CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From Muang Phônsavan it runs 216 km to Muang Phônsavan; allow about 4 h 10 of riding. On the way it passes Site 12, Site 23 and back through Site 12. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
If you only visit one cluster of jars, make it Site 1, which is the closest to Phonsavan and the largest, with more than three hundred stone vessels scattered across a broad grassy hill. Locals call it Thong Hai Hin. The biggest jar here is the star, a hulking block of sandstone taller than a man and said to weigh several tonnes, and it leans against a shoulder of the hill with a gentle air of fatigue. Around it, jars of all sizes lie in clusters, some standing, some fallen, some split along natural fractures. A few have rounded holes in their sides, perhaps from old damage or shelling.
Read the complete Site 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site 1 is where the day begins. Next is Site 12.
Imagine hundreds of huge stone jars scattered across a high plateau, some taller than a person, some lying on their sides, some cracked open by time or by bombs. That is the Plain of Jars in Xieng Khouang province, Laos, and nobody knows for certain who made them or why. Archaeologists believe they are about two thousand years old or more, and that they were connected with burial practices; local legend says they were made to brew rice wine to celebrate a great victory. Since 2019 a selection of the jar sites has been listed by UNESCO as the Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang. Site 12 is one of the smaller groups, out in the countryside some twenty-five kilometres from the provincial capital, Phonsavan.
Read the complete Site 12 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site 12 comes up about 49 km into the recorded legs. Next is Site 23.
Nobody agrees on who made the stone jars of Xieng Khouang, or exactly why. They are scattered over a high plateau in northern Laos, thousands of stone vessels, some of them taller than a person, carved from rock and set in groups on grassy hillsides, dating from perhaps two thousand years ago. The usual explanation is that they were used in funerary rites by an Iron Age culture, and archaeologists have found human remains and burial goods near them, which supports that, but folklore says they were brewing vessels for a giant king's victory feast. The UNESCO listing of 2019 covers a number of different sites, and Site 23 is one of the smaller, less visited ones, so I can tell you about the region better than I can describe the exact spot.
Read the complete Site 23 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 104 km into the recorded legs you reach Site 23. Next is back through Site 12.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site 12 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Site 12, late in the day. Next is Site 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Site 1. That is the ride.
Site 1 → Site 12 is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site 12 → Site 23 is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site 23 → back through Site 12 is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Site 12 → Site 1 is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.