The thing I found out about traveling, is that very often the journey is more enjoyable or more interesting than the destination. Not because the destination is dull but simply because the adventure mostly happened en route or leaving, and sometimes you will have an unforgettable journey. My trip from Luang Prabang to Phonsavanh in Xieng Khuang province, the location of the plain of jars, in Laos was just one of those examples.

Phonsavanh is, it has to be said, a little like the wild west of Laos and pails in significance to the splendour of Luang Prabang. Imagine if you can, a buffalo dragging a cart down the main road of the provincial capital and you will begin to get an idea of what I mean. Our hotel which was comfortable and pleasant had one minor problem and not of its own making. To eat you had to order your food 8 hours in advance because they only had electricity for a few hours a day and it was not possible to keep the food refrigerated. My understanding is that things have moved on now and that you can order and eat in the same sitting, but not so then.

The plain of jars itself and the area around is extremely interesting and I enjoyed the place a lot, very mysterious and pretty. In all fairness it did not compare to Luang Prabang, but still a very worthwhile place to visit. Now, about getting there.

There were two choices at the time:

1. A minivan that would take several days.
2. A plane, a short hop over the mountains.

Well time, as always, is the issue and so I decided that the relatively small cost was worth the benefit in time saving, so I bought my plane ticket. The first odd thing was that having turned up at 9, as instructed, I found that the airport was shut. Actually scheduled to open at 9am the first customer facing staff did not open the doors till 9.30. Not the end of the world obviously, just slightly unusual but this is Laos and slightly unusual is the norm, if that makes any sense.

So I walked in with the others who had been waiting outside and queued up. At the counter they took my ticket, looked briefly at my passport took my bag –didn’t weigh it – passed it to another guy who threw it out of the door on to the back of a truck where someone else stacked it up. Ok, I thought, security is not a big issue, as when full the truck drove out to the plane and loaded it up. I walked through to a waiting room as did everyone else to be called back out a few minutes later to have my passport and bag, that I’d left in the departure area, checked. Fortunately, most people had left their bags in the departure lounge so there was no delay going through the metal detector which annoyingly beeped a lot not that anyone, security included, paid any attention to that.

Eventually the moment arrived and we were called out to the plane. What a plane, a twin prop from sometime out of the Vietnam War. Had I known that Lao aviation fly by sight not having an effective radar system and that they average a crash a year, then I may have been a little more concerned, that is of course until the plane started up and I began to fear that this was going to be a rock and roll journey (roll over and hit the rocks) because there was a ‘whole lot of shaking going on’. What was most disconcerting was when a number of small black bugs started appearing from under the seal between the window and the interior and very quickly all shot out of sight, now I do not know where they went but I assume it was the fu@* off the plane. Anyway we started up, got down the runway, somehow into the air and on our way.

Not a nervous flyer I have to admit to being terrified for most of the journey, although the view was quite spectacular, I don’t think I was the only one as the whole plane was silent or that could have because the noise of the engines had deafened most people. After what seemed an eternity but was probably around an hour we arrived at destination where upon it was announced that there would be a slight delay in landing. Slightly curious as to how an airport that receives only a few flights a week was too busy to get us the hell down from here, I was soon to have my curiosity satisfied when upon landing I got off the plane (decided that kissing the ground was possibly a little dramatic) and looked around. At one end of the airstrip I noticed a herd of cows, slowly making their way back to the runway, to continue their grazing!

I do recommend visiting Luang Prabang and it is worth going to Phonsavanh, supposedly Laos aviation has a reasonable record but I have my doubts, so how you get there is up to you. No matter what I have to admit that this was most definitely an unforgettable journey.