We were told about the elephants and the job of the mahouts, but most of our day was spent sitting around doing nothing at the ecolodge so in the end we excused ourselves to go off for a walk to the local village before having to ride the elephants back to the jungle for the night.  By this point we were getting used to riding them bare backed, and when it was time to get on/off the elephants would help by lowering their head to a bank or providing a step up with their leg.  They understood Laos better than us and we had to learn the Laos words for left, right, forward and stop in order to control them, no force was used.  An early start the next morning was in order to fetch the elephants from the jungle, by this point they were pretty dirty, as they use the mud to cool down overnight.  We rode them into the river where we had to wash the mud off using hands/hats/flipflops or whatever, the elephants enjoy their bath so much that they had broken the brushes that they used to use.  Once clean we rode them back to the camp for the first tourists to come for an elephant ride.  When taking them up/down steep hills its a little disconcerting watch the one in front squeeze past a tree or have to use her knees to push up when you have nothing to hold onto!  After another long wait (Laos style) we were ready to get into our kayaks and head back to Luang Prabang, stopping in a village for noddle soup enroute.  Tired, we retreated to L'Etranger again for dinner where the redwine was served with an ice cube!

Day 4 we opted for a Laos cooking course to learn how it compared to Thai cooking.  Our market tour was instructive and although run by an Australian woman, the lessons were taught by 2 Hmong men (a local hilltribe) who had had to learn the recipes themselves.  The Laos use a lot of flavour and texture, in the form of many herbs, and ingredients such as banana flowers and even wood to provide texture.  It was really interesting talking to one of Hmong men about his culture and explaining ours, and we also have a range of Laos dishes to add to the Thai ones you'll have next time you come to dinner.  To walk off the food we walked to the top of Phu Si, well worth it for the stupa at the top, the great views and the interesting way in which buddha statues were incorporated into the rocks.  Afterwards we visited the night market but many of the items could be found cheaper in the small local handcraft shops away from the centre of town along the river, or around the south of town.

With one more dy left in beautiful Luang Prabang we hired bikes to explore further, which was great fun.  In a local wat we played at making funny faces and turning cartwheels with a group of boys, we could explore the handicraft shops along the river and then cycle further afield where we were allowed to relax in a newly built posh out of  town resort and spa.  By cycling in Laos we always found that people were very friendly and we were constantly shouting the greeting of Sabaidee and maybe chatting in English if they wanted to practise, or joking with the children.

From Luang Prabang we had a long horrid slow bus ride on steep windy roads south-eastwards for  Phonsaven, the starting point to visit the mysterious Plain of Jars.  Although only 3 are visited by tourists there are many sites in this area full of these jars, and as yet their purpose is unknown.  The locals believe that they were used for making rice whisky, however at the largest site, some French ladies discovered some bones in a local cave and deduced that they may have been used in burial purposes.  The largest jar at site 1 weighs 6 tonnes,  but of added interest in the area is the large amount of UXO left over from the Americans bombing and secret war in Laos.  We saw old Viet Cong bunkers, Russian tanks, debris from crashed US planes and UXO being put to use as building materials in villages.  The 3 main sites of the plain of jars have been cleared by MAG (British Mines Advisory Group)  so are pretty safe to visit now.

Before I visited Laos I was unaware of the 'Ravens' a secret US airforce posted in Laos during the Vietnam war.  They trained local Hmong hilltribesmen to fight with them against the Pathet Laos who had the help of the Viet Cong and Russian aid.  In a nutshell, America was afraid of the 'domino effect' of communism in South East Asia and saw tiny Laos who has links with Vietnam, China and Russia as key, but even the families of the ravens back in America were unaware of this operation unsure where they were or believing them to be fighting in Vietnam.  More bombs were dropped on Laos between 1964 and 1973 than on Germany in the whole of world war II.  This results in about 2 million tons of bombs costing about US$2.2million a day, of these bombs approximately 30% did not detonate causing further injury and loss of life to local Laos people many years later.  When the Americans left Laos they left behind the Hmong people still fighting a war, and with no support, this resulted in guerilla warfare and the Saisombun area being declared a special zone, still a no-go area for tourists today.

The tour finished early and there isn't much to do in Phonsavan but we did manage to eventually find the badminton courts where we played for free on good courts and with a local.  The exercise was needed as the cook at our hotel was very good!  We opted for a 'VIP'  bus onwards to Vang Vieng, but these aren't as good as they sound due to their love for Thai karaoke DVDs which any traveller will tell you are not good, and you quickly begin wishing above anything else that they'll switch them off!