Plain of Jars, Phonsavan
Trip Start
Sep 18, 2004
1
43
69
Trip End
Jun 05, 2005
Loading Map
Map Options
Show trip route
Hide lines
Phonsavan, Lao Peoples Dem Rep
Saturday, March 5, 2005
Written on March 16th, 2005
Bus ride from Luang Prabang to Phonsavan
On the morning of March 4th, we got on the one and only bus from Luang Prabang to Phonsavan. Travelling in Laos had been an early morning affair. There was typically only one daily departure to the city we wanted to go to. The bus was always scheduled to leave early in the morning (7:00 am to 8:00 am). In reality, the bus usually didn't leave until it's full. In order to get a seat, we had to get to the bus station one hour before the scheduled departure time.
On most Lao buses, besides the driver, there were always two or more people on the bus to collect fare, help securing luggages on top of the bus, and fix the bus when it broke down. This bus ride was the first Lao bus we got on with special "security measures". We noticed that one of the bus guys had a machine gun and some clips neatly stowed away. On the rest of our bus travels in Laos, there were always a soldier or two in plain clothes with their AK-47s in plain sight. We were told that their jobs were to protect the bus.
The bus ride was about eight hours speeding down some winding roads. A passenger had purchased a brand new giant speaker. The speaker was in a box and stowed in the cargo compartment on the side of the bus. On one of the tighter turns, the box containing the speaker flew out of the compartment and was spectacularly skipping down the hill. Some one got off the bus to pick up the battered speaker and put it back into the compartment. The owner of the speaker didn't seem to complain but maybe it was because one of the bus guys had a machine gun.
I thought it's supposed to be hot in Laos!
The day before we left for Phonsavan, the weather had gotten much cooler. We were told it was very abnormal. Well, it got colder in Phonsavan. It was probably around 10C for the two days we were there. Many travellers had only summer clothes. But worry not, some travellers found the discount clothing store in Phonsavan. Apparently, when we give away our clothes to charity in the States, a lot of these clothes are bundled up in big bales and shipped to poor countries like Laos. Once in Laos, the bales of clothes are sold for a few dollars a bale. We saw a local guy fully outfitted in bright neon, waterproof, puffy, ski jacket and ski pants, along with a ski mask!
The secret U.S. war in Laos
Not many Americans, including us, knew much about the secret U.S. war in Laos during the Vietnam War. Last year, when we went shopping for a washer / dryer at the Sears in Seattle, we were assisted by a salesman who surprised us with fluent Chinese. He told us that our tax dollar paid for his Chinese. During the Vietnam war, he was one of the many special agents dispatched to the Hmong villages on the border of China and Laos. His job was to get the Hmongs, a minority hill tribe in Laos, to rise up against the Communist Pathet Laos.
During the Vietnam War both the U.S. and Vietnam signed an agreement in Geneva to keep Laos out of the war. In reality, the U.S. government was worried about the communist Pathet Laos gaining power in Laos. The Pathet Laos were backed by northern Vietnam and China. The northern Vietnamese started using jungle trails in Laos to transport their goods through, hence the famous Ho Ching Ming Trail. In return, the US sent in CIA agents to get the Hmongs to fight against the Pathet Laos. To pay for the weapons, the Hmongs would supply opium and US planes would transport this opium to the western market, including the US.
Unfortunately, the Hmongs were not enough to combat the Pathet Lao. The US government then decided to send in the US Air Force to help out the Hmongs. Since the US was not supposed to be in Laos, the flighter pilots sent to Laos were not allowed to wear their dog tags, nor their uniform. The strategy was for one plane, known collectively as the Ravens, to survey the area. If the plane was attacked, it would radio back the coordinates, then multiple jets would drop cluster bombs on these coordinates. After the Vietnam War, a lot of US bombers before returning to base from a run in Vietnam would drop whatever bomb they didn't use on Laos, since it was dangerous and inconvinient to return to the base fully loaded. As a result, there were on average 300 bombings a month on Laos during the Vietnam war. After the war ended this number incereased to 13,000 bombings a month since the planes were no longer tied up in Vietnam. The US has dropped more bombs on Laos during the Vietnam War, then bombs dropped in Japan and Germany combined during WWII. The average is 7 tons of bombs for every Lao person at that time. As a result, about one million out of three million Laos at that time was killed. Many unexploded bombs (or unexploded ordianace, UXO) are found today in Laos. In fact, when we were touring around the plain of jars, there were quite a few places freshly detonated because UXOs were found. A lot of the UXO are bright little cluster bombs, or bombies, that attracted children. Occasionally we saw crews of Mines Action Group (MAG) with their metal detectors surveying dried rice paddies around Phonsavan and Sam Neua area. It will take a long time before Laos would be UXO free.
The mysterious Plains of Jars
The Plain of Jars is a large area extending around Phonsavan from the southwest to the northeast where huge jars of unknown origin are scattered about in over a dozen groupings.
We visited three sites around Phonsavan, all on top of hills that are chok full of copper ore. These sites were perhaps chosen because of frequent lightening strikes due to the mineral contents under the hills. Each jar is carved from one piece of giant sandstone, quarried from a nearby hill. The jars used to be covered by a flat piece of round stone, but all the jars have been opened. The archeologists found bodies buried under the jars. The skeletons were people of substantial stature, around six feet tall. The current theory was that the jars were used in burial rites and contained offerings to the dead.
After Phonsavan
We head to Sam Neua in Northeast Laos to explore the extensive caverns used by Pathet Lao during the Vietnam War.
