Robsons-Adventures_Plain of Jars

It's a mystery! Nobody knows the origin or purpose of these stone jars which are several thousand years old and weigh up to 3 tons each. The most popular theory is that they are funeral related vessels. There are several sites mostly within a radius of 30km around Phonsavan. During my stay I visited 3 sites, all slightly different and all very interesting. One of the things to remember about being in this area is to stick to the marked footpaths as there are still an unknown amount of unexploded ordnance (UXOs) around the area despite years of clearance expeditions. To this day children are being killed, but thankfully becoming less frequent. To get around the Jar sites we had an old Russian Jeep, which certainly added to the fun and sore bum, you could get a more comfortable modern minivan though. At each site there is a 7000 Kip entrance charge.

The hotel that I stayed in was the Hotel Maly and yes, this was the dining room! The hotel owner was the person who started tourism in the area and has lived through all the troubles - why not read his story.

The quickest way to the Plain of Jars is to fly into Xieng Khuang from Vientiane, the airport is an old military airfield and still has many war remnants all over the airfield. The other thing to note is that there is not really a terminal building and there are chickens running around the place; just adds to the character. Also don't be worried about going through immigration, it is actually them just doing a tourist count. A thing to remember however for ALL internal flights within Laos is to reconfirm your flights the day before you are due to fly and the Phonsavan Lao Airlines office doesn't have a computer (didn't in April 2006) and they record the details in a logbook which gets taken to the airport and if you are not in the book when you check in, you just may not get on the flight - I was lucky!
There is not very much to see in the town of Phonsavan, which is the new town after the old city of Xieng Khuang was largely destroyed with all the bombing, however the market does make a good photo opportunity. I found the people very friendly although English is not widely spoken, you can easily get by. Eating out is mainly in the hotels, but there are a few restaurants around the town and at least one internet cafe. And a tip, while waiting for your afternoon flight back to Vientiane, why not take a tour to the old city of Xieng Khuang, there are still a few bombed out temples, sort of standing (shame they don't repair them and cut back the jungle, perhaps with more tourists visiting they may). I had a great duck noodle soup (8000 Kip) in the town market area (now being rebuilt as a town) and stopped with our guide to talk to a lady who estimated she was between 110-115 years old and what a character she was. I understand that there are some mineral spring nearby as well, but my limited time stopped from visiting these.