Yesterday I went out to the plain of jars to have a look. I waited until midday mostly because it was cold, but also so the sun would be in the middle of the sky for the polarizer to work better.
The plain of jars was the only reason I had to visit Laos, I knew nothing else about the country before I got here. And I'd only learnt about it from the Anthony Bourdain show No Reservations.
The problem on some of these sites is UXO (unexploded ordinance), but that's a problem everywhere here. They've cleared 7 of the jar sites so far, but there are signs up to warn you to stay on the marked paths as only the surface has been cleared outside of this area. Luckily I didn't get blown up.
The first site is easy to get too on sealed roads. Costs 10000kip to get in, and 2000kip to park a motorbike.
And of course, since it's an historical site you must write on something... At least this isn't the jars themselves.
This is one of the cleared UXO markets, stay between the white!
Some Jars!
A bomb crater just next to the jars. There's a few more craters on this site.
And because I've just learned how to use Hugin here is a panorama:
Another Jar.
One with a lid. There are some lids scattered around the place, not too many though.
A path marked with the bricks.
Panorama from the top of the hill.
Then it was off to site two which was along 15km of bumpy, rocky dirt road... This was on the way back from the third jar site. Most of the road is like this, some of it worse. The smaller roads off this main road don't have too many rocks on them.
Once I got to the second jar site I parked just next to the ticket counter. I took everything important out of my jacket pockets so I could leave it with the bike because it started to get hot. I locked up my phone and other camera and various items in the case on my bike, all while this Lao guy was watching me do this closely. I go up to pay another 10000kip to get in, then ask the guy for directions, he says yes, go up that way. I walk in about 20 meters when I see that there aren't any clear paths off the side of this road for about a hundred meters. I went back to the guy to ask how far up it actually was as there are no maps or arrows here, and he says "Oh take motorbike"... So you couldn't let me know that while you were standing next to me watching me pack up everything on my bike for five minutes? So I got everything back out of the case, put it all back in it's various pockets, and then rode up to the site.
One of the lids on the ground. I guess that's a little stick figure human?
Then it was off to site three along more rocky dirt roads!
Site three had the same no directions problem as site two. I parked near the ticket place, but this time there was an old bridge across a creek to get across. After that though, you're in a field.... So I made a guess and followed the worn path over to the hill.
This field...
The path zigzagged across this field, planks over bits of mud, and wandering past some cows. Then finally you make it to the jars.
Site three! I sat here for a bit because it was hot and this time I didn't leave my jacket on the bike. It was very quiet here.
More jars!
Then it was time to head back to Phonsavan. I wasn't looking forward to the dirt roads too much.
More of the trail from the Jars.
The bridge. Note there are some planks missing.
Now today I have to spend time washing all my smelly motorbike gear and then figure out where I'm going tomorrow.
This morning I got up and noticed it was kind of cool, not cold though. I went to get some breakfast and saw the mountains covered in cloud:
Went to the same spot, couldn't see many other places to get a good view of the mountains.
Then it was time to pack up and head to Phonsavan. I'd been told by an Israeli cyclist the day before that the road north wasn't as horrible as what I described from Vientiane, but still had about 10km of rough patches before it smoothed out again. And he was correct. Finally some smooth road again.
Smooth valley road.
There were a lot of little villages where the road got better and a lot of school kids riding bikes or walking up the road, most of them waving at me, so I waved back. One kid started clapping and jumping around after I waved back to him too. Also what I noticed here were guns, it looked like some of the residents carried them around, some of them were just standing around building sites on the side of the road though. Further into the hills there were pairs of soldiers walking the road in various places with their guns too. I think this was because to the south of highway 7 was a military base, or a restricted area or something. It mentions it on a map I have but gives no details, there were also no signs up that I could see.
Once the road got up a bit higher there were some awesome views.
Like this one.
And looking down the valley.
The road kept going up to a town called Phou Khoun where there was a lookout.
The road cut into the side of the hill.
Looking south. From 1500m up.
It was much cooler up here. Finally some cooler air, I've been waiting for this temperature since Malaysia!
A little further along.
I didn't stop for photos after that because it was getting late and I still had a long way to go if it was all winding mountain roads, I don't want to ride in the dark here. It was corners and small mountain villages for about 150km. I was bored of corners by the time I got through it all. My arms hurt from all the cornering and all the waving to kids. Finally the road straightened out about 40km from Phonsavan where I could sit on 100km/h and not think I was going crazy with all the turns.
I made it to Phonsavan an hour before sunset and found Nice guesthouse (100000kip/night...). And just after sunset the temperature dropped even more. I think it's about 10 degrees out there, but I still prefer this now to the heat further south!
Tomorrow (or the day after) it's off to explore the Plain of Jars, while avoiding UXO.
This is "Lima Site 6". An old runway used by Air America (a CIA operation... I think). I can't find much information about it. this seems to have the most info, but the comments claim some inaccuracies...
I'm staying in Sengdeuan Guest House and on the wikitravel page they say it's just down the road from "Kangaroo Sunset Bar". So I went walking around trying to find it but I couldn't see a sign up anywhere.
The yellow signs are for restaurants and bars
So using the yellow signs I was trying to find the Kangaroo Sunset bar. but I still couldn't see it anywhere. The wikitravel page made it sound quite close too. And I just happen to be walking back from the main area when I finally spotted it...
Ahhhhh... "Keng Kuru"! It was a bad translation!
And it was quite close to the guest house too!
I was trying to find this place as some other website mentioned that it was one of the few that didn't play Friends or Family Guy episodes constantly. I thought it was odd to point out the ones that didn't play either show, then I saw why. About 90% of all the bars actually do play endless Friends or Family Guy episodes. And people are in there watching them too. It's not like there's any variety of shows either, you only get Friends or Family guy, that's it. It was very odd walking around seeing people in one bar watch an episode of Friends, then next door they'd have more people watching a different episode. Some of them quite loudly. There's a couple of bars that weren't playing either, and they had soccer on instead, then I guess they go right back to one of the two required shows. And then there are very few without TV's. Very strange town...
Also, most places have "SPECIAL" menu items. Where you can get your magic mushroom pizza, or marijuana pizza, or shakes, or any other various food items they can hide them in. I was even reading about a Joint bar on the river for when you do tubing, where you get a free joint with every cocktail...
This is a very strange town.
Meanwhile, Beer! $4.88 of beer!
Sunset from Kangaroo Sunset Bar.
I also read that the local kids will try and steal things off you when you take the tubes down the river. They'll try to help you but run off with the tube (so you lose your deposit) or steal things from your waterproof bag while in the river.
And after reading that it makes me suspicious of why the disc lock on my bike was press right up against the forks on my bike. Someone has tried to move it last night... Better make sure there's nothing important that can be stolen off it tonight.
I went for a quick ride over the river today. Lots of 4wd tracks, mud, rocks, water crossings. I didn't take many photos but took some video, which I'm still editing.
Cheap too! 70baht and they did it all very quickly, then used an air compressor to dry it of. Now that I'm in Laos it no longer looks like that of course.... So much dust.
The former Laos flag at the top, and the current flag in the middle.
Vientiane was OK, no really tall buildings and the traffic is rather quiet in the area I was in (I quickly learnt that's not the case elsewhere). However it's still expensive because it's a capital. I was paying 140000kip ($17) for a room a night and I think you can do less but not too much lower unless you go dorm rooms. There's still a lot of french influence there with a many bakeries selling baguettes and croissants, and lots of signs in french too.
I had one older guy come up and stop me on the street saying he saw me walking around the night before, but kept talking about his family and I dunno I stopped listening. But the whole time he had his right hand in his pocket, like he was going to stab me so I kept a eye on his arm all the time and he started to get closer too. Then when he got something out of his bag he kept his right hand under the bag to lift it up... I didn't get stabbed, but I think he might have a disfigured hand which is why he was doing it. Still, odd way to come up to strangers and do that too, what do they expect.
The black stupa in the middle of some random streets. (That Dam is its name).
I have sorted out my innernets (I needs it ok! :P). I went to the Lao Telecom customer service place in Vientiane after the curious non-stabbing. Managed to pick up a 3G sim with unlimited data for 30 days for 485000kip, about $55-60. Expensive, but it's far better than Malaysia or Thailand so far. The coverage is meant to be a problem here, but most main towns will have coverage I've been told. I'm up to 6gb already so I'm really testing out the unlimited usage...
I'm prepared for any country now! Also: I'M RICH! HAHAHAH! (that's about $300 there...)
After Vientiane I headed north to Vang Vieng, a small town by the mekong that's known for lots of drunk tourists floating down the river on tubes and stopping at riverside bars.
On the way out of Vientiane I hit very bad traffic and roads. The cars were all slowing down to 10-20km/h to go over these big potholes or missing sections of road and the traffic didn't really let up for about 30km. Once the traffic died off a little the roads got worse though. Every couple hundred meters of road there would be a twenty meter patch where they've removed the surface and left a gravelly, rocky, dusty section. Very rarely there'd be a flat surface for longer, and most of the time the flat surfaces disappeared. Because it was so dusty there were locals hosing the road infront of their place to try and keep the dust down. Some villages didn't bother and the houses, trees, people, and animals all just ended up reddy-brown from all the dust (not that the water really helped elsewhere).
I think the 155km journey took 5 hours to complete. It annoyed me because my suspension works a lot better on the bumpy surface when I'm doing 60-80km/h, unfortunately with the traffic I could rarely get over 30km/h and then I felt all the bumps.
From a new bridge over the river to the old bridge. There were two locals there looking it over who said they were from the company that built it and they are planning the repairs for it now.
Small town on the way with a bike in the middle of the photo...
So once I got to Vang Vieng, I was sore, and tired, and annoyed. I parked on the old CIA runway and researched my options for accommodation. And now I'm paying 70000kip/night for a room, so I think I'll stay a bit longer here now and try to forget how bad the road was before getting on the bike again.
Sala Kaew Ku (or Sala Keoku, or various other spellings) is a wierd buddist/hindu sculpture park just outside of Nang Khai. It was built over 20 years and it's a combination of buddist and hindu stories that were from a, cult, I guess... There's lots more info here.
There's a 20baht entry fee, but when I turned up I only had a 1000baht note and 2 baht in coins, and they didn't have change so they just let me in anyway. ~66 cent entry for free! I win!
Wierd statue eating something
Budda meditating under a seven headed Naga. This one is big. Very big. Somewhere between 20 and 25 meters tall.
Beating a turtle. The text below means something. Obviously.
Not sure what this one means. Well, that can be said about everything here.
This was the inner part of the wheel of time.
This was the way into the wheel of time...
More big and small statues.
Another view, and that really big Naga/Budda one back there.
It's me!
So I've no idea what any of it means. I can't find good descriptions of the statues, or translations of the text below some of them. The guidebook said they had English names on some but I didn't see any.
Before I went out there one of the staff of the hotel I was staying in came over to me while I was packing my bike. They said in broken English that I couldn't stay the next night because they were booked. Which was odd, because I told them I was going to stay that night when I checked in... So I headed into Laos a day earlier than intended, it just meant I had to rush around and make sure I had some US$'s for the visa and maps so I could get into Vientiane.
Leaving Thailand was pretty straight forward, except on the Thai side of the friendship bridge there are signs up saying that motorbikes are not allowed to cross. I asked everyone if it was ok for me to go across and they all said yes. As I'm leaving the customs/immigration area on the bike I see a little toll booth, I wondered how much I'd have to pay but motorbikes weren't listed on the sign, then they started saying "stay left stay left!" as I got closer, and now I understood what the customs guy meant by "stay left"...
The Lao side was fairly easy too, just a lot of waiting. Get forms, get Visa on arrival for $30US, go to customs and get the bike si....Oh right, it was 12:30 by that time and most of customs goes on break. I went and got some insurance while I waited (who were also at lunch), then waited around more until customs were back and had signed my carnet. It took about 2 hours to get through I think. Then it was riding into Vientiane, and in Laos they drive on the right, so I was concentrating on that, then they throw a roundabout into that mix, look left, not right! I scared some guy on a bike as I temporarily forgot to ride on the right on a side street.
And now I'm just figuring out what to do next. Might stay here another night before heading north though.
