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.
105 km from Muang Phônsavan to Muang Phônsavan, about 2 h 46 of riding. The stops in between: Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang - Plai, Site 25 and back through Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang - Plai. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,250 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
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.
Read the complete Site 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Site 2 is where the day begins. Next is Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang - Plai.
Hundreds of huge stone jars lie scattered across the grassy hills around Phonsavan, some tall enough to hide a person, some tipped on their sides, some with stone lids lying beside them. Nobody is entirely sure who made them. Archaeologists date them to the Iron Age, roughly two thousand years ago or more, and connect them with burial practices, since human remains and grave goods have been found around them. Local legend has a more cheerful version, saying they were made to brew rice wine for a victory celebration of giants. Since 2019 the Plain of Jars has been a World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang - Plai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang - Plai comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Site 25.
Local legend has a cheerful explanation for the stone jars of Xieng Khouang. It tells of Khun Cheung, a legendary king who won a great victory and ordered the jars carved so that his people could brew lao-lao, the rice spirit, in huge quantities for the celebration. Archaeology prefers a funerary purpose, but the story says a lot about how people here like to see their past, and it is a good one to share over a glass of the real thing in the evening.
Read the complete Site 25 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 53 km into the recorded legs you reach Site 25. Next is back through Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang - Plai.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang - Plai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang - Plai, late in the day. Next is Site 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Site 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Site 2. That is the ride.
Site 2 → Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang - Plai is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang - Plai → Site 25 is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Site 25 → back through Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang - Plai is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Megalithic Jar Sites in Xiengkhuang - Plai → Site 2 is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.