Phonsavan

Left Luang Prabang yesterday morning after seeing 300+ monks recieving their morning alms. We got a tuk tuk to the bus station and got on the oldest and crappiest bus in the station. We knew we were in trouble when we saw plastic seats in the isle. When they finished overloading the bus and rechecked everyone's tickets 3 times we were off. It wasn't a good sign when we were handed plastic sick bags because we were sitting in the back. It was bad!!! Driving through the mountains for 8 hours. Many of the locals got sick along the way and we were SO happy to get to Phonsavan. Today we went out on a day tour from our guesthouse. We stopped at The Plain of Jars first. It was amazing!There were 343 huge stone jars scattered across the hills. Nobody knows why they are there but they are 2500-3000 years old. One had a figure of a person carved into it and there was only 1 with a lid. From there we went to see a hill that was covered with bomb craters from the secret US bombing during the Vietnam War and our guide showed us a live bomb in the middle of the field! From there we went to a Hmong village where are guide was from. Many of the houses were built with the shells of huge bombs. We saw how they make Lao Lao, a distilled rice whisky (45% alcohol). Our guide's uncle invited us to his house to celebrate the Hmong New Year. We walked in and there was a huge pig hanging from the ceiling. We sat down and they passed around Lao Lao and explained the ritual of drinking it. When that was finished they gave us all this food! There was sticky rice, pork, pumpkin soup and vegetables. We were each offered a piece of pork fat and by eating it would bring good luck to the village for the year. The meal ended with more shots of Lao Lao. Everyone was so friendly and I'm sure they saw us as the local entertainment.