Jars

We woke up and checked out of the guesthouse at 9:00 since we would be riding around in the van all day and then going straight to the airport. The van was waiting as scheduled outside the guesthouse and the first order of business was to go straight to the Lao Airlines ticketing office to book our flight to Vientiane that afternoon.

Da had snatched a copy of the Lao Airlines magazine which was very helpful during our trip, and also contained a complete schedule of all Lao Air flights. There was one daily flight to and from Ponsavan at 4:30 p.m. The magazine said so.

The ticketing agent disagreed.

The next flight leaving wouldn't be until tomorrow at 4:30 p.m. as flights are now only 3 times a week. We were thusly awarded an extra 24 hours in Ponsavan. Oh joy.

Well, the truth is that we had no other plans and nothing else to do, and no place to be, so whatever. We bought our tickets for tomorrow's flight.

So! Plain of Jars! One of the great mysteries of Asia... or something like that.

Well, actually once you reach the place, there really isn't too much mystery: The jars held dead bodies which kind of sat for a while before being cremated, and then the ashes were placed back in the jars... or something like that. It really wasn't a mystery, but certainly cool to look at.

Truthfully though, I was expecting a little more: I expected a plain of jars. Instead, the jars are kind of clustered together on various hillsides. They should call it "The Great Lao Hilltop Jar Collection" or something like that.

The area of Ponsavan is kind of cool in and of itself: It's rolling foothills that have been long since deforested and are now covered in cow-trimmed grass. Unfortunately, if you dump 12 inches of rain onto a grass-only mountain side, you get slides where the grass slides down exposing the sandy earth beneath, and thus the entire region looks not unlike a giant golf course.

Additionally, the area really is pockmarked with bomb craters. Americans really did bomb Laos. Rick was telling me that Ponsavan was actually the center of Air America, the CIA operation. While touring the first site of the Plain of Jars, right there next to the jars was a big ol' crater. You could turn around and see boom-boom-boom craters lining up coming towards you from the distance as a B-52 or something emptied it's load.

Of course, there is a sign there saying something like "American imperialist bastards bomb crater from illegal war of 1960-1970!!!"... actually it just says "Bomb crater, 1960-1970".

Most of the bomb craters, however, are best viewed from the air. It's kind of cool, kind of eerie.

After the first Plain of Jars site, we went to a second Plain of Jars site which was like the first Plain of Jars site, but slightly more of a climb, and trees around the jars.

From there, we went and saw another waterfall. Then lunch, then more Jars... further up, further out. There was also a quick stop at a place that makes rice whiskey. Didn't partake thanks.