Laos Excursion: Plain of Jars

From Veng Viang B and I took a minibus to a town call Phonsavan. Near this bustling town there are many sites filled with large stone jars. For B, coming back to Laos and enduring another Asian cycle trip hinged on this side trip. This area of Laos is one of the many areas that received heavy bombing during the Vietnam war and many many bombs are still around and unexploded today. We had read about this and felt lucky that we arrived in town with enough time to visit the survivors center and the MAG center. Seeing this stuff up close makes wikipedia pale in comparison. In town and especially in small villages the evidence of bombing is striking. Old bombs are used for just about anything you can imagine...house stilts, planters, air-compressor tanks, roasters, etc., etc.. In some poorer areas there is also a scrap metal industry that pays people to return old bombs for the metal. If you think this is a bad idea, you're right. I won't repeat what I've learned...some good stuff here.

The plain of jars were a definite hit with us and our new French buddies, Simon and Chloe. We got a driver for the day and wandered around the country side and villages looking at the jars, doing shots of rice whiskey, playing Laos bocci, drinking beer, looking at more jars, and doing some regular whiskey shots. OK, so Simon and I walked away quite tipsy from this day of archaeology but we had hit it off with our driver and he made sure to take care of us "Laos style"...being culturally sensitive how could we say no!

To meet back up with Peter and Monica we used the Star Trek teleporter to get to Vientiane.

Laos

From Dien Bien Phu we went into Laos. More mixed riding and mixed weather. Right now we're in Vang Vieng which is a touristy town filled with restaurants playing reruns of 'friends'...strange. Luang Prabang was touristy too but at least there was a little variety in the traveler demographic. From here, B and I will split and go to the plain of jars and then meet back up with Peter and Monica in Vientiene in a couple of days. Yes, we are now 4...Kristina took her leave in Luang Prabang and is now safe and sound in Vancouver. She can relish the fact that she just missed 3 days of cycling in cold and unrelenting rain!

Traveling lameness

Sometimes I feel really lame when I travel. It's hard to put my finger on why but I think it has something to do with exactly what I'm doing right now. Hanging around in a little touristic spot doing nothing but leisure while the world goes on around me. Laos, a very poor country, has most of its people working hard to barely scrape by...and here I am swinging in a hammock or blogging...being so utterly bourgeoisie. I feel a little sickened with myself. Maybe that's why I don't like rest days and why I like suffering in the heat and dust all day in the saddle. Maybe suffering a little bit makes me feel a little better about being here...like I'm earning my distance and experience or something. I have felt this way before...and always in poor places where a bunch of other travelers are. We all stroll around with our sunglasses and sandals and little shoulder bags in a semi-random pattern looking for something or nothing.
The locals around here are not suffering, however. But they do have a hard life...harder than anyone reading this.(which isn't very many people!)

Mongolia and Europe map

This is a test post of a map generated by google fusion tables that I made a while ago. Fusion tables allows you to create maps based on lon/lat coordinates.



This is a 'my maps' google map of my Europe trip fall 2010. We're taking a rest day here in Laos and I'm bored so I'm internetting.


View Euro 2010 in a larger map

Vietnam

I've been a really lame blogger lately...as in the last 6 months. I still plan to retro-post some fun Euro-traversing but in the meantime I'll fire off some pics of Northern Vietnam and Laos. A brief description is that we had a stop over in Hong Kong, landed in Hanoi, trained to Lao Cai and then cycled through Sa Pa and down to Dien Bien Phu and on into Laos. It's hard to pick a favourite spot so far as they've all been pretty unique and new. The cycling has been mixed with some hot days and good climbs. Peter and Monica are blogging too: http://twomelovelos.blogspot.com/ and they're carrying a 'spot' that tracks their location...see their blog and click on the "where are we" tab. For the time being, were they are is where I am.






















Hong Kong