Phonsavan

We caught the bus for 7 hours to Phonsavan, and were shocked to find the carnage that we did. Quite apart from some very grizzly sights at the fresh food market (like skewered rats, whole badgers, and a little Bambi cut up neatly and its pieces all stacked up next to itself!) we found artillery shells displayed inside every store, restaurant and guesthouse.

During our bus trip we met Will and Ali from Bristol, and we stayed at the same guesthouse (that was heavily decorated with old bomb shells), and we also managed to get a sweet deal whereby instead of the next day paying for a tuk-tuk to take us to the Plain of Jars, come back to town, kill time and then get the bus to Luang Prabang the morning after (there was only one bus daily), we scored for about $2 extra each, a minivan to drive us to Phonsavan, via the Plain of Jars - so we were very happy to be able to get to Luang Prabang a day earlier than planned!

The Plain of Jars: It was amazing and wonderful, but about it there is far more to see than say, as like many other ancient structures like this, no one knows much about it – why it was there, who put it there, and what it was used for.

SEE PHOTOS AT http://s136.photobucket.com/albums/q164/erinfearn/SE%20Asia/Phonsavan/?start=all

What we do know however, that surrounding and throughout this sacred sight, bomb craters are plentiful, and the cleared areas are marked for walking through.