I was leaving Luang Prabang after having a
hell of a morning, my credit card was eaten by the ATM (got it back though),
and my Mirrors on my bike were “borrowed without permission”, this all seemed
to stem after I posted my blog post called “What could possibly go wrong”. It
was karma… I knew it.
I wasn’t overly worried I had a great run
on the roads, the sun was out and the roads were amazing as always.
This road was sealed, it had places to stop
safely on the side and take photos and I thought I was making great time.
Then the road climbed, and climbed. I
passed a few trucks broken down. One was completely blocking the road and only
motorbikes could pass while a crane pulled the engine out of the truck. The
locals were a bit ripe so I didn’t stop.
Some time after lunch I was still climbing
and I thought to my self I really should slow down a bit as I was getting far
to comfortable with the corners and runs. It had only just started to rain and
I took the next corner, the bike back wheel shot right and I tried to pick it
up and over stirred, and the back wheel came out. I was trapped under the bike
sliding on the road.
The car I had over taken 2 min later drove
past without a look as I lay on the ground under my bike. I managed to get my
foot free and my shoe had wedged in under my saddle bag and backpack. I came
away from the slip with a busted knee and exhaust burn on my leg (didn’t notice
that till days later). The rest of my
body was covered by my safety gear, but I could not find leggings my size so
suffered the cost.
It turned out there was some oil or
something on the corner and that plus the rain seems to have caught me on the
corner.
15 min later the rain was gone and the
roads were dry again… so if you ever write a blog never entitle it “what could
go wrong” you will have a hell of a day.
I stopped in at the next town, at the local
pharmacy to ask for some things to fix up my leg. The girl turned out to be the
local doctor as well and pulled out a surgical tray and gloves, very pro and
cute till she put iodine on my knee then she was the devil! OUCH!
The next day I had still not reached Phonsavan
as I had planned the day before, so I was up early. It was difficult to change
gears on the bike but with every hour it became easier.
The road to Phonsavan was great, the views
started off in the mountains and along the road there where guys with AK47’s
and Rocket Launchers. I have no idea why but every 1km there was guys with big
guns. I didn’t stop, I had heard that people had died on this road many years
ago so without any knowledge of why these guys were hear I wasn’t going to stop
and ask for directions.
I reached the plains just after lunch, it
was all hills and up down and then suddenly out of no where it was flat… it
looked like something from Canberra in Australia.
The grass was brown there was gum trees on
the side of the road and the roads had pot holes.
I stopped off at a small village for lunch, the group of old men were sitting out the front and they took a fancy to my bike and my gear. I was offered a shot of rice wine while my noodle soup was cooking. Its considered rude to refuse, so downed it.
Then a second shot came, so I walked calmly to the back of my bike and pulled out my 600ml bottle of rice wine and put it on the table. The old guys almost fell over laughing at it. They had not expected that one. I downed one more then told them I had to ride onwards so I couldn’t. They were understanding.
From here on in the towns turned into moung
villages and I was in luck. I had
arrived in the region on there new years day. All the girls were dressed in
there traditional cloths. They were also playing traditional games to promote
they are single and to find a partner. The cloths were extremely colorful. I
stopped in a small town and took a few pictures. The kids seem to always be the
most inquisitive. I had a bag a of candy left over from Vietnam so handed a few
out as well to say happy New Year ;) 
Moving on down the plains, every town had
the same festival going on it was great to watch. I reached Phonsavan in the
afternoon and the town was alive with activity, all the small villages around
the town had gathered for there new years festival. 
They had a roller coaster,
dodgem cars, jumping castles. All the girls were dressed in there traditional
cloths, and having a blast. Not even the dodgem cars could stop them from riding around. It was a blast to watch.
They had also setup a tunnel of this ball
game, in which single girls would be throwing a ball to each other. If one of
them dropped it they would have to give a present to the other. If a guys could
join in as well to get close to the girl and get to know her, or something like
that.
The party ran into the night and a disco
was setup that night, the girls still in traditional clothing, at 11pm it all stopped and they all went home.
The next morning I was off to see the plain
of Jars. The main thing that you come to Phonsavan for. For a bit more info
through ill explain the area. Phonsavan was a old capital city area 1000’s of
years ago and has lots of artifacts in the area. More recent history though,
the area was the most heavily bombed area by the USA during the Indochina war
during the Vietnam war. 
They dropped tonnes of cluster bombs on this area as it
was believed to be part of the supply path for the Vietnam troops. Even though
Laos was neutral in the war. (very rough and quick over view)
Today a small volunteer group called “MAG”
(Mines Advisory Group) work every day to clear UXO (Unexploded Ordinates), they
clear farm land and roads. Every day in the region someone is killed due to a
UXO. Most happen because farmers are trying to expand there field into area’s
they know are not safe yet but have no choice as they are not growing enough to
live or children find a cluster bombie (a small fragment of a larger bomb that
looks like a ball), and play with it… I stopped off at the MAG office and took
a look at there presentations. Then made a small donation.
The Jars themselves were big, the size of
cauldrons, no one knows what they were used for or why but the theory is that
it was used to make large quantities of Rice wine for a festival for a king. It
must have been one hell of a festival there were hundreds of these Jars in the
area.
They were concentrated to a few sites
around Phonsavan, only 3 sites were open to tourists the others were still
loaded with UXO’s. After visiting site one I moved on to try and find the other
2 sites. 
Site 2 was much smaller than site 1, but
the Jars were much closer together, they were also located on a hill top which
gave amazing views over the surrounding areas. Getting to site 2 and 3 was a
nightmare, the road was dirt for 20km there was massive pot holes. All this I
could deal with but it was the water trucks that wet the road to stop the dust,
that made it so slippery to ride it was silly.
Site 3 was very much like site 2 but to get
to it I had to hike through farms, all recently cleared by MAG so the farmers
could use the land.
On the way back I stopped off at a old
Russian tank, really not much to see its had its top blown off and its rusted
to pieces.
Worth a mention as well is the guest house
I was staying at, they had collected a massive amount of war items and had them
on display in the bar, they were also using a old missile shell as a fire
place.
The owner of the guesthouse was cool as
well, that night around the fire I wrote down the lyrics for a song he like, it
took a good hour of work. In return I got him to write all the words in Lao for
my motorbike. Fair trade and it came in very handy to get it fixed later on.
The next day I left for Vang Vieng along
the same road I drove a few days earlier. Back tracking wasn’t to bad as I got
another chance to see the guys with the massive guns. This time i did stop... "screenshot or it didnt happen", I use to always say
I reached Vang Vieng just on dusk that day
driving through more mountain sides and amazing views.
But that’s for another story ;)
Till next time have fun!
Steffen.
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