Phonsavan (Plain of Jars)

Phonsavan is where you stay to visit the plain of jars. Vian Vieng is full of Backpackers, but here is getting into the wilderness and there are only a handful. I met crazy Israeli and surly Fin on the bus and spent most of the time with them. This area was where a lot of fighting was in the secret war and was thus bombed to shit by the Americans. More tonnage of bombs were dropped on Laos than on Europe in the whole of WWII, an average of one planeload every 8 minutes 24 hours for 9 years! Upto 30% of these didn't explode including lots of cluster bombs. Here is the Lobby of our Guest house:



When visiting the jar sites you have to be careful not to stray from the marked path as there are UXOs everywhere (unexploded Ordinance). The jars are in three main sites (or rather there are 3 sites that have been cleared of bombs). Nobody knows what they were for and they were mostly found empty. I was slightly disappointed as I envisioned more of a spread of Jars over the plain, rather than the small clusters that we saw.



Here' a jar with a tree growing in it.



here's me in a jar, what a lark!

Along with the jars we also visited the whisky village, where we saw them making lao-lao (lao whisky) and got a free sample or two, or three. The leading theory for the use of the Jars is that they were for funerary remains, though a competing theory is that they were for lao-lao.

Edit: I should add that a poster in the a restaurant offering advice on DIY Phonsavan trips. Option 9 was "Weddings and Badminton" a great combination I'm sure you'll agree. Guest houses here don't allow unmarried couples to share rooms, and the rules stipulate no "prostiution, gambling or drugs, where it is contrary to traditional Lao customs". Unfortunately I know little of which Lao customs involve the above.

Vang Vieng

From Vientianne I took an afternoon bus to Vang Vieng, which is a bit of a backpacker mecca, where many eat the lotus and end up staying for weeks or even months. But me? I did it all in a day! So many other things to do...



Vian Vieng is surrounded by limestone peaks and caves, but its idiosyncratic attraction is "tubing". Who knows how it got started, but the idea is you get a tuk-tuk a few kms up the river, where you are given a large inflated inner-tube in which to sit, and you then proceed to float down the river in it, past many bars that have sprung up, serving the ubiquitous beer lao, lao lao (lao whisky) and many other things. The bars also have entertainments to entice you in, including rope swings and flying foxes over the river.

In the morning I went a short trip which had a trekking and caves itinerary, including one cave in which you entered on a tube as it was full of water, this cave was great and you could go deep into the mountain on your innertube.



Here's me in a cave with my head lamp (which bled acid on my t-shirt and ruined it, oh well).



Here's me on a flying fox over the river, see the lazy tubers floating by?

Next day, surprisingly hangover free I got on an 8 hour bus to Phonsavan.

Vientianne

First stop in Laos was the capital, Vientienne. I arrived in the evening, saw the sights the next morning and then left in the afternoon! What was there to see? Many Buddhist stupas and temples (Wats) the Victory gate and the national museum.

Here is a fat Buddha at one of the temples.

The Victory gate was supposedly made with concrete donatd by America to make a new runway. The tourist sign on the building says, in an admirable outbreak of bleak honesty, "From a closer distance it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete".

This stupa is a national emblem and supposedly contains Buddhas breastbone (like Jesus, Buddha has an overabundance of bones distributed over the world) and covered in gold.

After these I went to the national museum, which proceeded in Chronological order and started well, but ended up with just "picture of comrade soandso", "Comrade whatsisfaces hat" and " meeting of Laos delegation with Comrades from Peoples Republic of thingumyjig".

A dash through Thailand

After Siem Reap I decided to head for Vientianne in Laos, which meant 2 days of travelling. The bus to the Thai border from Cambodia was packed, ancient and the roads were terrible (we had to stop for repairs by the driver at one point) but I met some nice people on that bus, in fact I even bumped into Sarah at the lunch stop as she was heading this way to Bangkok. After quite a wait at the border and a tuk-tuk ride I got on a bus heading North to Khorat in Thailand. This was a lovely air conditioned bus on modern straight roads, you even got a snack included (a strange combination of pink wafer biscuit between crackers) and I became the only foreigner on the bus again. Towards the end of this trip we passed through torrential rain and amazing lightning that continued long a fter the rain stopped. Khorat wasn't bad, though part of the roof in the restaurant I was having dinner in collapsed due to all the rain while I was in there. In my guest house I was told that there was another Scot staying there, from "Celtic City" near "Rangers City". Hmmm. Next day was another long bus trip and much messing around to get across the Loas border and on into Vientianne.

Cambodia

Time spent: 5 days
Mosquito bites: perhaps one
On budget/time: Not on budget! $20 a day for entry to Angkor, plus a motorbike driver...
Lost/stolen: nothing
Sound of Cambodia: Nothing sticks in the mind
Taste of Cambodia: Amok Fish
Drink of Cambodia: Angkor Beer
Highlights of Cambodia: Angkor temples! Khmer Rouge related stuff was very distressing.

Cambodia was poorer than Vietnam, you could see as soon as you crossed the border and saw all the wooden houses on stilts, similarly everything got nicer on crossing into Thailand, still the poverty was nothing compared to India. I found it expensive, but I did just shoot through and visit the two main tourist centres - I decided to spend some time in Laos instead.

Temples of Angkor

The six hour bus Journey from Pnomh Penh to Angkor allow came with the added bonus of watching two Chinese films (with English subtitles), the first featuring orphaned sisters trained to be assasins, a Thai boxer working for a mob boss, amnesia induced by a bump on the head and much Kung-Fu fighting - what more could you want? Well next up was "Mr Vampire 4", and lets just say I'll be keeping my eyes open for the first three Mr Vampire films. These were much better than the Rambo film we'd been subjected to on the previous bus, watching Sly dicking about in Afganastan, with the help of the trusty mujahadeen against the Russkies. It did give me a better understanding of the jokes in Hot Shots: Part Deux though.

So on to Angkor, where I spent the next two days checking out the temples. What can you say about Angkor that hasn't already been said? Well Angkor Wat was originally built 800 years ago as a mobile phone mast. It was upgraded several years later to provide full Wi-fi access to the local community. Nearby Angkor Thom was then built as a temple to the noodle god, and virgins were sacrificed hourly to keep him happy. Unfortunately, due to this high rate they soon ran out of virgins in Cambodia and had to import them from Thailand, through early websites offering Thai brides. Unfortunately it turned out the the virginity of many of the newer sacrifices was in doubt, pissing off the noodle god no end, and resulting in the failure of the noodle harvest and the beginning of the slow decline of the Khmer empire.

While the temples were impressive, and I ended up taking over 100 photos, to me they didn't quite have that awe-inspiring something that takes them into the very top league, along with the pyramids, Taj Mahal and the great wall of China. They were comparable to Hampi. I wont describe them much as it's better to wait and see pictures, but Angkor Wat is huge, with very impressive Bas reliefs. Other temples have mysterious buddha faces looking down on you and some are more abandoned to nature with trees growing out of them. There was a huge number of tourists here and it gets quite expensive for entry fees and to hire a motorbike driver to take you round (on the first day mine was called Mao, on the second I had one called William, quite a contrast).

Leaving here I took a bus to the Thai border near Poipet, where I was to try an find a bus north towards Laos.

Photos added:



Here is Angkor Wat at sunrise.


This temple has these disconcerting faces watching you from all angles.



Some of the temples are more abandoned to nature with trees growing through them.

Pnomh Penh

So, onto Cambodia. Coming in by bus the country was very flat, with houses on stilts, many of them wooden and pretty poor looking (in the wet season most of the land is flooded). An uncomfortable 6 hour bus journey (with ferry ride) brought us to Pnomh Penh, with me a bit miffed after being scammed out of 2 pounds at the border.

Pnomh Penh has its share of sights. First up I went for the depressing options first to the Killing Fields where the mass graves of thousands killed by the Khmer Rouge were unearthed. There were 8000 skulls in a Stupa, and you could still see bones and teeth poking up through the ground. Next up was Toul Sleng genocide museum, a former school that had been used to torture people before they were sent to the Killing Fields. All in all a very depressing morning, especially hot on the heels of the War Remnants museum in Vietnam. In the afternoon I went to the National museum, which had lots of sculpture in a very nice building (including a fine collection of Lingas, which I must say were longer than Indian Lingas). Then it was the Royal palace, which was very ornate but a lot seemed off limits.

In my first few days in Cambodia I felt everyone was trying to get money out of me and overcharging, I've usually taken a few days to adjust when I change countries and currencies, but I did feel a bit like a cash machine here.

Picture update:



Skulls at the Killing Fields.


The national Museum.



Part of the Royal Palace.