The Plain of Jars

A small collection of jars and a pretty tree

One of my initial reasons to come to Laos was to visit the Plain of Jars. We love mysterious ruins/monuments and the journey to find them. Going to the Jars wasn’t really much of an adventure, per se, but the Jars themselves were creepy and ethereal.

Bricks warning about UXOs. Always stay between the white side of the bricks... or you could be in that bomb crater in the distance of this photo

There’s various legends and myths around the jars, but the one with the most proof is that they used to be coffins. Anyways, all I can say for sure is that it was weird and surreal trekking into a forests, through rice fields, and up a mountain and suddenly seeing all these ancient stone jars littered around the area. It was also weird passing by so many bomb craters.

I didn’t know this before leaving, but Laos is one of the most heavily bombed countries on earth. Even today they have UXOs (unexploded ordanances) which kill/maim people every year. All around the Plain site were little stone markers warning you not to stray from the area of risk getting killed. Crazy.

This jar was particularly big...