Mayan Prophecy Countdown

Today was another touristy day and of course the main tourist attraction in this region is the Plain of Jars. So, I hopped on my rental bike and took off to site #1, it was only a few kms from town to the south and has been nearly thoroughly cleared of UXO, which is a good thing 🙂

These are man made jars, most had wooden lids which have rotted away, but there is the occasional stone lid. This whole area was bombed to the max during the IndoChina war and a lot of the jars have been damaged. The bomb craters are quite self evident in some areas. It is only a small area but the loop walk takes you through different sections of the jars down on the plain, and then up the small hill.

Up on the hill were only a few jars but also the remains of the old trench system, which is evident by the bright green grass growing in it, as it is usually full of water.

After seeing this strange place I headed further east to see the old capital city of Muang Khuon. This city was bombed into the ground and Phonsavan has replaced it as the province capital. On the way I stopped for a moving hazard, I have seen bikes with more on it, but this one was very colourful 🙂

When the town was bombed, the only thing left standing was the Wat or temple Wat Phia, but then the planes returned and blew it apart as well!!! All that is left is a serene Buddha statue with the burnt look 😦 They could not rebuild the old temple, but they do have a smaller newer temple in this same compound. The town around this memorial site is not big, but big enough.

After this it was time for lunch so I headed back and saw a few interesting things along the way. These are fish ponds.

Bombs used as building supports.

A broken down car, as usual it is parked in the middle of the road, no tow trucks in this country that I have seen. I had seen these chaps working on it on the way out, they have now taken the broken bit into town for a repair or replacement.

Lunch today was another nice Indian dish at Nisha’s before doing some blog work in the afternoon. Dinner was at a western style pub called Bamboozle! just around the corner from me, nice tucker there 🙂

I had a few beers as usual but had a quiet night because I wanted to catch up on the blog over the next day or so.

Cheers from
TravellingStrom