Tourism is highly controlled in Laos. We were registered by the tour company with the government as tourists to the Plain of Jars. I guess all our movements are known.
My memories of visiting the Plain of Jars, site 2 and 3 today, are many. Snippets of women and children, the children happily playing in the fields, on the road, everywhere. Babies carried on the backs of mothers and fathers in the traditional baby sling. Older children carrying younger siblings on their backs with slings.
Rice fields everywhere, water buffalo wallowing in ponds or wandering the roads caked in mud.
Travel on the road means avoiding ducks, geese, turkeys, cows galore, water buffalo. Not many cars so mostly the center lane is used on the good road. On the dirt tracks we used whatever side didn’t have a pot hole.
Swallow catching is a seasonal thing. Our guide stopped at one swallow catchers hut and explained how they captured them. There are several methods all employed at the one place. They stick the feet of some swallows to the branches of a thin tree. Others are thetered by thin fishing line to the ground, but they still make attempts to fly up – this is what attracts the other swallows. Once the unthetered swallows land by the captured ones, the nets on either side are suddenly snapped over them. Apparently in the high season for swallows 300 or so can be caught in one day. They are not only used for the locals food, but are sold at the markets to make extra money. The extra money means the family can afford to buy school books or other necessities for their children to go to school.
We walked through the rice paddy’s to get to site 3. Site 3 was my favorite. At both site 2 and 3 today we were the only one’s there. It’s an amazing experience to be standing on a hill in the middle of rice fields in Laos utterly alone. Peace and quiet.
Lots of subsistence farming as there’s not much else to employ people here. Without their farms the people would starve.
The tourist industry is only in it’s infancy, which is great for us. In 10 years time I’m sure Phonsovan won’t be recognizable as tourism takes over.
The old capital was wiped out by carpet bombing during the war. It’s being rebuilt and repopulated but it’s still only a tiny proportion of what it used to be and very simple.
The Wat in the old town was also bombed during the war, which destroyed it almost completely. The Buddha is still standing though, if a little the worse for wear from bombs. It’s still a working Wat and we talked with the one monk who was walking around the field where the temple and Buddha were. The field was home to a cow that was grazing happily in front of the Buddha.
There’s also an old stupa overgrown with trees and shrubs, just about visible still. A second stupa is so covered it’s hard to see it or to believe there’s a stupa under there. But there’s just enough outline to make out the stupa shape.
Had breakfast at Café Simalay and had a beer there after we finished the day’s tour of Sites 2 and 3.
The bull at Site 2 put me off going up to the second hill, but overall it was a gorgeous site. Especially with the herd of cows who took up residence around the jars and were not happy that we were there disturbing them.
Before climing the hill up to Site 3 we stopped at the Café at the bottom of the hill. The Café is more a hut with tables and chairs and a local lady who provides one item on the menu, noodle soup. They were also very happy to share some sips of Lao Lao whiskey with us. It’s the custom to share a drink with your host/hostess.
People wash themselves in the streams outside their houses. There’s not a lot of in-door plumbing.
A couple of quarries are close to town. Our guide said they are limestone – not the same as the ones the jars were carved from.
Many women and children wear the traditional Laos style skirt. More so in the outlying villages than the ‘Capital’, Phonsovan.
There are many new buildings and houses here. It’s obvious that a little money goes a long way here and the influx to the town from the small amount of tourism makes a huge difference.
Eventually Phonsovan will become a well known tourist destination and the simplicity and beauty of the town as it now is will be gone.
MAG is the bomb disposal program who have an office locally in Phonsovan.
The safe path marked by MAG signs
Internet access on a shared 56k dial up modem line to Vientiane sucks.
Our guide told us the story of why the water buffalo is the beast of burden for the farmers. Initially Buddha had asked the water buffalo to go to earth and tell the people that he wanted them to eat once every 3 days. On his way down he went into a dream and forgot the directions the Buddha had given him so when he got to earth he told the people that they should eat 3 meals a day. Buddha was very upset and as a result he gave the water buffalo to the people as a beast of burden to work for them.
It’s cold in the evenings here, you need a fleece to keep it at bay.
We saw an old lady sitting slowly making straw roofing.
For every adult there seems to be about 1 baby, 1-2 infants and an older child around.
Friday night beers and Lao Lao with our guide and his friends. Then off to the local disco on the back of their motorbikes. The disco is called FIFA and has a soccer ball as part of it’s signage. It had the usual strobe lights and loud music.
Our guide, Le, is getting married in February 2005. His fiancée is in Vientiane learning to be a chef.
The local electricity is supplied to outlying housing by means of one single cable. To get the cable to the house often in the middle of a rice paddy field the trunks of bamboo trees are used as electricity poles. Often with their branches still attached, though cut short.
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