Asia 2018: Day #8 A Short Hop to Vientiane

First stop of the morning was in a local food market. Our driver and guide, who had been with us since Day 4 in Labang Prabang, were dropping us the airport later in the day and heading back home and it seemed that this market stop was as much for the guide as it was for us. He bought a number of "delicacies" that he was taking home to cook.  I didn't enquire too closely but I did notice a number of local foodstuffs, such as rat, squirrel, small birds (the size of finches), and frogs were on display and available for purchase. I know he picked up some rice noodles and I have a feeling the small birds might have been in there somewhere as well.

The area around Phonsavanh was one of the most heavily bombed areas of Laos during the secret US bombing of the 1960s and 70s. As a result there isn't a lot left from the pre-war period. Most of what was above ground was obliterated so the only major tourist area of interest is the Plain of Jars.

Spread across nearly a hundred sites in the surrounding countryside these jars were constructed to contain the bodies of locals. The jars were made of clay originally but are now so old that they have come to resemble stone. They lie scattered across the area surrounding a cave in a small hill at Site 1,

half-way up a hill at Site 2

and the same at Site 3. And if you looked carefully you could actually see some remaining bomb craters.

Only these three sites are available for people to visit in this region as they are the only ones that have been fully cleared of unexploded bombs. The clearing of the bombs around tourist sites may seem like a misdirection of effort, but tourism is one of the major providers of foreign revenue for this poor country. So a combination of tourism, infrastructure and agriculture sites is required to balance the full set of needs for Laos. In addition, these sites are of major cultural heritage value to the country and need to be preserved.

After the jars we dropped into the old capital of the Muang Khoun Province where the Hmong hill  tribe people live. Fifty years ago this was a thriving beautiful city, but was flattened during the bombing and now looks just the same as everywhere else in Laos. Of the main temple in the town the only thing left was the temple Buddha, which appears to have survived more than just the 1960s bombing during its lifetime.

At the airport we checked in early, hung around for an hour or so before being turned back at the gate.It seems that non-Lao persons need to go through immigration prior to boarding a flight. That was news to us. After a stamp on our boarding passes, and the copying down of our passport details we were free to go. 

Vientiane at the end of the 30 minute flight was crowded, noisy, hot and humid. But the hotel was good and a great dinner at a small cafe down the street ended the day.