Phonsavan

Our last destination in Laos was Phonsavan - it is a less touristy place which proved to be intersting for a couple of reasons. In order to get to Phonsavan we had to take our usual share of pain - a long bus ride through the mountains. We got however upset right at the beginning of the trip. We had the pleasure to be on the bus station together with some locals taking a small pig for a bus ride. This as such is ok with me but not that the little big was put into a sack without any opening for air whatsoever - it was squeeking like hell - definitely suffering. See the picture of the sack in our gallery. This is not the first time we have seen bad treatment of animals in this country. The most shocking sight was a truck full of dogs in cages on the top of each other. The truck was the size of huge European truck and had hundreds of dogs in cages frying in the sun - we were so shocked we even did not take any pictures...Barking was overwhelming...

Anyway we got to Phonsavan - a relatively grim town with a couple of small restaurants and one that catered to expats that live there (as we learned later). There was however a decent choice of hotels. The town itself is around 1500 meters above the sea so it was really chilly in the evening - probably around 20 degrees celcius but we felt cold when dinning outside :)

The reason while we came to Phonsovan were mysterious fields of huge jars in the surrounding area. At first we thought that we will rent a motorbike and look around ourselves (even found a Hungarian speaking owner of a rental shop!) but we ended up in a small organized tour...

The most interesting part of our visit however was the "enlightment" to which we were subjected. First of all during Vietnam war between 1964 and 1973 US dropped over two million tons of bombs over Laos and most of them are still laying around - the so called unexploded ordnance (UXO). Basically it is dangerous to walk anywhere outside an offbeaten track. Moreover, people in villages do not dare to use more fields for their crops because they find more and more bombs which explode and injur or kill them. The most shocking fact is however, that more or less nobody is doing anything about it. There is a British organization called Mines Advisory Group which is doing a great job clearing UXO since 1994 (why only since then?) which is sponsored by European Union and a couple of other governmental organizations from around the world. However, its operations seem pretty limited. We watched a movie about their work in Laos and learned lots about the current situation with UXO in Laos in their office in Phonsovan. Why is UN, US or anybody else who has serious resources or is able to mobilize such is doing close to nothing about UXO in Laos remains a mystery to us. Or perhaps it is incredible that Lao government is doing so little about it - in the end it is their business...

Anyway, three sites which contain dozens of huge jars have been cleared by MAG and are now open to tourism. UN is working with the local authorities on making the sites certified as UNESCO World Heritage and progress is visible. In the whole area there are around 20 sites with jars and they all need to be cleared of UXO and then can be put on UNESCO World Heritage list making them a magnet for tourists and uplifing the local economy which is in dire straits. It was very uplifiting to see such initiatives and talk to people directly involved in working on the project.

The jars themselves are huge - up to a couple of tons and nobody really knows what was their purpose. They lay scattered in the fields - a couple with huge lids. Among them huge craters from exploded bombs and around beatiful greenery of Lao fields.