South from Phonsavan

I took a cool old bus south towards Paxxan. I was told the bus should take about 8 or 12 hours to traverse the 200kms but I had met a French girl the day before who came north and said it took her 26 hours. There are a lot of road works in this region and there are very long time delays. We waited for about 3 hours at one stop and another hour at another stop. Ended up taking us about 16 hours to do the trip, but it was fairly pleasant. Going through many mountains... past villages...and lots of dirt road and logging trucks...There are a heap of Vietnamese here doing the road construction with massive machinery.. some of the road carvings are enormous.
I ended up getting into Paxxan about 12:30 and got myself a guest house... the fellow there wanted more money because it was so late but I told him I wouldn't pay extra and I got an OK price anyway...
Left early the next morning and went to Tha Keak. Got here about lunch time and was fairly hot. I decided to walk the 2 ks into town and get some lunch on the way. I met a fellow at lunch who was a teacher at a school. He invited me to come that night to teach the children some English.. pronunciation etc...I read a book and the children read the sentences after me. The teachers and I went out for dinner afterwards... was very nice.
There were some kids on the side of the road wanting money from the foreigners. They were grabbing at your pockets and camera etc. I tried to get their photos...See that blur in the top right corner?? That is a kid who would not stop bouncing.. I could not get a photo of him.. he would not stop... Bounce Bounce Bounce.. Was very funny!!Only spent one day here and headed off south to Sevaneket.
It was very hot here...Nice shady tree...Hired a bike the first day and went for a ride with Noy...Had some nice food for lunch and went for a bit of a ride around town...Spent a few days here eating good foods and enjoying an afternoon beer while watching the colorful yet disturbing sunsets...Thats Thailand on the other side of the river.
Thee is a very large amount of smoke in the air here from fires. Every one seems to be burning stuff all the time.

Phonsavan

I left Sayabuli after too many beers and about 5 days staying in a bungalow at a Karaoke bar restaurant with a heap of local party people. It was fun getting into a bit of a party with the locals for a change.
Went back through Luang Prabang towards Phonsavan.
This is the Museum being renovated...Should be very nice once the grounds are done.
The main attraction here is the Plain of Jars...I went to 3 sites but there are about 52 sites where big jars up to 3.5meters tall are scattered all over the place and estimated to be around 4000 years old.
Most sites are still being cleared from the unexploded bombs and mines from the war that never happened here...Only 4 jar sites are safe to enter and even the area around these sites are still dangerous because of the scattered unexploded mines etc.
There is a man made cave here where it looks like a big oven where the people may have baked the jars...There is a field out the front where there is a large collection of jars still scattered about. It looks to me like a manufacturing and market place...
The tourist information says the jars may have been for Rice Whiskey or burial purposes but there is no organic matter (bones etc) in the jars so they can not be dated and hence just about rules out the burial site theory.
Some of the other sites are not so easily explained. There are jars on top of hills. I am guessing the jars were used for water storage...And there is always good food on offer...

Huay Xai

Crossed the border at Huay Xai in the morning
Caught the slow boat from there to Pak BengSunrise over the river at PakBeng...The got the slow boat early the next morning to Tha Suang (a small village down stream) then into a pickup for a trip to Hong Sa...The next day was to Sayabuli over many many mountains.There was an elephant festival here...Fairly interesting.. they showed us different ways the elephants are used for logging...Very strong.
They also had some parachuters jumping from a helicopter...I stayed in a bungalow at a Karaoke Bar...Lots of people here having fun...

Northern Thailand

Back into Thailand with my Laos visa running out.
Went to Loei... small nice town not far from the border...

Chiang Mai
Got the 10 hour over night bus and got in early in the morning.

They always seem to be celebratnig something...
Found a guest house and had some food and a sleep.
Got up later in the day and had a quick look around town... looks OK.
There is an old mote and wall surrounding the older part of the city...Spent a couple of days in Chiang Mai.. not a bad little town.. fairly busy though.. better off getting out of town a bit or in the back streets for a quieter room.
Some fairly good cheap food around, day and night markets etc etc.

Pai
Caught a bus and got into Pai a bit after lunch time.
This is a fairly nice town also. Lots of bungalows and lots of expensive ones too...Had to look hard for a cheap place to stay here.. finally found a bungalow at a price I was happy with.They have night markets here every night and then music afterwards.. heaps of variety in the music too.
Spend a couple of days here and then went back to Chiangmai.

Chiangrai
Another 4 hr bus ride and getting a bit closer to the laos border.
Got a cheap room close to the bus station and the town centre...
This is the jade Bhudda of Chang RaiThere is good food and cheap internet close by so I am happy here for a couple of days.
This was a bit of music on the streets in town...

There are good markets in this town every afternoon and evening.
This is the walls around a old jail...Apparently most of the people in the jail were there for drugs (being close to the golden triangle I guess). They have had to move them to a bigger newer jail further out of town somewhere.