The Plain of Jars is a mystery. Thousands of years ago, someone created huge stone jars that sit on an open plain near the town of Phonsavan, not far from the Vietnamese border. Amazingly, some of these jars survived the American carpet bombing. Who made them? Why? No one knows.

The other fascinating story in Phonsavan is how people survived through 10 years of brutal American carpet bombing. Phonsavan is close to the Vietnamese border, and American leaders were convinced that if they dropped enough bombs (one every 8 minutes for 10 years, on average) they could shut down supply lines between the Viet Cong, the North Vietnamese Army and the Pathet Lao. They were wrong, but the death toll was enormous. Locals now make silverware out of American bomb fragments.

The town itself was completely rebuilt from the rubble after the war, and is not attractive.

A detour from Luang Prabang or Vang Vieng to Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars is time-consuming: 8 hours by bus each way. From Vientiane it’s more like 10-12 hours. Or if time is short, you can fly to Xieng Khouang Airport in Phonsavan from Vientiane (as of January 2024 there are no flights from Luang Prabang, but check because I have seen some from time to time). Flying is a lot faster (and the only way to do the Plain of Jars as a day trip), but also a lot more expensive.

If you are doing the 27-hour bus between Luang Prabang and Hanoi (crossing the border at Nam Khan / Nam Can), then you’ll go near here. In that case it’s definitely worth a one-day stop. When buying your ticket on the Hanoi bus, make sure it will go through Phonsavan — it should do that, but in Laos you should always double-check these things.

Another option — if you’re really trying to avoid Laos’ main tourist centres — is to bus, motorbike, or cycle the back roads from southern Laos to Phonsavan. You can start either from Paksan on the main Thakhek-Vientiane highway (230 km trip), or from Lak Sao on the Thakhek Loop (350 km). The roads are paved the entire way. For most of the time you’ll be on Highway 1D. I have not done this myself, but I understand that the daily bus from Lak Sao takes about 15 hours, and you can overnight en route in Vieng Thong or Thathom.