Phonsavan-Its about bombs and stonejars.

In the market in Phonsavan is a hidden in plain sight reminder of Laos huge UXO (unexploded ordnance) problem. Many of the knifes and farming tools shown are made of metal from bomb casings which still litters the area. Blacksmiths love this metal-it doesn't twist or crack. The backside is if people harm themselves on these tools-wounds grows more slowly and gets infected a lot easier than usual. There is something with that metal....The eating utensils of aluminium are cast of metal from crashed airplanes and commonly known as bomb spoons.

A somewhat macabre decoration in Phonsavan. Hopefully they are at least properly defused and emptied of explosives. Not always the case with UXO on display.

Weird sight in my guesthouse-the shell of a clusterbomb reused as a barbecue.

What brings people to Phonsavan is the Plain of jars. Tourists normally go to a handfull of sites, but there are close to 100 sites in total. Most of them remote and hidden-and many still uncleared from UXO.  Some of these sites have hundreds ancient stonejars whose origin and use is uncertain. Other sites only have a handfull of them In total there are several thousand of these jars. Their use has been debated. Most likely they were used as graves-offerings are found around many jars, and several jars contained human remains. Cremated remains-sometimes from several individuals. However a local legend tell they were made to hold rice wine-for a huge party taking place after the locals won a war. Must have been some party!The featured site-jarsite number one, is the one closest to town, and also the biggest one with 334 jars. The biggest of them with an estimated weight of 6 tonnes.

A welcome sight. Proof that MAG-Mines Advisory Group has been there. It indicates where a total clearance of UXO has been performed, and where it is not. Not acting according to information can land you in the grave-or let you stay allive as permanently disabled one way or another. The destiny of many a Laotian. The most visited jarsites were bombed heavily during the war with several kinds of ordonance. You still see bombcraters there, several jars were bomb dammaged, but most survived. Probaly because lot of what was dropped was not heavy explosive bombs but small clusterbombs.  MAG has done a great job there-totally clearing large areas of the main jarsites and creating safe passages. However, outside these areas, only surface clearing has taken place and most likely there are UXO waiting below the surface. In Phonsavan there are two must see exhibitions telling about the UXO problem. The UXO information centre run by MAG itself tells about bombings, bomb clearing and screen some rather unsettling but interesting documentaries. The UXO survivor's information centre brings up the more humanistic side of it-telling the stories of survivors. There is a display of homemade artificial limbs-ironically some of them made partly of warjunk. A nasty story, but visiting is important-the UXO issue is such a big part of Laos today tat not having an understanding of it, means not being able to fully understand the country and its people. It is that big.

Half an hour by motorbike from downtown Phonsavan is the so called bomb village, a village inhabited by the Hmong tribe. The unusual here is that bombcasings are used as stilts, herb pots and even as fences. Most of the bombs now have been bought by scrap dealers,but there are still enough there. It is recycling at its weirdest.

Roof support, courtesy USAF. A fueltank has got a second life.

Forest products are much used in Laos. Here a selection of mushrooms for roadside sale. Picked the same day.

Ricepaper drying in the sun. Later they will be the wrappings for springrolls. Shortly later the rain came, and people hurried to get the dryingracks under roof before the sheets got wet and destroyed.

A travelling merchant. Smiles are everywhere.

Larvae-food-for sale at the main market in Phonsavan.