Showing 1-6 of 6 results
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The Secret War in Laos is My Country’s Shame
Blog: Hole In The Donut - 17 June 2011
My first inkling that Phonsavan, Laos was not the sleepy little town it first appeared to be came when I walked past a row of rusty old bombs standing on the sidewalk outside Craters Restaurant. Curiosity and my growling stomach led me inside, where the owner was just putting on a documentary about the U.S. [...]
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How to Buy a Chicken with a Pig on the Side
Blog: Hole In The Donut - 13 June 2011
Hoping to get a better feel for the local culture during my short stay in Phonsavan, Laos I went in search of a fresh market. I found it just off the main road near the center of town, a large open-air shed where scores of vendors had set up stalls stacked high with fresh produce, [...]
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Of Ants and Giants
Blog: Hole In The Donut - 6 June 2011
I gazed down on hundreds of giant stone vessels scattered across the fertile Plain of Jars and thought of ants. Some lay crazily canted, as if abandoned in haste by an ancient race of giants whose dinner had suddenly been interrupted by invaders. Like ants to whom humans are invisible, I imagined that the jars [...]
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Scrap Metal and Tourist Scars in Phonsavan
Blog: Lonely Girl Travels - 3 May 2011
On a small stand in the Phonsavan tourism office, bracelets are for sale. So is flatware. They sit beside a postcard that reads “Make Spoons Not War.” Beside cartoon posters depicting the Dos and Don’ts of respectable Lao tourism, posted leaflets encourage you to purchase items made by villages out of metal scraped from the [...]
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The Mysterious Plain of Jars
Blog: Twenty-Something Travel - 20 March 2011
Some people come to Laos for the partying. Others are drawn by it’s rural charm, or it’s violent history. None of these things were the main attraction for me. I came to Laos for the Jars. The Plain of Jars. Have you heard of it? Maybe not, if you’re not an archeology nerd like me. [...]
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The Plain of Jars
Blog: ContemporaryNomad - 25 March 2010
We’ve made our way to Xieng Khuang province to visit the enigmatic “Plain of Jars”, a large highland plain which extends out from Phongsavan dotted with hundreds of giant stone vessels of mysterious origin. Believed to be over 2,000 years old, nobody really knows who created the jars or why they were made. There are a [...]
Showing 1-6 of 6 results
