Trip to Plain of Jars (3Days and 2Nights) Start: LuangPrabang/Finish inVangVieng or Vietiane.

Early morning you will visit Phonsavan’s morning market, the largest local market.  You’ll be amazed at the wide assortment of items, mostly food products, available here.  We’ll then go back to the hotel for breakfast.  After breakfast you will head to the Plain of Jars, sites 1,2, and then to Ban Na Pia, the spoon making village. According to local legend, the jars were first used in the 5^th or 6^th century to celebrate the victories of King Khun Jeuang in local tribal warfare. They were supposedly filled with rice wine. The second theory is that the jars were part of the burial process. On the death of a family member, the corpse was taken to the jar site, placed in a stone jar and left to decompose until only the bones were left.  Once completed, the family or a monk-like person would collect the bones and bury them. Leaving the Plain of Jars, you will then visit Ban Na Pia, the spoon making village. After the Vietnamese War, also referred to as the CIA War in Laos, local people collect metal from the “secret war”, recycling weapons of war into useful items, including household items such as silverware and other souvenirs. After that you will head to the old town of Phonsavan, also called Muang Khuon, where some of the heaviest bombings occurred.  You will visit all that remains of Wat Piawat, the primary temple in the old village. that was virtually destroyed in the bombing. This day you will experience how very deeply the Lao people are tied to their past. In the evening time you will visit MAG Office (Mine Advisory Group=MAG) to watch a documentary on the war that will give you with yet another overview of the war and its effect on Lao lives in Phonsavan.

One of your last sightseeing moments just outside Phonsavan are the mulberry tree groves, where leaves and fruit are harvested for use in silk production, Sa paper production, and food/tea production.