Jars, Fakes and Bombs

They sell fake teeth and fake money at the market in Phonsavan. It was quite the sight seeing these two items side by side in a glass case.

Phonsavan is the springboard for a trip to the plain of jars. There are three sites to visit here and all of them contain, you've guessed it, jars. It's not known exactly what these containers were used for but the most acceptable theory is that they were used for funerary purposes. Once you've seen one of the sites it's really not necessary to trek to the other two but I'd paid ten bucks and did my tourist duty of taking pictures at each location.

The more interesting thing to look at for me was the landscape. It's barren and bomb craters dot the hills. The USA flew 580,344 missions over Laos between 1964 and 1973. This is the most bombed country in the world and the clearing projects are still in progress. It will take approximately 100 years to clear all the devices.


The story of the secret war reads like a horrific science fiction novel. Most of it seems completely unreal and made up but the hundreds of bombs I've encountered are evidence to the contrary. The path to site 3 of the jars is lined with markers indicating that the path has been cleared of unexploded ordnances (UXO) but stepping beyond it is not considered safe.


Today I hiked out to the old capital, a place that was completely abandoned until 1975. Once again, many bombed out and destroyed buildings. The town is being rebuilt from scratch, not a single old building remains.

I've had some good eats here and now it's off into Vietnam.