The Plain of Jars In Cratersville
Today I headed out to view the "Plain of Jars" that are situated across three different sites. Before visitors were allowed on any of the sites the Mines Advisory Group spent years clearing unexploded bombs and mines from the area. You are advised when visiting not to stray off the marked path. Around the plain of jars are numerous crater holes inflicted by US bombs around the time of the Vietnam war 1960-1970. The jars themselves are...well like big stone jars which are kind of scattered around. No one seems to know why or what, just like Stonehenge but they are apparently several thousands of years old.
The plain of jars was interesting and theres certainly a lot of them but the lack of real information about them left me more interested in the more recent bomb craters and left overs from the Vietnam war.
As I'm writing this diary entry I'm dining in a restaurant called "Craters" which has two larger US bomb shells stood at either side of the entrance. Theres not a great deal to do in this one horse town or should I say fifty scooter town? As yet another scooter zooms by on the main road. I should be catching a bus tomorrow at seven in the morning to Vang Vieng, a place with lots of activities such as tubing and trekking.
Recently I've been getting into sticky rice in Laos, its pretty common here and is ...well rice that's kind of sticky and stuck together. People tend to eat it with their hands. I've also returned to my chopstick wielding ways in Laos which seems to be extinct in parts of Thailand, probably due to the number of tourists.
In Laos everything seems to close at around ten at night and everyone gets up around six, so that if your are intending to sleep in, then theres not much chance if your a light sleeper. A few nights ago I was in a Laos club, it was pretty good fun...well for the half hour we were in there until it closed - at midnight!
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