Phonsavan - Plain of Jars

10/04/2012 7:52 PM

My day in Phonsavan went well. I woke up to pouring rain, but by the time I had breakfast the rain had cleared. By 9 AM there was blue sky and the streets were dry. I found a nice little restaurant a few doors down from my hotel that serves good cheap Lao food. The coffee is crap, but that is to be expected, pretty much everything is instant.

So I left around 9 AM and headed out to the Plain of Jars which is about 11km from Phonsavan. There are three sites, the first being the most spectacular with the largest jars, while sites 2 and 3 are less spectacular but much less visited so there is a bit of a trade off. 

 

The jars are massive and you can’t help but get this sense of mysticism from them; there is simply no information about them. All that is known is that they were build sometime between 500 BCE and 500 CE.... Most of the locals believe that they were used to brew massive amounts of Lao-Lao, rice whiskey, for the gods. Some scholars believe they were burial sites. There is simply nothing concrete. So while they are not that magnificent as say Bagan or the Temple of Angkor, the feeling you get from being around them definitely makes it worth the trip.

So I got back around 1 PM and went to the motorbike repair shop, I wanted new grips put on the handlebars because the old ones were totally worn out... so that cost me about $4 including labour. I’m having a bit of an issue with the throttle cable, which ideally needs to be replaced, and I am to some extent upset that they did not replace it before they rented me the bike. However, the cable is pretty much impossible to find outside of Louang Prabang or Vientienne... I wrote this already in a previous post. So more oil and its ok, it’s not sticking like it was yesterday but it’s still not 100% but I’ve got to figure that if that is the only serious issue I have with the bike I will be happy.

So I did finally get to take it off road... sooooo much fun. This Honda 250 XR was built for endurance racing and it can definitely take a serious beating. I was nice to it though. Still need to ride it for about 1000 km. How I wish I had rode it up to Phongsali... would have made that ride so much fun. I’m so tempted to ride up there again just for that road. I do, however, wish I had some proper leathers and a full face, while I feel comfortable on the road with a jacket, jeans and helmet, offroading in such gear can be somewhat dangerous... so I have been taking it easy. This Baja has seriously become my friend! Me and this bike are meant to be together!

Tomorrows ride should be another ride filled with spectacular views and incredibly winding roads. The plan is to go to Vieng Xai which about 250 km, but if I'm exhausted near the end of the ride I will stop in Xam Nuea, a larger town, about 30 km before Vieng Xai. From what I’ve heard the ride tomorrow covers an enormous amount of elevation which means lots of winding hairpin turns. So I may be out for a while tomorrow, but il leave early and take it slow.... for the most part. I’ve still yet to max out this bike. I havn’t even gotten it into 6^th gear yet. Yeah that’s right! It’s got 6 gears! .... no idea what you would need them for though. 

So that’s about it. I almost wish I was spending another night here just so I could spend a day dirt-biking.... but I’m gonna keep that for the end of my trip.... in case I do damage to either myself or the bike.  Oh, I did crash again today... but well, I wouldn’t really call it a crash... I would call it falling over into some mud going about 10 km/h... so yeah... no damage done. 

All for now!