After a twisting road trip from Luang Prabang to Phonsavan, we come to the mysterious Plain of Jars.

I’ve wanted to come here for years. I first heard the phrase ‘Plain of Jars’ used in this context (I’m paraphrasing here):

‘The United States Air Force bombed the shit out of the Plain of Jars in Laos’

Plain of jars? Like, peanut-butter jars? I soon learn they are enormous stone jars, made by people about whom nothing is known.

When is a door not a door? When it’s a jar.

We hire a guide and a van and enjoy an all-day guided tour.

(If you’re wondering why we have so many clothes on, it’s because the weather is cool here in Phonsavan. For the first time in two months, socks, long pants, and fleeces are called for.)

It’s unclear what the jars are for. Different theories abound.

They come in all sizes.

This may look like a lid, but some say it’s a grave marker. Or maybe not. Nobody really knows.

During our tour, we pass through several villages. We stop in one for lunch.

We also visit a cave, with some spirit offerings that look suspiciously like inukshuks.

Sight or Insight of the Day – Plain of Jars

Besides the attraction of the jars, this part of Laos is well known as the scene of much combat during the Vietnam Era. As in Luang Prabang, there are branches of UXO-clearing organisations in the area. We drop in at the MAG visitor’s centre in Phonsavan.

Our guide, Noods, is very knowledgeable about events of the war in the area, as well as being somewhat of a jar-ologist. Apparently his grandfather was a bigwig in the Pathet Lao.

In the 60’s and 70’s Laos, like much of southeast Asia, was a quagmire. Among other things, there was a nasty 3-way civil war going on in the country. Signs of violent conflict are everywhere.