Northern Laos

After a night trip by bus I arrived in Phonsavan, my last station before crossing into Vietnam. Phonsavan is nothing special, but only a few kilometers away is the Plain of Jars. If you need more information about this site than I can give in a few minutes, just look it up in internet. Basically, through the whole region there are several sites containing up to several hundred stone jars, the biggest of them around 2 meters high. Their origin and purpose is unknown, there are some scientific theories as well some legends from Hmong hill tribes...
Yesterday I went on a tour there with a handfull of people. Unfortunately is started to rain quite heavily around late noon, so our visit to one of the sites was a little spoilt. Yet it was impressing...

In the morning we were touring around in the other direction, including a visit to some villages and a small waterfall, which included a one-hour hike through beautiful mountain terrain... This is northern Laos, a mountainous, rugged country, not to compare with the flat south. It's also cooler here, the first days it was only around 33, 34 degrees, quite pleasant compared to the heat in Vientiane... to be honest, the locals say that it would be much hotter than usual... but now, after one night and one day of heavy rainfalls, it's really cooler...