luang prabang to vang vieng

from luang prabang we headed west up and up and down around up and down twisty squiggly mountain roads towards the plain of jars. the road wasn't straight for longer than ten meters at any point during the six plus hour drive and I was constantly sliding back and forth across the seat. the driver went fast, zipping around the constant swerves and turns of the mountains, left and right back and fort--somehow we were on every side of the mountain at the same time. he only slowed down to avoid running over the chickens and cows and dogs that were invariably crossing the street at every village we came to. he avoided all animals but one, a fluttering chicken that flew into the van's path, it couldn't have been avoided. sorry chicken. 

the villages were frequent, bamboo and straw houses and always one or two stone brick houses only half completed. there are always naked children running around with the puppies and cows and chickens on the road, barely blinking when the driver beep beeps the horn. every villag,e, or group of buildings rather, is set strictly against this cement road on one side, and a deep vast valley on the other. i imagine the long twisty paved road has taken the place of the long twisty rivers as an appropriate place to start a town. 

the plain of jars is, as the name suggests, a plain of jars. these jars are said to be some two thousand years old, they are big and made of rock, and how they got where they are and what they are there for is still a mystery. though there are a few theories out there, such as the jars being big bins for dead bodies, but i like the giant theory the best. that is the jars were drinking cups for giant people. our tour guide was of the opinion that the jars were brought there by the same giants who moved on to create stonehenge.  no normal sized man could have carried such giant boulders from the mountains to where they lie, so they must have been brought there by giants. it's the only logical solution really, in a kirk cameron midnight televised christian sort of logic.