Graham’s aunty, Sheila, lives in the East of Laos, near the Plain of Jars, where she is an English teacher. To visit her, we took a 7 hour minibus from journey Luang Prabang. As I’m sure we have mentioned previously, the drivers here seem to only go at one speed, with the accelerator jammed to the floor. This is scary at the best of times, but when you are snaking up a mountain with sheer drops on one side, it is completely terrifying. This particular driver would happily go around blind bends on the wrong side of the road – an disaster waiting to happen. Our fear increased when we passed a crash between a minibus and a coach. Luckily no-one was seriously hurt, but the vehicles were written off (at least in UK terms, I’m not so sure about here). About six hours into the journey, we descended into the plain and things were much better from here.

Wen we arrived Sheila had made a tasty dinner for us, and a delicious chocolate cake for Grahams birthday. The next day we all drove to the plain of jars. This is an ancient site full of huge stone jars. No-one really knows what they were used for, but it is thought that they were part of a burial process. One of the jars has an ancient carving of a man on it. It took as a very long time to find. The photo below may explain why.

Can you spot the carved man?

One of the larger stone jars

In the afternoon we headed to a mulberry farm. Here, mulberry trees are grown and the leaves are used to feed silk worms. The silk worms are fed huge amounts of leaves three times a day, and the noise of thousands of these worms eating is incredible! The worms then produce silk, which is removed, spun and dyed and then woven into fabric. To make an intricately pattered piece can take an experience weaver around three weeks. It was amazingly interesting to see the entire process from start to finish.

On my final day in Phonsavan, we went out for a Sindat meal with a big group of Sheilas friends. This is a Lao dish which is equivalent to fondue and is very social. You cook meat, fat and vegtables on a burner into a sort of broth, with noodles and herbs added. It is very tasty.

Meat cooks in the middle, veggies round the outside

Some of Shelia’s pals

Pouring in the egg

After a great time in Phonsavan I moved on to Vang Vieng, while Graham stayed for a bit more quality time with his aunt.