LAOS - Luang Prabang and the Plain of Jars, Phonsavan

After 3 weeks in Vietnam and several days in the hectic but vibrant capital of Hanoi it was time to continue my journey to the neighboring country of Laos. Quite and peaceful in comparison I am told.

I booked a bus from Hanoi to Louang Prabang in north Laos from the Hanoi Plaza where I had been staying. This all seemed fine and the taxi duly picked me up from the hotel at 6.30pm, after picking 3 other people we spent some time finding a rather remote bus station where we would be departing from. This all seemed a little odd, but sure enough we eventually found it and all seemed ok.

I did not for some reason think to ask if this was the correct bus as there was no other obvious sign of any other bus that was about to depart, and as gear was duly loaded onto the bus for the 23 hour journey I got on. It was not until some time into the journey that In talking to the 2 Australians I was with that I found we where heading for Vientien rather than Louang Prabang. As it happened this was not a major problem as I simply caught another bus the following day, rather more of a pain in loosing a day than anything else.

We arrived at the boarder with Laos at 4am but had to wait until 6.30am for the boarder to open before we could go through immigration etc. I was pleasantly surprised to find this quite straightforward. So after perhaps 30 minutes we had completed forms on both the Vietnamese and Laos side of the border and climbed back on the bus and started to make out way to Vientien.

This turned into quite a journey, its not hard to see why travel her is slow, Laos is very mountainous and the road is very twisty and narrow and goes over mountain passes with truly stunning views, it rained some of the time, but the mist hanging in the valleys was very atmospheric and made for superb photos out of the window. And the roads are quite compared to Vietnam which makes a nice change. So after a lunch stop we arrived late afternoon at the bus station on the edge of town. A tuk tuk took me into one of the guest house just for the night. I dont have much spare time to look round this capital city, there are numerous sites around the city and close by that are definitely worth visiting, but I had to make a few hard decisions and felt that Luang Prabang would be of more interest, so I departed early the next morning for the 7 hour bus.

Once again we travelled through beautiful mountainous countryside and jungle and very traditional villages on the road side, Laos is indeed poor in rural areas and the way of life basic, you see people washing on the road side under streams than come from the mountains, they rig up bamboo water shoots to channel water to make a shower. For the village people this is normal although it seems a little odd to western travellers but its part of the way of life here.

Luang Prabang was made a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1995. It is endowed with a legacy of ancient red tin roofed temples and French Indochinese architecture and the richest culture found in Laos and the most sacred Buddha Image, Indeed Luang Prabang is famous for its Buddhist monks of which many can be seen around the town in their bright orange gowns.

The town itself is set in the valley of the Mekong Delta,this huge river almost encircles the city. The historic centre sits on a small isms with the river on either side, beyound lies dense jungle clad mountains which makes a beautiful backdrop.

Accommodation here is plentiful (although is does get very busy during the festivals) in the form of some delightful guest houses, mostly spread around the historic centre and off Xiang Thong which is the main street. Here too are a number of small restaraunts with some excellent food, although rather more expensive than if you eat from the some of the road side stalls in the market. Luang Prabang is also well known for its fabulous craft market which happens pretty much every night at the Palace end of the main street, so many traditional crafts, its almost bewildering. So no excuse for a bit of bartering here as this is certainly once of the best places I came across for traditional souvenirs.

I was also here in time for once of the festivals, which included long boats racing on the river, I can only describe these as rather like Dragon Boats that I have seen in the UK. They have a crew of about 15 or 20 guys paddling for all they are worth, quite a spectacle. They where practising for about a week while I was there, although I mist the race itself as I had to leave the day of the main festival to fly to Cambodia which was a shame, unfortunately time waits for no one !!. I also spent some time visiting a number of the temples including the palace. They are quite fascinating and all different, the monks are friendly and will tell you about the temple you are visiting which makes such a difference.

After a few days here I was beginning to run out of time, and it seemed a shame not to see more of this part of Laos before I had to leave. So i booked a 3 day trip to Phonsavan to to see the `Plain of Jars' sites. These strange chest high funerary jars, some up to 2m high and weighing as much as 10 tones are spread around the grassy meadows about 45 minutes from Phonsavan itself. There are a number of sites with the main 3 now open tourists because of the high concentration of jars at these sites.

Little is know of their origin, or the iron-age megalithic civilization that created them.They are thought to be some 2000 years old and are testimony to the fact that this area was once seen as prime real estate in S.E Asia because of access to trade routes, topography and climate.

There is clear evidence of the fearce fighting that took place here in 1973 when the USA bombed the area, indeed B52 bomb craters are still highly visible.

It makes an interesting day to wander through this rather odd landscape of huge stone urns which are hollow. I was informed by my guide that these urns did have lids when they where created, but these have long since disappeared when the urns where plundered for the valuables they once contained. Numerous bronze bracelets and glass beads as well as other artifacts have been found which have lead to the theory that these jars are indeed funeray urns.

So after a rather damp and hectic day It was time to return to Phansavan with a meal at a local restaraunt which was very good I must say. The following morning I departed early for the return journey to Lurang Prabang, which takes about 7 hours by mini bus through some remote but breathakingly beautiful jungle and mountainous scenery interspersed with valleys of bright green rice paddies and small villages which  certainly does give a great feeling for Laos and its culture.

So my time in Laos is at an end and I must move on as time is now getting very short, unfortunately I did not have time to go to Chang Mai, plus the weather in the area is very bad with heavy rain and flooding, not good for 3 day jungle treks. I therefore decided to book my flight to Siem Reap in Cambodia to visit the temples of Ankor, which as it turns out will be the final stop of my journey before returning to Bangkok for my flight to London on August 25th..