Who knew how much fun jars could be?

Yesterday we were in a small town called Phonsavan, to the west of Luang Prabang. As you may (or may not) know Laos it one of the most bombed nations in the world. Sadly, quite a lot of the bombs didn't go off and the area still has many bombs waiting to go off. Luckily, where we went had been cleared. The Plains of Jars are three sites just covered with large stone jars. They are made of sandstone, buffalo skin and bamboo, but people aren't sure what they are. Bones were found in a couple of the jars, but as there are hundreds they can't be sure if they are used as funeral urns or what. They're good fun and the area around them was very beautiful and serene. We went through a couple of local villages which are very rural.











Before Phonsavan we spent three days in Luang Prabang. First day we spent looking around the city. It's a nice town with lots of pretty architecture as the area was colonized by the French. It's actually a UNESCO world heritage site (how many of them have we seen now?!). In the afternoon we went to the Royal Palace Museum - Laos is a republic after over-throwing the monarchy in 1975, still the beds in the Palace are freshly made with mozzie nets! Then we climbed up the hill in teh centre of the city for some nice views over Luang Prabang. It's very peaceful up there, and there's at least three temples on the hill. Also, there is supposed to be Buddha's footprint. It's carved into solid rock and was about three foot long so not sure how they got that, but it's a quirky fun thing none the less.

Day two we ventured out of town to the Kuang Si waterfall which was just fantastic! It was a long way out on a tuktuk that wasn't the most reliable but it was beautiful. The water is cascading over limestone so there's plenty of funky formations as well beautiful turquoise pools you can swim in. We decided to climb up to the top of the waterfall, the climb was very difficult and felt like rock climbing at some points. When we got to the top we walked across the top of the waterfall, there was a very shaky fence between us and the 20m drop down the top tier. Eventually we went a little down the other side and found a wonderful tier with some beautiful falls and pool we could swim in. It was surreal looking over the waterfall and seeing people 100m below us at the bottom of the falls! We ventured back down the otherside down a path that was ten times easier - obviously the one you were supposed to use!

That evening we met up with some people we'd go to know on the boat and first, of course, went shopping at the amazing night market. There's so many pretty things to buy that we had to restrain ourselves, ok he had to restrain me, but still. We had a few Beerlaos and then got a tuktuk to a local nightclub. Very strange. When we walked in they were all line-dancing to a live band. The music continued to get stranger and stranger with covers of D-I-S-C-O and many other things in Laos. All in all, a good night.

Let's just say the next day didn't involve much as lots of beerlao was consumed the previous night...

Now we are in the lovely town of Vang Vieng after a verrrrrrrrry interesting ride on a local bus here last night from Phonsavan involving men climbing through windows. It's all very beautiful around here with karst peaks (or so I think) and caves and tubing to be done.