The Plain of Jars
The World Heritage Plain of Jars, situated in remote northeastern Laos, is a seriously off-the-beaten-track destination although, fortuitously, visits are facilitated by Xieng Khouang Airport which serves the adjacent town of Phonsavan and provides daily connections to the capital Vientiane.
At present, the far-flung provincial capital has just three road connections. Route 7 leads west to meet the Luang Prabang to Vientiane Route 13 at Phou Khoun, while in an easterly direction, the route merges with Highway 1C which winds its way tortuously in a wide loop through the mountains via Nong Khiaw to eventually rejoin the 13 north of Luang Prabang. The third ‘highway’ (and we use the term very loosely), numbered 1D, heads southeast to the town of Paksan on the banks of the Mekong, east of the capital, Vientiane.
A glance at a map would suggest that none of these routes appear too bad, although you need to bear in mind local road conditions are far from great and all traverse rugged, mountainous areas so a short hop on a map can translate as a long and arduous drive on the ground. The easiest is Route 7 west which requires approximately 8 hours to cover the 300 or so kilometres to Luang Prabang. The long, northeast route 1C would involve an overnight stop before reaching Luang Prabang and while 1D covers the 230 kilometres to Paksan in some 5 and 1/2 hours, Paksan is also rather in the middle of nowhere.
The Song River at Vang Vieng Route 7 is doable as a one-off – the mountain scenery is fantastic and there are interesting stops to be made – but nobody’s going to want to do it again in reverse 2 days later. Consequently, it was only after the upgrading of the rudimentary airfield at Phonsavan to something approaching international norms that visiting the Plain of Jars became feasible.
And there’s the rub as it’s recently been announced that Xieng Khouang Airport will close for a further upgrade on the 1st of October 24. Authorities claim 6 months but we’re expecting more like a year.
Regrettably, then, but unavoidably, we’re forced to remove the Plain of Jars from our standard Laos tours for the immediate future. The silver lining, however, is that changing the itinerary to Luang Prabang to Vientiane by road makes a stop at Vang Vieng feasible. It’s not a World Heritage site and doesn’t have that off-the-beaten-track cachet but it is often requested, the small town’s limestone, karst scenery is truly spectacular and we’ve found a great little garden chalet resort for a couple of nights’ accommodation.
Bearlin Resort, Vang Vieng These changes apply to our Highlights of Northern Laos and Thailand and Laos, The Golden Triangle small group tours, as well as our Laos and Cambodia Indochina Adventures which follow a similar path for their Lao sections.
Note, however, that since our Laos and Vietnam overland tours depart from Phonsavan by road to Sam Nuea, (another very remote, off-the-beaten-track destination in far northeastern Laos), both our Mountains and Hilltribes and our award-winning Unexplored, the Far North will continue to include Plain of Jars visits.
Apart from the flights, there are no practical ways of getting from Phonsavan to Vientiane and any tour itineraries you may see elsewhere to the contrary have clearly not accounted for the airport closure.
