Phonsavanh :: Jars and UXO
I took the bus to Phonsavanh yesterday. My guidebook promised a ten hour journey, but we made it in eight. Laos’ buses are pretty comedy. You have the choice between ‘ordinary’, ‘express’ and ‘VIP’. I say the choice, but I wasn’t given one: Luang Prabang to Phonsavanh was an express only route. Which was ok. I guess. The comedy started before we left when the driver scrambled up on the roof of the bus in order to hoist up two passengers’ mopeds. Seriously. They stuck them on the roof for the journey. It continued with the bus’ stereo being used to play loud Laotian pop music (for the full eight hour journey) with the TV screen showing the karaoke videos. Luckily no-one sang along. I’ve got another long bus journey tomorrow and will be praying no-one decides the bus is actually a karaoke joint…
The driver made pit stops (a) to buy several large pumpkins, (b) to hand a mysterious package to someone on the roadside in exchange for a large wadge of cash, (c) for various passengers to take loo breaks by the roadside whilst the driver repeatedly hit the engine with a wrench, (d) for lunch -no announcement or explanation, but everyone got off for noodle soup and I followed- and (e) for a further attack on the engine. But eventually we got there. Or here rather. I’m still here.
Today, I went on a tour of various local sights. I had a mini-bus, a driver and an English speaking guide to myself. Money goes a long way in this country. The main sights around here are the various Plain of Jars sites. It is very strange to see all these huge granite or sandstone jars, some weighing several tonnes, just lying around on the ground.
Local legend has it that the jars were giants’ drinking cups for an epic binge on lao lao (the local rice whiskey), and we also visited a hut where the whiskey was being distilled. I now know the recipe if anyone wants to try it at home. Personally, I recommend sticking to quality spirits. Lao lao is lethal. Western anthropologists and archaeologists seem to think that it is more likely that the jars were used in burial ceremonies. Either to store corpses before a subsequent cremation, or possibly as a kind of coffin.
I visited Plain of Jars sites 1, 2, 3 and 4. There are about 58 sites in total, but only 7 have been opened to the public. The others are still too dangerous with large amounts of unexploded ordinance (UXO) known to be in the area. Walking around the various Plain of Jars sites, and driving between them, I saw countless bomb craters. The countryside was covered in pock marks.
The Xhieng Khuang province was very heavily bombed during the so-called ‘secret war’ (when America bombed Laos and Cambodia to pieces without informing its own population between 1964-73). Laos is (per capita) the most heavily bombed country in the world. The Americans have records of dropping over 1.3 million metric tonnes of explosives on the country, including very large numbers of cluster munitions. Large amounts of these explosives are still around today.
My guide seemed to have mixed feelings about the bombs. Obviously it was quite terrible, but at the same time he pointed out that selling war junk as scrap metal had made a lot of people in the area rich (by Laos’ standards). He also took great pleasure in pointing out houses held up on stilts made from cluster bomb casings, and bomb shells being used as plant pots. Of course, gathering live UXO to sell for scrap metal isn’t a particularly safe job… There are still dozens of casualties every year, mainly young children.
One of the most interesting things that I have done today was to visit the local headquarters of the Mines Advisory Group who are working to remove mines and UXO around the world. I watched a video of their work training local Lao staff in UXO removal, and read about their efforts to help communities. MAG has been instrumental in removing UXO from the Plain of Jars sites (over 170 UXOs were removed from Site 1 alone) in order to allow the development of tourism (and thereby allow the development of an economy that had been devastated during the secret war). Even now though, when you walk around the sites, you are asked to stick to designated paths that are known to be safe. It is strange to think that there are still bombs scattered so close to one of the world’s most important archaeological sites. It was also strange to see MAG teams working in fields by the side of the road as I passed…
Having seen the work that they do, I really encourage you to make a donation to this charity. It’s easy, you can do it online: http://www.justgiving.com/mag
On an unrelated note, Xhieng Khuang province is on a plateau 1,200m high and, by local standards, is very cold. I spent most of today in shorts and a t-shirt, the weather approximating that of a warm summer’s day in London. I felt like laughing at the locals wrapped up in winter coats and wearing gloves. They wouldn’t last five minutes in a real winter. Then the sun went down. It’s freezing out here. I didn’t really pack for this…
