The Plain of Jars is not one site but many, and Site 2 sits on a hillside about fifteen kilometres from Phonsavan, the market town that serves as the base for visiting them. Phonsavan, with some thirty-seven thousand people, is a plain, post-war place of tin roofs and wide streets, rebuilt after the original town was destroyed in the bombing of the 1960s, and the jar sites lie scattered around it, along dirt tracks, in grassland and light forest.
At Site 2, jars stand on a low rise, shaded by a few trees, with views across the green valley and a small shop selling drinks. The sites differ in character. Site 1, the largest, has several hundred jars on an open hill, and Site 3 sits at the end of a walk through rice fields. Site 2 is calmer and often quiet, and the afternoon light on the hills is lovely. A local legend says that the jars were made by a giant, King Khun Cheuang, to brew and store rice wine after a great victory over his enemies. It is a good story, and the bones found in the ground suggest something more serious, but both are told here with a smile.
The ground around is full of history. At Muang Khoun, once the old royal capital of Xiangkhouang, the ruins of a temple and the stupa of That Foun survive from the days before the war. Nearby limestone caves were used as shelters in the bombing, and some are open to visitors. Villagers still find bomb casings, which they use as fence posts, planters and boats, a sight that tells you everything about the region. Stay on the marked paths at the sites, because unexploded ordnance remains in the fields.
The road in is an adventure. Phonsavan lies on a high plateau, about twelve hundred metres above the sea, and the surrounding roads wind among pine-covered hills and farms, with good stretches and bad ones, and many potholes. Weather is cool in the dry season, with mornings of mist, and wet from May to October, when red mud covers the tracks. The days are short, and the roads are not lit, so aim to be back before dark.
Phonsavan has fuel stations, small restaurants serving noodle soup and grilled meats, and plain guesthouses. Take cash, a rain jacket and a warm layer, because evenings are cold.