One Horse Town Phonsavanh

I got up early in Luang Prabang and caught the nine hour bus to Phonsavanh. The route drove along winding roads high up in the mountains leaving me praying the bus wasn't going to slide over the edge, especially after we saw one bus, a scooter and a car in an accident on a previous bend. The bus broke down about three times on the way, but this isn't unusual for Laos and we surprisingly rolled into Phonsavanh right on time. The journey gave me plenty of time to make some headway with the book I'm reading.

Again as I got off the basic public bus at Phonsavanh bus station I was set upon by various locals waving photos of rooms at me. I managed to beat them off and bartered with one for a cheap room for 3US Dollars a night with a hot shower and a western style toilet.

To get there I was lead by two locals to a small mini bus, at this point I felt slightly wary as I was on my own with two local guys who could in reality be taking me anywhere. I crossed my fingers in the hope that they wouldn't take me out into a remote field in the middle of no where, make me dig my own grave, then rob me and dispose of the body. After a few minutes I snaped out of my nightmare of a day dream as we turned a corner onto the main road, Phonsavanh had the look and feel of a Wild West one horse town and certainly wasn't the most "happening place". The town seemed pretty small with parts of US bombs scattered around town in and around shops and restaurants. One restaurant had two huge empty US bombs at either side of the entrance, usually back home these would be a couple of neaty trimmed bushes, but not here in Laos!

As I was walking back to my room in the guesthouse I recognised a pair of sandles by the front door. These turned out to belong to one of the guys I had met in the north, Brenden from Melbourne who was traveling with Anetta and they were staying in the same guesthouse. In the evening they went for something to eat and I joined them for a beer they had already been in Phonsavanh a day and were heading out the next day.

At this point I have no guide book or map so I'm relying on borrowing from strangers and generally just asking around for information. Tomorrow I'm thinking of checking out the "Plain of Jars" which nobody knows the origin or purpose of the stone jars that are several thousand years old and weigh up to three tons each.