Xieng Khuang Province, a mountainous limestone ‘karst’ space lying roughly midway between Vientiane and Luang Prabang, suffered badly from US saturation bombing. Most of its towns and its capital have been flattened, and large craters are still to be seen.  

As might be anticipated from a city constructed after the war, the new provincial capital, Phonsavan, is not any architectural treasure house. Nonetheless, it escaped the horrors of Soviet-fashion concrete field tenements that have been inflicted upon Vietnam. The streets are largely wide, paved and tree-lined.  

The population of about 80,000 folks includes large proportions of ethnic minority people, mostly H’mong and Vietnamese. 

In the recent past, there have been just a few situations of guerrilla activity in involving ethnic minority teams within the Xieng Khuang area, but all appears to be calm nowadays. There are additionally an unknown number of unexploded cluster ‘bomblets’ round Phonsavan. The hazard areas are known, and if you happen to journey with Gia Linh Journey, you may have a specialist guide to maintain you out of hurt’s way. 

The Plain of Jars

The one reason for visiting Phonsavan is its airport, and its proximity to the Plain of Jars. This enigmatic attraction is exactly what its name describes - a big plain dotted with massive stone jars weighing up to six tonnes, some with lids. Their origins and goal are a mystery: theories range from extraterrestrial visitors to a now extinct race of giants.  

The jars are estimated to be around 2,000 years outdated, but there is no such thing as organic materials to enable carbon dating. Even their composition just isn't clear. Some jars are constituted of limestone, others from granite, but some seem to consist of a gray conglomerate that has led some specialists to surmise that it may be a kind of historical 'concrete' that closely resembles stone. 

There are several ‘jar sites’ scattered over the plain. Websites 2 and 3 are usually reckoned essentially the most interesting. Web site 2 has 90 jars, and Site 3 has 150. The latter is near a small, engaging village, Hai Hin Lat Khai. 

The positioning is impressive and indubitably mysterious, however unless you are fascinated with the ‘X’ Files or how the Pyramids were constructed, it’s probably not price the extra time wanted to interrupt your journey solely to see the Plain of Jars.